Rio de La Plata. Finally. After cycling almost pure countryside for two and a half months, my body buzzed with the excitement of the city. One week did not even scratch the surface of what this amazing city has to offer. Tidy streets of Parisian architecture where you are more likely to rub shoulders with one of the countless street performers than with another pedestrian. Sporadic and rhythmic bursts of screaming from a small bar packed all the way to the curb with passionate soccer fans. Sprawling plazas equally populated by talented artisans and affectionate lovebirds. I have never before felt such a powerful culture vibe.
While men and women in trendy business attire still swarm the sidewalks at lunch time, the majority have had to surrender the comforts of stability. Thousands of companies folded when the national economy instantaneously spiraled to rock bottom in December of 2001. Unemployment devastated the income of 17% of the working class. (Unemployment in the U.S. hovers around 5.5% even after September 11th. As if losing income were not bad enough, The peso plummeted from 1:1 with the dollar to 4:1 almost over night. Imagine saving up $1000 towards a new car and then reading in the paper that the government made some mistakes and now you only have $250. You might get a moped instead.
Hard times call for drastic change. The accountant of yesteryear is now called a cartonero. Still nicely dressed, he drags a cart with the day's cardboard collection that can be recycled for a meager meal. If you wonder what happened to that middle class family that used to be seen enjoying Sunday dinner at the restaurant on the corner, you might see them scrounging for a meal in the dumpster behind the restaurant. They boil with frustration that their self improvement lies so far out of their control. But Argentines are humble, hopeful and patient. Bad politics have screwed them in a big way, but Argentina will carry on.
