Buenos Aires 2013

 

Out with the old…

And in with the new!!

June and Mirna Barjacoba

Mirna is from Rio Cuarto, Argentina, is 42 years old and has been in the work for about 20 years or more.  Two years ago she very unexpectedly suffered a stroke, which at the time was terrible, and noone knew how she was going to end up.  She has recovered pretty well, her speech wasn’t affected, but her whole right side was.  She still hasn’t full use of her hand, and limps especially when she’s tired.  Emotionally she doesn’t have the strength that she used to either, but little by little she’s getting better.  She has a cousin in the work, Patricia Oberto, and an aunt, Sara Barjacoba, who works in Peru.  Mirna worked 10 years in Colombia, but came back 5 years ago. 

It was great to have Doug and Joan Beach here for a few days.  They had come primarily to visit their ‘other son’ Rob Shultz, and spared a few days for me too!  Here are a few photos of when they were here:  We took them to the river delta, called Tigre.  It’s an enormous area of islands where two rivers join.  Lots of the islands are inhabited by permanent residents or holiday homes. 

Joan with Florencia Olmos (17).  Doug in the background

Puerto de Frutos (Fruit Port – named so because there used to be big fruit plantations on the islands, which supplied the city’s fruit.  Due to flooding and disease they were eventually abandoned and is now a popular holiday area)

Florencia and Joan on the launch

 

A jetty going down from one of the houses

These are the islands – they are formed of silt and sediment brought down from the rivers.  Obviously they need to have good retaining walls to stop erosion.

 

More of the islands along the way – the area in total is 17,000 square km!  A lot of it is uninhabited though.

The Mighty Doug Beach!

There are some more photos of this trip somewhere, I’ll put them on later.  But here’s how their stay ended… it couldn’t be any other way!!

The set-up.  Calling Doug out to pose for a final photo…

The pouring of the water down the neck, while Joan still looks demurely at the camera.

Well once he was wet, why not stay for more??

But then the thirst for blood got too strong for him…

Revenge will be sweet…

Oops, now I’m in trouble – look at his face!!!

 

But we parted friends!!!

Florencia and I cooling off in their pool after taking the Beaches to the airport on a sweltering afternoon.

Meanwhile this is the photo that Joan sent on their arrival home!!  Brrrr….

Sky shots

Here are some cool sky shots from the city

Recoleta Cemetery

This cemetery is very historic, it is the garden of an old convent converted into a cemetery in the early 1800s.  It’s full of great elaborate mausoleums and anyone who is of any importance is buried there…past presidents, the founding city fathers, wealthy families and Eva Peron herself.  Here we are with some of our visitors…

The grand entrance

It’s laid out like a city

Wonder what Laura’s explaining to Max??

I think it’s funny anyway…

Behind the doors of the mausoleum the cloth-draped coffins…not for the faint-hearted!!

The coffins are stacked up on the shelves in the family crypts

Martin standing in front of ‘his’ tomb (his surname is Dasso)

Martin trying to fly???

Oops!  Coming across an eerie sight!  Transferring a coffin from somewhere to somewhere…

As I said, not for the faint-hearted!

The more ornate the better…this was a Nobel prize-winner (the dead person, not the tomb)

The plaque on this tomb is all in Italian – a father made it for his daughter who died as a young girl.  Note the cat!

Patience Licence….

Take a look folks, this is the culmination of a loooong process…I now have my driver’s licence!! (Complete with scrummy photo). Laura says it’s not a driver’s licence that I got as I already knew how to drive, but a PATIENCE LICENCE. 

Argentina in many ways is a developed country but when it comes to red tape, you sure are reminded this is the third world. It all started off one morning over a month ago when I left home at 6.45am, to go and be amongst the first in line at the council to get an appointment. OK, well I stand there patiently until they open at 8am, then a gruff woman led us all up the stairs to where we had to form another line to ask for an appointment. Wait there another 45 minutes and then they start attending the people. Little by little it got to me and 5 minutes later I triumphantly walk out holding my slip of paper telling me that my appointment is on such and such a day and time. (Thought I’d accomplished a great thing there…). So a week later I turn up dutifully 10 minutes before my appointment, people milling all over the place like cows in a yard. Didn’t really know where to go so waited by office ‘no 1’. 45 minutes after my appointed time I finally got called to the counter and given a slip of paper and told to go ‘over there’ and WAIT. Off I go where I THINK she pointed and join the milling throng standing around a make-shift office and ….WAIT. Now and then someone would come out and bark a name and the name would respond and get hustled into the office for half an hour. I started to get a migraine at that stage and wondered how I was going to do the eyesight test with spots in front of my eyes. So sick of standing so just sat on the concrete where I was. Heard them saying ‘the system’s down’. Great. After a very long time I get called ‘PILLIPS’ (that’s how they say it). Go in to the make-shift office where two very strained-looking women are sitting behind computers that don’t work. They push a button and it takes about 10 minutes to respond! Went through the formalities, photo taken, signature, thumb print, saw I had no outstanding fines, so off to the next door clutching another bit of paper. Wait. Half an hour later a muffled voice on the loud speaker calls a series of names out which I IMAGINE is mine and we go in to the psychologist. Yes, the PSYCHOLOGIST. LOL. Don’t know what kind of a psychologist or optician would work for the city council doing driver’s licence testing, I came to the conclusion that they must be duds who’ve been struck off the register for misdemeanours because NOONE in their right mind would work there!! Well, in I go, a haggard woman with a 40-a-day complexion and bleached hair (the psychologist) tells us to take a pencil and paper and sit at the desk. I felt like I was back at school. She comes and gives us a series of cards with little drawings on them which we have to draw. In 5 minutes flat I did all the squiggles handed my paper in, and went back out to WAIT. I was so mad at this stage and furious with all things Argentinian that are never straightforward and take forever to do simple things. Finally hear my name on the muffled loudspeaker so file in for the eye test. The slovenly old fella behind the desk gets me to read out a row of letters on his card then declares my eyesight good. As I was to walk out he says what category are you doing? So I replied car. He looks at me and says ‘it says here crane or truck’. What?? I was so bamboozled so he repeated again crane or truck. Where? I said. ‘here, the psychologist says you can drive a crane or a truck’. I just looked at him blankly and said oh, then we all cracked up about it later. She deduced from my drawings that I can drive a crane??!!! These Romans are crazy, toc toc toc.

Did you think that was it then? Nope. That whole process took 4 hours. WITH an appointment. By that stage it was too late to do the practical test, so had to go back a week later with the car from the local driving school to a lot where they get you to do maneouvers and the theory. I was a bit nervous coz hadn’t had time to read the road code, but the driving instructor assured me I’d be OK because I know how to drive. We get there and he tells me to wait for him while he went to the office with my form. 10 minutes later he comes back and says OK, I’ll take you to the council now and you can pay. ‘Don’t I have to do anything here?’ I asked. No he says, I told the guy you know how to drive, he’s signed it all. Haha, that was my big driving and theory test. I went and paid and they said come back and get your licence in a week. The first time I went it was closed, second time I didn’t take my ID document, so third time lucky today I went at the right time, with my document, get there, about 40 people milling around the office which has it’s windows and curtains firmly closed. Noone knew what to do really so we all stood there for half an hour until there was a sign of life from behind the window. They took our documents then closed the window while they hunted through the archives. We patiently wait twiddling our thumbs then finally when they’re all found the window gets opened and we get called one by one (this time I was Hoo-neh Carola). Two hours after I went in, I walked out with my patience licence in my hot little hand!!!! Thank goodness I don’t need to set foot in that place for another 5 years when it expires…