Directionally challenged

LOST AND FOUND. I usually have a pretty good sense of direction. In fact, I kind of relish my good sense of direction. But I have to confess I am really challenged here in B.A. The streets are narrow, almost all one way, and the buildings are all 3 or more stories high. Every time I think I´m walking north, it turns out I´m walking south. I wonder if that´s a consequence of coming from north of the equator! Fortunately, I´m in good company. The other gringos I have met make the same complaint.

In the evening, I´ll remember a street by the fact that the shoe store is next to the fruit store, which is next to the bookstore. The next morning, I´ll walk down the same street and it´s completely unrecognizable. The owners have drawn down their metal shutters and there´s frequently no clue as to otherwise what was there the night before. "Early morning" incidentally is anytime before about 9:30 a.m. when things begin to start opening up. Many shops do not open til 10 or 11. On the other hand, they´re open until 8 or 9 at night.

PASTRIES!! Like Venezuela and Bolivia, the pastries here in Buenos Aires look absolutely fabulous and smell scrumptious. Unfortunately, they just don´t taste as good as they look or smell. They´re just downright HEAVY. For breakfast yesterday, the waiter brought me 3 quite small croissants with my cafe con leche. Here, croissants are called "half moons," very understandably. My jaws definitely got a workout. They are thick and VERY chewy. I was able to eat two. The coffee frequently arrives with a good deal of grounds in it, kind of like Turkish espresso.

POLITICS. One thing I´ve noticed that both Argentina and Venezuela have in common is as follows. All it takes is for some functionary in the US government to make some comment about a Latin American country and it makes page one of the country´s newspapers. I´m tempted to conclude that if this is true of Arg. and VZ, it´s probably also true of other Latin American countries.

What does this mean? To me, it means that even in a time of growing independence and freedom from US control, Latin American countries are still profoundly affected by what Americans think and say about their country. What an incredibly powerful tool!

Which is why it bugs me when some one like Negropointe, the 2d in command at the US State Dept. , makes some gratuitous negative remark about VZ. This only serves to further alienate the Venezuelans. Yesterday, Nicholas Burns (who´s he?), apparently a "sub-secretary of the US State Dept. in Foreign Affairs, said he was glad that Argentine-US relations "have improved" in the last 6 months. This empty comment made front page of La Nacion, Arg´s most respected newspaper.

Wheter it´s blind dumb luck or not, this was a great PR move. It comes on the heels of the fact that Bush is visiting poor little Uruguay next month, Argentina´s neighbor, but NOT Argentina. I strongly suspect that there has been little or no change in US-Arg. relations in the last year or so, nor will there be any change in the immediate future, but this relatively positive statement seems to be well received by the Argentines. By virtue of the fact that the statement is on page one tells me that they appreciate the flattery. If the US wants to continue to play a role in latin american affairs, it needs to make these kind of positive statements about economic allies more often.

The portenos (inhabitants of Buenos Aires) are justifiably proud of their city. I saw a cartoon in the Sunday paper. It showed a couple roasting marshmallows over a campfire in the woods. The woman says to her husband: "Here we are enjoying our summer vacation. Why do I miss Buenos Aires so much?"

Hasta luego!