Dec 21-22 San Martin a los Andes

We are in the Andes for most of the rest of the trip.  Now we are about 1000m southwest of BsAs.  We are still more than 1000 miles north of the tip of South America.  Our area was affected by the glaciers, which we will visit later in the trip.  So the mountains are only around 10,000 ft while in the North where the glaciers stopped, they are over 20,000 ft.  This is where the plane crashed in the early 1970’s on the border of Chile and Argentina.  It was chronicled in the book Alive.  This was the Uruguayan rugby team; as you may recall they survived for 2 months and had to practice cannibalism. 

Speaking of planes, ours arrived in San Martin a los Andes on time.  San Martin, by the way, was the liberator of Argentina.  The war lasted from 1810 until freedom from Spain was achieved in 1816.  Then he guided the freedom fighters in Chile and Peru.  After doing all this he retired in Paris where he had spent most of his adult life, although born in Argentina.  Where did his support and passion for liberation come from?  The French and British wanted Spain’s influence to decline in South America so they supported his efforts with money and other resources.

The guide said we were lucky to arrive on time as the day before the plan was 2 hrs late and the day before that it was cancelled because of a day strike by the airspace controllers.  Strikes are so common that when we drove to town we passed a hospital that was on strike, including doctors and nurses.  They would only accept emergency cases.  Unions are extremely strong.  The one that supports the bus drivers has effectively prevented the expansion of the metro system in BsAs as an example.

Our guide complained that this was the difference between Argentina and Chile.  There is much less corruption and better fiscal policies in Chile.  He cited the current president being caught with suitcases full of money to be deposited in an offshore account.  This corruption goes all the way back to Peron who allowed Nazi war criminals to settle in Argentina if they brought their wealth and “donated” to him.  Mengele is probably the most famous-the Nazi doctor who experimented on concentration camp “prisoners”.  It is ironic that Argentina became a haven both for Jews before and after WWII and the Nazis after their defeat.

Jews have played a significant role for a few centuries in Argentina.  There has been discrimination but not institutionalized despite this being a conservative Catholic country.  Our guide, who is Jewish, noted the type of discrimination that we had in the US before the civil rights movement.  There was also the connection between human rights advocacy by Jews and the “disappeared” in Argentina.  There were a disproportionate number of Jewish professionals who disappeared during this period.  There were also two bombings with loss of life at the Israeli embassy in 1991 and the Jewish Community Center in 1994.  For the later, there is still an open investigation with Iran and Hezbollah being indicted.  In general security remains a problem, especially in BsAs.

We are taking a trip along the mountain lakes to Baraloche our next stop.  I have attached pictures.  They remind me both of Switzerland and the Rockies.  We passed a car that had a bright large sign on its trunk.  I asked the translation.  Our guide read “honk twice if you had sex last night”.  He noted, of course, that the car was from Chile.

In the early morning I went for a row with our guide in a two man shell on one of the lakes.  I used to row crew in college but this was the first time that I had done it in almost 50 years.  It is amazing the muscle memory you retain.  It was beautiful skimming over the azure water and seeing the mountains pass.

Yesterday our guide gave us a special treat, Matte.  This is a tea like drink indigenous to South America that is a stimulant and good for whatever else ailes you.  You pass it around like a hookah pipe.  It tasted very nice and we both drank a fair bit.  Of course, we then could not fall asleep until 2am and Karen got stomach cramps (and me less so, a known side effect when we researched it). 

While Karen was resting our guide took me to a beautiful small art museum in the mountain above San Martin.  The artist is Georg, who is apparently very well known in the US although I was ignorant of his work.  I was blown away by the action and 3 dimensional nature of the paintings of the forests, lakes and wildlife.  I was ready to consider buying one until I was told the price which approximated my annual salary.  I did get a nice poster!

We have had a number of meals and I have not written about them as they were not memorable.  Argentina is renowned for its beef but they don’t season it or salt it much so it is a big slab of tender meat with not a lot of taste.  The fish also has been bland and not exciting.  We were told that, unlike Mexicans, Argentineans do not like spicy food.  Our eating at 9pm has also been difficult to get used to.  Stores are open very late and even urgent care clinics were open at 11 when we walked out of the restaurant (that is one that was not on strike).

From Karen

I spent a lot of time talking to our guide. He was quite intelligent which we both appreciated. However he was very new age, which Mark didn’t appreciate. As Mark said he was Jewish and his ancestors came to Argentina in 1880 from Poland and the Ukraine.  A colony was established here and they did very well. The guide also said the area we are in now is where the Nazis lived because it was so isolated.

Everyone we meet is very proud of the new pope who comes from Argentina. Our guide said he was sure that if the Pope had time he would be able to solve the problems between Israel and the Palestineans.

We are staying at a fabulous hotel with a view of the lake and snowcapped mountains.

I took two years of Spanish in high school and little by little words are coming back to me.

We went to a Tango show in Buenos Airies. Mark really loved it, which surprised me. I appreciated it but didn’t like it as much as Mark did.