Adventures in Argentina

So, Mr. Miyake, you want updates. Updates you shall have.

May 24, 2008: Buenos Aires

I ended up staying in Buenos Aires for 5 days. They call it the Paris of South America, and that is an apt name for some neighborhoods. It is a city much like other large cities. It has its slum neighborhoods and its beautiful park walks. It has it's fair share of good restaurants and pretty women, but then again, so does every other city of it's size in this world.

Two of the things that impressed me most about the city was it's steak and it's soccer. The first thing I did when unloaded my gear at La Menesunda Hostel was to test out the legendary Argentinian steak. Make no mistake, you will never be impressed with another steak once you try it there. And the kicker: 40 pesos (13 USD) for an entire steak dinner.


I loved the people I met there. Ingrid, the Brazilian university student, Pablo the local photographer, and Pedro. Pedro spoke about 5 and a half words of English, and I about 4 of Spanish, but somehow we figured out that we both played guitar, liked soccer and heavy metal music. He showed me some of the local hang outs, and we watched soccer on a little tiny barely functioning TV.



I spent a few hours one morning shooting around BA's central rail station. I was able to capture this homeless man. I gave him a few pesos for it. It is hard for me to resist giving money to the homeless. Sometimes I can tell they are just bums and need a job, but this man was crippled and asked nothing for the pictures. I wish that I could have done more for him.

One morning I visited an outdoor market where I met a photographer selling his shots of the city. They were all very good and he was selling them for to little. Unfortunately, Argentina is barely above third world economically. I offered to set him up a website to sell his photos for more, and he said he would consider it. I ended up buying to photos from him. I plan on framing one of them and putting it up in my first house. I hope he has good luck with his photography. It's hard to make a living in photography, let alone with an economy like theirs.


I saw and did much else in BA, but attention spans are short and readers are few so I'll update again tomorrow.