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Hey Tigre, I’m Looking at You

6 Nov

Located about 17 miles outside of the city center, Tigre is a perfect weekend day-trip for city dwellers. Don’t expect to escape the hoards of people, but do expect to see trees, sky, water. That’s exactly what Maggie and I wanted, so this past weekend we went with a group of other students from Verbum Spanish School to visit Tigre.

The journey for us started at the Retiro train station in the city. For an Argentine $5 (that’s about U.S. $1.17) we got two round-trip tickets.

Retiro train station in Buenos Aires

Our group lined up for the train.

What’s great about Tigre is that it’s located right in a river delta, so there are numerous canals to explore. But, the only way to explore them is by boat. You can ride in a “lancha colectiva,” a public water bus that has routes throughout the delta.

"Lancha colectiva" - Public transportation 'bus' on the river.

If you know someone or happen to have one these handy, you could skip along in one of the little guys. We saw a handful docked along the river bank.

You could also row your way around. I guess that’s the water equivalent to a bicycle. Maybe conservationists prefer this way of traveling, but they get stuck breathing in the fumes from the boats.

We didn’t ride any of those this time. With our group we took one of those site-seeing boats that wanders up and down the canals for an hour for about $12 each (AR $50). I get seasick really quickly, so I was a bit worried to be on any boat without Dramamine, but the crew said if worse comes to worse I should use the toilet and not the river to “heal” myself.

I made it the entire hour without getting seasick.

Here are some of the sights from our journey through the canals of Tigre’s river delta.


After the boat ride we followed the crowds to a large outdoor market. Food was on our mind, not shopping, so we sat down at an outdoor restaurant to have some pork. I ordered the “sandwich de bife de chorizo” and Maggie had the “choripan.” The chimichurri sauce we spread on top was amazing.

Sandwich de bife de chorizo.

Choripan, a sausage link on a white bread bun.

In all, we had a wonderful time in Tigre. Next time we go, I’m hoping to spend some time on the grassy river bank with a book and a beer.

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Culture Shock

23 Oct

I expected to experience culture shock within the first few weeks in Buenos Aires, but I never imagined it would be so literal.

Turns out that my MacPro Book laptop computer, with its aluminum body, is an excellent conductor of electricity. Whenever I plug in to an outlet I receive a gentle, tingly, persistent wave of electrical charge to my hand and wrist. The only way to maneuver free from shock was to use the laptop after it had been charged.

Of course, this posed a serious problem considering all of our income is generated from my work building websites. I had to find a solution.

Disorientation Stage

The MacBook Pro can manage voltages between 100-240. (The U.S. uses 110 volts. Argentina uses 220 volts.) All you need is a plug adapter. At first, I thought a simple fix to my problem would be to switch out the adapter. Tried one. Tzzt. Tried another. Tzzt. I tried every combination I had. Nothing stopped the shock treatment.

Hoping the problem was with the plugs in my apartment, I set out to test it at coffee shops. Tzzt. Tzzt. I changed the adapters again. Tzzt. Tzzt.

Seeking some counsel, I stopped into an electrical shop just around the corner. These guys reminded me of the playful brothers on Car Talk. After telling them my problem, instead of immediately giving their opinion, they guessed where I was from. Apparently, I look both Arab and French. After settling that issue, we talked electricity again.

The main guy told me that the problem wasn’t my computer but the electrical outlets and wiring. In Buenos Aires, because so many of the buildings are decades old, they don’t have proper ground wires. So, he told me, the problem was everywhere. I’ll have it just about most places.

How is that possible in a city similar in population to Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro?

Hostility Stage

If anyone had an answer, it would be Mac Station — Buenos Aires’ main Apple retailer.

There was certainly no way that everyone who owns an aluminum-cased Mac in the city just put up with this.

“I get shocked when it’s plugged in,” I told the kid, who fit the I-work-in-an-Apple-store role perfectly.

“Yeah, that happens. But this might help you.” He handed me an adapter that fits directly into the Mac battery pack.

He thought that replacing my U.S. three-prong plug with a local plug would help with the electrical conversion. I was desperate, so I bought it thinking the problem would solved. He seemed sure.

I plugged in at a restaurant with my new cord. Tzzt. Tzzt.

Immediately, I returned to Mac Station to tell the kid his solution didn’t work. We talked with tech support in the store and they said there wasn’t anything I could do, except — get this — attach a wire to my computer and run to the ground.

After navigating a bus system I still don’t fully understand, dishing out cash on a cord that didn’t work, and doing it all with broken and limited Spanish, this was all he could come up with?!

Despair Stage

I began to give up about the whole situation. Maybe this won’t work out.

Without much hope, I saw another electronics store. The attendant stood at the door ready to lock it up. He was closing… at 1:30 in the afternoon! Why not? The coffee shop I was hoping to work from had not even opened yet for the day.

The Eeyore in me started to come out. Maybe I just needed to get used to the idea that nothing is going to work the way I need it to. Coffee shops won’t be open, my computer will consistently electrocute me, and stores will sell me products that don’t help and can’t be returned.

Acceptance (or Autonomy or Integration) Stage, but Better

A day after my running around the city, I came home midday to find our landlord, Graciela, and an electrician working in our apartment. Graciela had him come out to install ground wires. Problem solved! Holmes on Homes wouldn’t be happy with the work, but I am.

The new ground wire

The kindness of a sweet person to help me out and this simple wire wrapped around a metal frame were all that it took to solve my electrical woes. I can now work from home, at least, without worry.

With this electrical fix, some rearranging of the furniture, and my own coffee supplies, I am quite content.

Now, if only the other challenges to my new life in Buenos Aires could work themselves out so nicely.

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“Just Look it up on the Internet”

17 Oct

Stephen and I walk through our landlord Graciela’s kitchen to get to our apartment.

Walking up the stairs

The family's rooftop patio used for drying laundry and the occasional cigarette

Our apartment is above their patio

The view looking straight out from our balcony

Graciela is the type of person you hope to encounter soon after landing in a foreign country. She’s welcoming, cheerful, and extremely happy to help, although for many of our problems, her advice ends up being the same. If we want to know a good place to eat, Graciela has ample recommendations. But for trickier problems, from hunting for apartments to finding the right subway, to buying a phone, she has one, universal response. “Búsquelo en el Internet,” with an Italian inflection close to, “It’s simple (you uptight American).”

Graciela is working on installing Internet in our apartment. Every day she brings up a new piece of the necessary tools for this to happen. One day, she provided a router. The next, a modem. The next, an electrical line, although it failed to connect with either of the latter. She has decided to install wifi this week, and we’re crossing our fingers that this goes smoothly.  It seems to be a much more complicated process than in the U.S.

From Stephen’s recollection, wifi was not even an option in the city five years ago.  If Porteños wanted Internet away from home, they had to rent computers by-the-minute at Internet cafes.

Like most of the world however, they’ve latched onto the service pretty quickly. The “rogue” candidate for president has even centered his campaign around a promise of free wifi to the entire country – Obama 2012 anyone?

He is also promising everyone free houses and bags to clean up after their dogs (which they don't).

For now, lacking access to the Internet has provided Stephen and me an excuse to explore many of B.A.’s neighborhood cafes and develop a taste for their café con leche, which is perplexingly better than the American cupa.

Happy after ordering my first café con leche successfully en español

Stephen happy because he just found the coffee shop he spent the past six years in L.A. searching for

It's in the neighborhood Colegiales, where we're hoping to end up

View of "The Oldest Bar" from the outside

There’s no click-of-a-button cure to missing our friends and family in the states, but we feel very lucky to have all of you and we cannot wait for you to visit this beautiful city. Worried about the cost of airfare? Todo tranquilo.  Just look it up on the Internet!

Click here and enter your e-mail address to set up a monthly price alert for the best deals to come visit us: http://www.kayak.com/flights#MIA-BUE/2011-10-29/2011-11-05

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A Language that Pays the Bills

1 Oct

While learning Spanish will cost us some money, I’ve found another language that will pay me: HTML.

Since August I’ve been busy coding web sites in HTML, CSS, jQuery and some PHP, the languages of the web. That’s my new gig. I’m a web developer. I sit in front of the computer most of the day listening to Ratatat running my new business, which I’m calling Shoe Shine Design & Development.

It’s nerve-wracking going from a steady paycheck to being a small-business owner hoping contracts keep coming in and clients pay on-time. Thankfully, work has been steady. I’ve landed 7 contracts already and one site is just a week or so away from going live.

Once I have enough completed sites to fill a decent portfolio, I’ll put up a web site of my own.

For now, just remember me whenever you ever need a web site, big or small, or know of someone who is looking. It’s for a good cause: Maggie’s meals.

My mother-in-law's basement has served as my office for the past 4 weeks.

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