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| Welcome travelers to Argentine territory |
There are a lot of factors that have led to our decision. The inherent pessimism of the Argentine people has become even more understandable to me as we've been struggling to find employment and establish ourselves in a very economically unstable environment. In the United States, people are complaining about an "economic crisis," but the U.S. citizens know nothing of a true crisis. First off, economically speaking, Argentina is going through a really bad time right now. The government is lying about inflation, pitting itself in a one-on-one fight with the IMF. Cristina Kirchner and her government insist that inflation is at 12%, when, in reality, it's at about 30%. As a result, everything is expensive, the value of the peso is low (officially $1usd = 5 ars, unofficially 1usd = 8ars) and food, above other things, is perhaps the most expensive product. Prices have tripled since I lived here in 2008/2009. This type of economic instability is all to familiar to the people of Argentina. Their history is full of market crashes, coup d'etat after coup d'etat, years of military dictatorship, which involved the disappearances, kidnappings, torture and murder of thousands of people labeled "political dissidents," a real economic crisis in 2001 that resulted in the collapse of the monetary unit, the freezing of bank accounts and mass riots in the streets of Buenos Aires, a forfeiture on the country's foreign debt and rocky up and downs ever since.
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| The cathedral of Salta's beautiful center. |
As we came traveling down to Buenos Aires, telling people about our plans, everyone was unrealistically optimistic and sure that we would have no problems in finding well-paying work in no time. We stopped first in Salta, a beautiful colonial city in the north. There we were greeted by the owner of our hostel who had done quite a bit of traveling himself. This guy gave us a toothless, mate-stained, smile and said, "dale, dale, no habrá problema," (go on, you won't have a problem). One thing that is certain, Salta is a very nice a tranquil place, maybe that's why people were so optimistic.
From Salta, we took a short bus ride to the south, to the next major city, San Miguel de Tucumán. We have since been told that there are amazing gorge desert formations in the north of Argentina that we should have visited while we were there, but the truth is we were incredibly exhausted and had seen quite enough desert in Peru and Bolivia. Tucumán is really just another city, there is nothing of especial interest to mention about it. On the other hand, the hostel we stayed at in Tucumán was simply impressive. The owners had acquired the place for a song and took this incredible colonial mansion, which was once owned by the mayor of the city, and converted it into a residence.
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| Our new friend from A La Gurda Hostel |
The family that owns the hostel was incredibly nice to us. They also had nothing but good things to say about our plans and had all kinds of great stories to tell us about successful English teachers´ experiences. They told us all about how they knew this young Japanese girl who went to Buenos Aires and made money hand over fist teaching private English lessons. They had great intentions, but their stories painted us a picture that was far different from the reality that awaited us. We began to make have a series of unfortunate revelations upon after arriving to Buenos Aires and starting our job search.
Education is accessible for everyone in Argentina, which is great, but this has also led to unforeseen issues. It seems like education is actually devalued and rather under appreciated here because everything is free! It has been my impression that the Argentines take education for granted. Anyone in Argentina has a right to free access to the state universities and a degree, which means almost everyone has a degree of some sort. It's not unusual to meet engineer taxi drivers or economist bus drivers. When you tell people about your education, they seem to react, "And?" As a result, having an advanced degree doesn't necessarily make you marketable.
Language courses are considered a bit of a luxury item as well, but they are not a well-paid luxury. In order for someone to make a decent living teaching English, you have to work teaching back-to-back English in private lessons and work for different language institutes, 8-10 hours a day. English lessons pay around $60 pesos the hour, which is around $7.50. In comparison, private tutoring pays around $30 an hour in the U.S.
From Tucumán, we boarded a train bound for the Federal Capital City, Buenos Aires. I've traveled in train in Argentina before, and I knew what to expect, but I couldn't anticipate the problems that the summer weather would bring. The last time I traveled in train in Argentina was a trip from Buenos Aires to Bahia Blanca, just 400 miles to the south of the city. A trip that should take around 4-5 hours is a 14 hour experience in train. Our trip from Tucuman to Buenos aires lasted no less than 28 hours! Once upon a time, the rail system of Argentina was one of the most prosperous and extensive systems in South America and the world, but my how things have changed. The stations, trains and railways that were established in the late 1800's have been updated very little since then. The National Train Company, FA, was dismembered in the 90's and things have only gotten worse since then. We traveled all of that time in from a station and a train designed by the Brits around 1890/1900; travel in style!
We arrived at the station in Buenos Aires hechos mierda (in really bad shape). It's all about the experience. The city hadn't changed much from the last time I was here, but one thing that was quite notable was the quantity of people and the amount of trash in the streets. In just four short years, thousands of people more have immigrated into the city from different parts of Argentina and other countries. I was completely astounded by how many people there were since before. We spent a couple of weeks in the city and realized that even more people would soon be coming into the city; it was still summer and many of the usual inhabitants of the city were still gone on vacation. Being in downtown Buenos Aires always has made me feel a bit small. I suppose it would be like standing in the middle of Times Square, the Avenue 9 de julio is one of the widest in the world and the tremendous presence of the Obelisco (Buenos Aires' very own obelisk) in the middle of the avenue can't help but impress the passerby.
The nostalgia of being back in Buenos Aires didn't take long the wear off. After talking with some locals and testing the waters a little, we realized that things weren't going to be quite as easy as we had planned. At the same time, we still had to keep in mind that we were in a pretty incredible place, so we had to be a little touristy while we had the chance. I took Daniela around to all of the tourist hotspots, Puerto Madero, the Recoleta Cemmentery, the markets of San Telmo, the Plaza de Mayo (the city center and plaza in front of the government building), etc. I was even surprised to experience something new myself, they are currently giving free tours of the Casa Rosada (the Pink House, government headquarters) and we had the opportunity to stand on the same balcony as Evita and Peron!
After doing all of the great touristy stuff, we began the job and living quarters hunt, and damn has it been tiring. We went to La Plata to stay with our friends and slowly began o figure things out. We found out that our degrees weren't as highly valued as we expected, realized that educators are even more poorly paid here than they are in the states, and that was just for starters. In terms of a place to live, we discovered it is extremely difficult for foreigners to arrange a living situation. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to get a place of your own if you're not Argentine, they double the price of rent for foreigners. The options that exist after that are either paying an exorbitant amount of rent for a small apartment, living in a University residence or a sharing a flat. Dani and I both felt indignant at the possibility of having to live like college students again after having graduated.
After all, we have slowly come to the realization that our happiness isn't likely to be found here. Teaching English 10 hours a day, crammed in the subway, and traveling tirelessly all around the city sounded neither appealing nor fulfilling to us. We discovered that it is nearly impossible for a foreigner to acquire documented work conditions due to the fact that no one wants to deal with the kilombo (mess) that is the process of arranging papers for residency. Acquiring a job at a university is nearly impossible and finding something with a high school (yield that it be private) is equally difficult. So, Buenos Aires decided that we aren't for it and we decided that it isn't quite for us either.
What to do? Time to travel instead!
Daniela is currently visiting Iguazu falls with a friend. I have already visited them personally, but I didn't want her to miss the opportunity to see such an amazing site. Come Tuesday, we're flying down to Ushuaia to visit Tierra de Fuego and the southernmost city in the world, "The End of the World". After that, we're going to travel up the western border of Argentina and, eventually, cross over to Santiago, Chile. Needless to say, great adventures await us and there will be much more to come!
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