If I was King

After being in Buenos Aires for close to two weeks you really start to understand why it is that the rest of South America seems to despise the Argentineans. I have a vastly different perspective after these two weeks than I did after my initial two weeks here over a year ago.

I think it’s because I spent the previous 3 months traveling through Colombia and Cuba and Panama and Brazil. It’s true what they say about traveling, it changes you and your perspective on the world. I feel like a different person, although I’m not sure I can describe how exactly.

People everywhere else I’ve been are literally the most friendly, social, outgoing people in the world. You can walk into any random bar not knowing anyone, let alone the language, and rest assured that you will not spend the night drinking alone. It’s easy to strike up a conversation with random strangers on the street.

This isn’t quite the case in Argentina. Granted they are far more outgoing than the folks back home, but nothing compared to their fellow South Americans. They seem a little more reserved here. Sure they go out in big groups to socialize, but they don’t seem to go out and meet new people every night, they mainly stick to the crowd they came with. Like they keep telling me, they are the “Europeans of South America.”

Someone told me that Buenos Aires has the highest ratio of residents to psychologists in the world. I can believe that. But the thought of a Colombian going to a psychologist seems beyond strange. I stayed in that country for a month and didn’t meet anyone I thought needed Zoloft. Argentina seems quite different. I guess that makes sense, Canadians aren’t the same as Mexicans, heck coffee drinkers in Seattle aren’t the same as party people in Miami, why would everyone in South America be the same.

I haven’t actually made any local friends as of yet. This hasn’t been too much of a problem so far as I’ve met lots of fellow travelers. I met up with a couple gringos at the hostel I started at and we’ve been hanging out for the majority of my time here. Great people really, I always meet the most interesting US citizens when I’m traveling outside the US. But they’re all only here for a couple of weeks, and after that I’m either going to have to find some more gringos to hang out with or somehow make some Argentinean friends. And that was one of the things I really enjoyed about traveling every where else, you get a much more “real” perspective when you can hang out with locals.

But I suppose every place has its own problems. If I could make up my own country I’d take the friendliness of the Colombians, along with the natural beauty of the rolling mountain countryside, combine the party attitude of the Cubans and Brazilians, and of course the beautiful beaches, add the culture, food and wine of Argentina and the political stability, civil liberties, economic power and opportunity of the US. And I’d have to find some way to make it as cheap as Colombia and Argentina. And of course mix in the fantastic fruit from Brazil. Well one can dream, can’t one?

Paul, the guy who runs the hostel I stayed at here in Buenos Aires told me that everyone has a place in this world. “You just have to find the spot that’s right for you.” I like that sentiment, I’d like to think that it’s true; I just don’t know that I actually believe it. I’ve been a lot of places in this world, and none of them really feel like home. Maybe the problem is that it’s true what they say “home is where the heart is” and mine, well, isn’t really anywhere right now.