Mendoza and Cordoba

So after more than a year of seeing my friend Jessica, who arrived last year to Argentina a month before I did, except never left until December, where she went for 5 months to Brazil and then traveled back to Argentina recently, we were able to meet up and spend time again in Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza was beautiful, by far the cleanest city in Argentina. The people are super friendly, and the landscape is amazing. Mendoza is the wine capital of South America, and is best known for the Malbec grape wines. We took a tour of 3 wineries, learned all about he process of wines, the proper way to taste, drink, hold a wine glass, and check to see weather the wine is good to drink or not by smelling the wine before drinking. It was great, we first visted the Belasco de Bosquendo winery, which is of a Spanish winery, who chose to put one winery in Argentina to make Malbec wine. The next winery we visted was Norton, the biggest winery in Argentina and the most famous. In comparison to the last, Bonfanti, a small family winery, which was a much personal experience, recieving the tour from the owner of the winery. The landscape was beautiful. Mendoza is a very dry, desert like region yet has the beauty of the snowcapped Andes mountain range as a backdrop. From Mendoza, our original plan was to visit Santiago de Chile, which technically was 6 hours away, however because of a snow storm, the pass across the Andes was closed for another week, so we decided to head to Cordoba. We went to Cordoba because I hadn't been since February of 2011, and it is where Jessica had been living, we stayed with a friend in his apartment and visited the main tourist attractions of Argentina's second city. Which seemed to be even more beautiful and clean than I had remembered it. Recenly got back to Buenos Aires, but very content with this awesome trip.

Tecnópolis and debt paid off.

The other day I went to Tecnópolis. Its a temporary theme park, they are doing every year here in Buenos Aires (this is the 2nd year, I left last year a week before it started). It is an iniciative started by the President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Everything in the park is free, the expositions, the multiple museums and interactive games. Admission is 100% free and is a very cool educational experience. Another iniciative put forward by Cristina Kirchner's government (now in its 2nd term having one reelection in October 2011 with over 54% of the vote against 4 other candidates, a historic win) was to pay off the debt of the 2001 crisis that Argentina suffered due to neo-liberal policies put in place consecutively by almost every government since the dictatorship of 1976 until 2003 which included policies mandated by Washington and the International Monetary Fund, which meant taking huge loans, privatizing every service and industry and in the 1990's, pegging the Argentine peso to the US dollar, known as the "Uno a Uno" which ended in 2002 with the Corralito, which meant that the government had to block people out of their own bank accounts because of the HUGE loss of money, almost overnight, of cash in the bank during the crisis. It also led to the end of the "Uno a uno" which meant that overnight someone who had saved their pesos at the value of one dollar each, now had over 4 times less the amount of money in the bank. The private debt accumulated at this time by private industries was then made public, in other words, the government accepted to pay that debt, which now meant that the Argentine people had to bear the burden of all of the debt accumulated without their consultation. This debt of the corralito is known as the BODEN. Cristina Kirchner's husband, Nestor Kirchner (who unexpectedly passed away in November of 2010), who was president before here from 2003 to 2007, was able to pull the country of the crisis which left over 50% of the population in poverty, who in 2005 denied a trade agreement to George W. Bush, aligned with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Lula da Silva of Brazil which would have ultimately given Washington a lot of say as to which economic policies should be put in place in South America (which would obviously benefic US interests much more than those of the people of South America). Nestor Kirchner also went with Lula Da Silva (Brazil also, like many countries if not all in the region to some degree, had gone through similar demands by the IMF and their economy during the past few decades)together they presented a joint agreement to the IMF to pay a porcentage of the debt, because the full debt would be outrageously impossible to pay, that the IMF accepted and cleared their debt with both countries. Today Argentina is the fastest growing economy in Latin America and Brazil is the 5th largest economy in the world. Further more, Argentina went from over 50% of their population in poverty to having half the current unemployment rate that the United States has as well as the highest paid wages in all of Latin America. Although Argentina does have its problems, it seems like the progressive government of the Cristina Kirchner with the slogan of "Social Inclusion" is doing well for all sectors of Argentine society. You see the constant growth of the southern Conurbano zone, or suburbs of Buenos Aires, the south being known generally as poor, new sky-rise luxury apartment buildings, fancy restaurants, elegant cafes, and even multiple openings of the all too expensive Starbucks Coffee stores (where I am currently writing this blog... Missing Washington state a bit). http://www.prensa.argentina.ar/2012/08/03/32889-se-pago-la-ultima-cuota-del-boden-2012-que-puso-fin-al-corralito.php There is an article in Spanish, which I am sure with the new web browsers it can be translated to English. Fun video in Spanish about 10 years after the crisis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uARHgbw_mOY&feature=related