From: Tomer Morad [tomer_morad@hotmail.com]
Sent: יום שישי 04 ינואר 2002 0:33
To: tomer_morad@hotmail.com
Subject: Don't cry for me argentina

Hola!
Tomorrow I am flying to new zealand, so this is my last email from south 
america.  My last email ended with riots in the streets, looting of shops 
and public unrest.  However, alot has changed since then, including five 
presidents and the whole social situation.  It is much calmer now as the 
argentinians are tired of going to the streets.
Pini has joined me in the apartment two weeks ago and we went to tour mar 
del plata with a rented car.  Mar del plata is the tourist resort of the 
state of buenos aires, but that didn't keep it from being empty - maybe 
because of the situation, and maybe because it was christmas.  The tour went 
smoothly until we almost ran out of gas - The gauge did not function that 
well as the last 100km took half of the tank (the first 600 took the first 
half).  The argentinians also do not have a good sense of distances - We 
asked one local how far is the next gas station, and he told us 15km and 
30km.  Calculating that the worst situation we can have is to walk for 7.5 
km each way to reach civilisation, we decided to go ahead and try to reach a 
station.  Of course there was no station 15km away, and not even in 30km...  
When we finally reached the first one it was after 36km, but it was 
closed...  The next one was 6km ahead and we reached it practically on 
steam.
Our stay back here included mainly going out, eating at good restaurants, 
and of course sleeping alot...  Naturally, we didn't miss on the action that 
took place here...  Their soccer team "Racing", which has not won the cup 
for 35 years, finally won - this was a good reason to go again into the 
streets...  Lots of fireworks, drunken fans singing patriotic songs, 
violence, and just plain fun.  The streets close to the center were full of 
people and it felt like another demonstration, especially with the police 
standing by.
The sylvester was fun as pini and i made the locals dance in a local pub, 
and then also in a disco.
To sum up buenos aires - It is a great city.  I would line it up next to new 
york, for its culture, food, and athmosphere.  Don't believe what you see on 
CNN.  There are many rich people here, that have houses that cost more than 
$1M.  Most people are well educated, and they have a great city and state 
infrastructure.  Maybe their problem is that they don't tax the rich - they 
have %11 income tax with no steps!
I managed to pick up quite alot of spanish here and I can certainly have a 
conversation now without going into english (though i still have alot to 
learn).  It is a shame to leave now...
Go go go new zealand!
Tomer.


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