Train crash and interview with Tony Leon

This was a very hectic week in Buenos Aires. There were 2 accidents in front of our apartment block and a terrible train crash which shocked Buenos Aires.

Breaking news = TRAIN CRASH
On Wednesday 22 Febuary, the people of Buenos Aires went back to work after a long (Carnival) weekend. In the morning rush hour a train loaded with commuters drove into the train station of "Once" (centre of Buenos Aires) but failed to stop. The train crashed into the end of the platform and the wagons crashed into each other. There were 50 people killed and 600 wounded. This train crash is the worst train crash since 40 years ago. The whole day it was in the news, the many relatives and fathers and mothers were angry since they said that they did not get any information of where their sons, daughters and friends were, in hospital or dead?
I also found it very scary since we were there just some days before, when we went to Plaza Misere (where the station 'Once' is) to take the train to the Bolivian area.
The real reason of the accident is not officially known yet, but the Portenos say that it is due to lack of maintenance of the train (brakes) -as so many things here in the city are not so well maintained.

                                                                                                                

      INTERVIEW WITH TONY LEON

      

      On Thursday 23rd February I was lucky to visit the ambassador of South Africa in Argentina, Mr Tony Leon. In an interview I had with him (Steven came with me to take photos) he told me that he was born in Durban, South Africa born on 15th December 1956 and that he lives now with his wife in Argentina. He has also 2 children in South Africa at the University of Cape Town. Mr Leon has been the ambassador of South Africa in Argentina/Paraguay and Uruguay since September 2009. 

      There are about 100 South Africans living in Argentina. 

      He confirmed that there were no South Africans or South African tourists in the train crash from the day before, because the train came from the west where there is not much to see or to do for the tourists. 

       He explained to me why South Africa was important for Argentina and why Argentina is important to South 
       Africa. South Africa exports mainly coal to Argentina 
       and Argentina exports soy-beans to South Africa.    

      Mr Leon found the Economy of Argentina an interesting challenge and the level of price inflation concerning. (I also noticed that the -chocolate-milk and the bus-fare is more expensive now than 2 months ago when we arrived here).
      Not many people in Argentina know South Africa, so he is promoting South Africa through  Publicity, internet, and via WC soccer to journalists. Tourism did improve the last few years. Mr Leon was writing for the Sunday Times and Business Day - a more formal newspaper which they sell on good street stands. There is also a English newspaper called Daily Buenos Aires.      


      Of course I wanted to know what he personally missed most from his home country (see if he feels the same as I do?!) The things that Mr Leon misses most from South Africa are: Languages (I must also say that I hardly ever hear the English language in the streets and shops), many different cultures, English books, English spoken theater, modern gadgets (i-phones are very rare here) and he misses the basic food things, like toasted cheese sandwich. 
      
      When I googled 'Tony Leon' I saw that he was involved 
      in the politics of South Africa when it became a democracy in 1994. So when he was so involved with 
       his home country South Africa, how is it to live now in another country? Mr Leon says that " If you want to appreciate your own country, you have to go to another country.!!!!   

            Gracias, Thank You, Baie Dankie Mr Leon.

                        Louisa
                        Photos done by Steven




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Valentines day/ Tigre

During the month of February the summer holiday ends and the populated beaches slowly become less busy. In the city center of Buenos Aires there are suddenly more people on the street and the buses are more packed. On the 14 February it was Valentine's day.! Valentines day is not big at all here in Bueos Aires. You see very few men from work going home with roses. At restaurants you get a chocolate formed in a heart. There are some Valentines specials in shops, but otherwise that's it! I know in the USA Valentine is very big and Argentina is very close USA, but I wonder how Valentines Day is celebrated in other countries? Of course I love making something special out of these special days and that is way I organised with my brother A Valantines Special for my parents. We started by making a special breakfast for them. Sneaked out early to get fresh rolls and got my dads favorite cappochino. Then we did a 'show' with songs (the favorite songs of mom and dad) and dances. My mother did not have to cook today, so we went out for diner in a very nice restaurant named Juan M.



TIGRE (Buenos Aires)
.....But I havent written about our adventure to Tigre.
We went with the train from Retiro to Tigre just 45 minutes outside of Buenos Aires (like a Houtbay of Capetown). Tigre is a village with many little rivers and the people move with small boats and canos. For the Dutch it looks like Giethoorn. It is beautiful with lots of activity on the water and sunny foto moments of water, trees and people. When we arrived we were surprised how green and clean it was. My my mom and dad were mostly surprised, since they were in Tigre 15 years ago. Now Tigre was different, modern and new with a new train station and many new buildings.
We went with the taxiboat on the river to a guesthouse on one of the riverbanks. We saw the canos and before you knew it we where on the river ourselves canoing in between the speedboats and taxi's. They were driving very fast and we fell over a few times, because of the waves they made. We played badminton, then canoed again and after the weekend we said goodbye to our excellent hostess and host Carolina en Stef. Carolina is Argentinian and speaks very good English, is a very good cook and told us interesting stories over Argentina. Stef is Dutch and had an impressive collection of DVD's which we were allowed to watch after sunset. What was funny was that they had a dog named Nelson (named after Nelson Mandela) who somehow smelled that we were from South Africa. So he became our friend. Even Steven, who is always afraid of dogs, liked to play with Nelson.
So, after the weekend we went back to the mainland with the boat and we stayed a few more days in a hostel in the centre of Tigre. We walked around a lot and finally we found the place under the tree where my father ASKED my mother to marry her. That was exactly 15 years ago. Quickly I bought a flower and bright red cherries and of course we could not leave the spot looking over the Tigre River without having seen the KISS.


When we stayed in Tigre we lived next to a ice-cream shop. As you know my dad is a Big Fan of ice-cream!!! So,obviously we had to get a ice-cream but not in a cone, oooh nooo in a 2kg box.There are many  ice-cream flavours.They are all delicious !!! I scream,You scream we all scream for ICE-CREAM !! Since we stayed  next to a ice-cream shop they had extra  deliveries see picture. Who doesn't like ice-cream?

Gracias
louisa


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Kreeft on the move like the Emigrants did

La Boca
Long time ago, immigrants from Europe arrived with ships at the 'mouth' (Boca) of the river and settled there. The people did not have money and tried to work in the harbor supplying the ships. They made their 'houses' from left-over materials and painted them with left-over paint in different and bright colors.

house in Caminito (little street) La Boca

We went to see these colorful houses in Caminito-la Boca and you could imagine how people lived those days in the past.
Now the river and the street are dirty with litter and toilet waste and the old streets were full with souvenir markets, restaurants and bars with Tango dancers. A little bit too touristic. There were so many different dancers and singers that all the music became mixed up and you could not really enjoy it. We then walked a little around and went to the soccer stadium in La Boca. This was a highlight for Steven. 

             Steven 'skilling'

Boca Junior Stadium

Steven: .......Wauw, here in this stadium Diego Maradona played when he was a Boca Juniors.He played from1981 till 1982 and again from 1995 till 1997 and scored 35 goals for Boca Juniors. But of course I only know him from television and because he has played for Argentina the National team.
We saw the stadium but it was not so big-
only 49.000 people can be seated. 
Strange because it seems that all the people in 
Buenos Aires are fan of Boca Junior
and they are 2nd in the PSL. Where do they sit?????
And you know who also played in this stadium.........????
Our ex-keeper from Ajax Cape Town- Hans Vonk 
ones played here as well!
In the streets around the stadium, there were many fans- flags 
and statues in Blue and yellow (the colors of Boca).



San Telmo

Many Asados (braai).in San Telmo 

As soon as people were able to built a house they moved to a real 'barrio' (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires. So a little north of La Boca a new area started to grow. It was officially the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. 1st there settled many dockworkers, brick masters, tradesman and leather craftsman and these people attracted other business people. The 'town' got even lights, taps with water, gas and toilets. Beautiful big houses were built, hospitals and even a warehouse, but then all of a sudden in 1871 yellow fever (a dangerous virus) was transmitted (coming from Europe via the ships into La Boca). In beautiful San Telmo almost 10,000 people died.
Everyone tried to leave San Telmo and moved further to the north into a new neighborhood.....Recoleta.

We now did that same 'trip' - luckily not because of the yellow fever!
We went to La Boca, we lived a month in San Telmo and when we visited every icecream place (Heladeria) in San Telmo (and there are many many many of them) we moved to another area of Buenos Aires, in Recoleta (in calle Posadas).
Again we will stay here now for 1 month to see everything around this area. Recoleta looks more wealthy and has a cleaner environment. Also the people are friendlier than San telmo.(but not in the grocery shops).

Recoleta cemetery in the middle of busy Buenos Aires

Recoleta
In Recoleta there are many things to see and lots of history. We are here now 10 days and already went to Recoleta cemetery to visit the grave of Eva Peron and to some museums and arts museums too. We haven't found any sports clubs yet (everything here is private and for members only) so we keep going to our 'old' hockey and soccer club in San Telmo. It is easy to take bus number 17 with our Sube-card (a sort of card which the Portenos use to take the public transport without having to take money with you!).
By the way, we really feel special having this Sube Card,  as it is really wanted by the Portenos.....will tell you the story soon..........!

Weather, Garbage and Environment

A few days ago in Buenos Aires on my dad's birthday, we went with the bus from Recoleta (where we will stay this month) to SanTelmo. My brother plays soccer there and I play hockey. When we finished it was drizzling and then raining a bit and than all of a sudden there was lightning with thunder and it was pouring with rain. We quickly went back home and showered and watched the 8 o'clock news. On the news it was said that in some places there was water flooding from 8 centimeters to a few meters. The subway was closed down and traffic lights had stopped working. Lots of buildings had no electricity and there were many ambulances and fire engines with loud sirens.There were even people killed. The whole city of Buenos Aires was upside down!


Happy Birthday 

On the 1st of February it was my father's birthday. We were still in Tigre, a place 45 minutes from Buenos Aires (next week's story). We had a fun time and left in the afternoon to go to our new apartment in Recoleta. While we unpacked and prepared for my dads birthday party, the storm started over Buenos Aires. Later that evening we went outside in the poring rain and finally found a restaurant where we met 3  environment experts from the Netherlands.





What do the experts say
I have interviewed Leo, Bob and Robert who are Dutch and live in Holland, Eindhoven and Nijmegen. They are environment experts. They studied Environmental Protection. They also think that Buenos Aires is dirty. In the richer places it is cleaner and in the poor places it is dirtier with litter in the streets and overflowing containers. They have traveled a lot and they said that India is the dirtiest country and Singapore the cleanest in the world.
In BA they don't have separated waste like in Holland and South Africa. That is why they are here in Argentina, to try to introduce separation of waste. However, there are many poor and homeless people who take out plastic and what they need and leave a big mess leaving all the garbage around the streets. Then the rain washes the garbage in the streets and this is how the drainage system gets blogged, causing flooded streets.
After the waste is collected every day, they don't reuse the plastic. In South Africa they reuse many materials by making beautiful accessories like earrings from bottle tops and gift boxes out of plastic and beads out of paper.
Leo, Bob and Robert said that we SHOULD'NT LITTER and, DON'T USE A LOT OF ENERGY. The small things that you can do can make a big difference in the world.!!!!!!

Photo: Steven Kreeftenberg from L to R : Loes,Leo,Robert,Bob.

                                                         

                           ECO expert ??????

Gracias


 Louisa