July 28th, big day: the hairdressers are opening again! But apparently that isn't enough to make people happy. I read this morning - no big surprise- that many Argentines would consider leaving their country because they see no future. The destinations of choice are Spain & Italy (land of many ancestors) or Uruguay & Chile (closer by but with reputations of being more stable in terms of economy, freedom and opportunities).
So we are definitely not the only ones....
It's really a shame because there are sooooo many things I like about Argentina, as long as you don't depend on it for your future. To start, there is a lot of space and beautiful nature, like the Andes in the North-West (ruta 40 is like the US route 66):
or the Perito Moreno glacier in the South-West:
People are friendly and welcoming (although if they all leave, that benefit would go away...), there are great meat and wine, delicious empanadas and pizzas, which we often get at "La Guitarrita" (only delivery nowadays)
And last but not least: fantastic ice-cream. In fact, the number of ice-cream stores has always surprised me. There is about one per block.... who eats all that ice cream, including in winter? Not me in any case because I am not a fan of ice cream - since my childhood, it consistently gives me brain freeze- and the flavors I do like are very unpopular. The absolute favorite here is Dulce de Leche in all its forms (regular, granizado (i.e. with chocolate chips), super dulce de leche (i.e with added dulce de leche swirls)), and vanilla is not common at all! Instead there is something called crema americana which basically tastes like milk. I like the flavors that no one wants, the ones that stay in the freezer until they become completely frozen and impossible to eat: raspberry and mango sorbet, pistachio and mint. We used to live close to a traditional ice-cream parlor called Via Flaminia which was was a weekend destination for many people, quite like Berthillon in Paris. One of the specialties was a very long ice cream cone dipped in chocolate sauce, the longest in Buenos Aires according to Google.
When we leave, I will miss most of these things, as well as the idea of living at the end of the world, the great weather, my Argentine friends and the "asados" with the family.
