Highlights of Our Trip

1.     85 days of gorgeous sunshine

2.     The Zoo (especially The Mouse, the hungry goats, the bears fighting, the tigers, the elephants, the om-nom fish and the Jackalopes)

3.     Uruguay

4.     Mama ant, papa ant, baby ant

5.     The Rounds

6.     Asados - cooking on the parilla.

7.     Running through the streets of Buenos Aires with Olive and Holden

Holden never goes anywhere without
Bear Bag to hold his toys.

8.     Our visitors (Shaun, Niki, Aaron, Steve)

9.     Meeting World-Class Creative Directors (Jorge, Diego, Juan)

10. Felipe

11. My heavy metal loving butcher in Las Canitas

12. Speaking Spanish in 3 contexts (buying food, directions, cab ride chitchat)

13. Museo De Los Ninos

14. Drum park

15. Drinking coffee on sunny patios with Maria

16. Our upstairs terrace and the kids’ pool

17. Spending time with my family in an exotic land
18. Cool signs



19. Growing a kick-ass beard

Back Home

28 hours on the road yesterday. Slept about an hour. Kids were great though. Only two minor freakouts - Holden didn't want a seatbelt landing in Toronto - Olive didn't want to leave Santiago airport. Other than that they were excellent little travellers. 

They carry their own gear.

You mean I can watch cartoons for 24 straight hours? Sweet.

Now we're back. What a fun, strange adventure. 


Besides exploring parks, markets, agencies and beaches in South America here's what we've been up to, work-wise, over the last three months. 


Immersion Creative May newsletter. 

Last Night

So this is it, our last night in Buenos Aires.

It's been an interesting trip. I wasn't sure how the kids would fare travelling 11,271.56 km from home to a completely foreign world. They totally took it in stride. They loved it.

Tomorrow we're going back to Vancouver. Not looking forward to the 24-hour flight. But the kids are - we've promised them a new bagful of toys.

Vibe

Argentines are by far the most good-hearted people I have ever met.

They love kids.

We can't get more than two feet down the subway steps without random people jumping in to help carry the baby stroller. 

Old men give up their seats for those holding children.

People in shops give the children free candy, and toys, and fruit and they pat their heads and speak Spanish directly to their wide-eyed faces. 

They adore little ones.

Working In Buenos Aires

This trip has been an experiment in working remotely.

The plan was to work online for my clients back home, but live where it's a.) Sunny every day - we've had 3 overcast days in the last 85. And b.) Half the price.

It seems like a good idea on paper. The trick was to not lose any clients, and hopefully gain some new ones while I was here. Luckily, my clients were onboard with the idea (so a huge thanks to Neil, Shaun, Anthea, Chris, Susan, Laura, Marlene, Donna, Rob and Doris).

However, I didn't pick up any new ones. And that's the kicker of working remotely - it's hard to generate new work.

I gave it a shot. I met with Ogilvy, Saatchi, BBDO, Ponce and I have a sit-down with DraftFCB on Friday. I contacted people from every agency in town, and literally walked in the door of Publicis, JWT, TBWA, DDB, Madre, Grey and Santo - but no one seems to be looking for an English copywriter.

My Spanish is very poor - so that might have been part of it, but the language barrier never stopped me before. The other issue is that the economy is uncertain here, and there are hiring freezes everywhere. 

This has been much more difficult than when I found work in Hong Kong.

Also, although I cut my expenses in half - working without an office can be a bit tricky with two wild screaming creatures running around.

The plan was to stay if I could find work here and if my clients were cool with the idea. But it's looking like we're coming home after all on Monday. Well, we'll see how Friday goes.

                                                        So that's where my shoes are!

Uruguay

Our South American adventure is coming to a close.

So we went to Uruguay last week.

We bussed three hours east of Montevideo to a tiny town on the sea called La Paloma. There are no stoplights there.

We rented a little beach house overlooking the ocean. It was fantastic.

The place was called the Wanda House. The owner's brother wrote a song here called Al otro lado del río. It was on the soundtrack to the Motorcycle Diaries and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Gael García Bernal stayed here once as well. It was definitely a magical place.

Mandatory feet on the beach shot.

Plan B and C

When all else fails, go to the zoo.



When that fails? Ice cream.

Directions

I'm now 8/16.

Batting .500.

Ant Farm

Today we made an ant farm with the kids.



All it took was some Tic Tac containers, grass, and from the statues around Avenida del Libertador: Mama Ant, Papa Ant and Baby Ant.

Inflation in Buenos Aires

Okay, so here are the prices of everyday items (in pesos) from the same Disco grocery store that I went to 60 days before.

Compare this to the Cost of Living in Buenos Aires (Feb 8, 2012).

Note - since we've settled in, I'd say prices overall are 50% of Vancouver - with real estate being 1/3rd for the same bells and whistles shimmering in the unbeatable sun.

Note 2. At last check, I converted everything into Canadian at 4.36. Now it's 4.40. So there's that.

Note 3. Those prices were in lb, okay, what a pain this is turning out to be. Either way, I've converted everything back into pesos/kg. And then the difference, because this is a post about inflation - not a cost of living comparison.

Bread 20 vs 18.25 (+11%)
Stella 10/l vs 7.95 (+25%)
Pears 11 vs 12 (-0.92%)
Apples 13 vs 12 (+8%)
Lettuce 16 vs 16 -
Eggs 7/6 vs 6/6 (+17%)
Banana 10 vs 9 (+11%)
Quilmes (local beer)/L 7 vs 5 (+40%)
Milk 7.15 vs 6.50 (+10%)
Gasoline 5.36 vs 4.94 (+9%)

The average increase of these goods is about 12%. That's in 2 months. So by my very rough calculations inflation is at 72%/year.

This is a bit skewed by tons of factors, but it's hard to ignore that prices are going up constantly.

The World Bank estimates inflation is 25-30% per year, which the government adamant refuses, they say it's closer to 10%.

Here are a few commentaries on the situation:

Argentina on the Brink?
85% chance of recession in Argentina
Argentina's fuzzy math problem.


The tens are pretty much useless.

Argentine Idiosyncrasies Part III

Crosswalk jugglers and acrobats to amuse you while you wait.



The Least Absorbent Napkins in the World.



Cabs can't pick you up from the left side of a one-way street.



Finger wagging and dispensing advice. The old ladies do it best, but no one is shy to scold and share wisdom - especially when it comes to kids.


(This is their new rock collection.)

Dancing and drumming protestors in the parks.



Ponies. They're everywhere. Look away, Olive. Look away.

Chapter 3

I can't believe we've already been in Buenos Aires for 60 days. One month to go. The Spanish is slowly improving. Living in three neighborhoods in three months gives us plenty of fresh perspective and new adventures.

The kids love it. They spent the day rearranging rocks in the garden. We also walked down the street to the lake district and the polo fields to watch guys on horses chase a ball around.

Las Cañitas

We have moved again. Yesterday we checked in to a spacious apartment in an area called Las Cañitas.

It's a one-bedroom, technically, but there are two beds, and the place is about 1000 sq feet. It's on the ground floor, so we have our own private terrace and parilla (stone BBQ, pronounced par-ish-a). I'm going to make one of these when we get back to Canada. BBQs without propane are the way to go.

My new trick for looking for apartments is "square footage trumps bedrooms." It's the Mitch Hedberg rule, where it's up to you to decide how many bedrooms a place has.

Today, we explore this neighbourhood (and I have to do a bunch of work). The Polo fields are nearby. And all the great parks along Avenida del Libertador.

I do feel a bit scammed in that it looks like we are surrounded by parks, on this map, but it turns out that one of those green areas is a military training base (so we're not getting over the razor wire with the stroller) and the other is a hospital (no access - unless we try the former).



I told Maria that war was declared against Britain today, and that they were evacuating expats,and had plans to bomb the airport tomorrow afternoon, but she didn't seem too concerned. I need to work on my April 1st jokes.


Kids by the parilla.
Thanks for the shirts, Steve.

More Cool Street Art

Disneyland for Ghosts

We went to the Recoletta Cemetary the other day.

It's a whole city for the dead, complete with houses and trees.

If I were a ghost, I would be very comfortable here.

Running, screaming pookas will be shushed.

Mosquito Coast

My awesome family.

Dudes in the street call me Chuck Norris.

But I think I have more of a Joaquin Pheonix thing going on.

Directions

I'm 4 for 12 in giving directions now. The last one was in English, so Maria says it doesn't count. I say I'm 3/11 in Spanish and 4/12 multi-lingual.

People assume I know where I'm going because I have a beard and therefore look wise.

This way to the Golden Flower thing.

When An Economy Crashes

What happens when inflation soars into the double digits?

Your savings evaporate, and your cost of living gets out of touch with the money you're pulling in. Eventually, when wages don't keep pace with the cost of goods, you just stop buying things, except rent and food.

Suddenly, no one's buying cars, or electronics, or homes, or building materials. Money stops moving. And bam! The economy falls apart.

When an economy crashes, work dries up, people stay home, extra bedrooms get filled, daycare disappears and families pull together.

This happened to Buenos Aires ten years ago. The whole system fell apart, so they circled the community wagons. And you can see the aftermath of these values in every park. Children are a focus here. Family events. Weekend fairs. Merry-go-rounds. Hundreds of toy stores.

When you don't have money, you have time. And in Argentina, they spent that time with their children and families.

The People's Gym.

Puppet shows in the park.

A shot from the 'round'.

La Boca

I went to La Boca (AKA The Mouth) this week with my friend Steve (AKA Lip).

All the houses there are painted wild colours.

There are tango dancers, tourist traps and shifty eyed guys in track suits.

And of course, lotsa Che.

Olive loves the swings.

Ok.

Horsie is seeping, Mama.