Why?

For anyone who wonders why we chose to spend a month in Argentina, here’s a list.

• Over the past few years, I didn’t use my allotted vacation days (I know, “Stupid”), and my accumulated carry-over was up to 17 days. Then the bank brought in a new “use ’em or lose ’em” policy, and I have no intention of losing them. An extended trip will square things up.

• When I was younger,  much younger, I read Bruce Chatwin’s “In Patagonia”, which was often described as the quintessential travel book. So if we are going to travel, Argentina/Patagonia is a natural place to begin.

• They say that Buenos Aires is the “Paris of South America”

• On a training program last year, a senior banker talked about his successes and regrets. Among the regrets, his inability to have a conversation in more than one language,  and deep admiration for others who can.  I thought, me too. Time to learn some Spanish.

• Heidi says we are going to tango.

• Political leadership in Argentina looks like a dog’s breakfast, but not in a Rob-Ford-is-a-buffoon sort of way. They never recovered from the economic crisis that led to the government defaulting on its debt in 2001. The ongoing battle between the government and those creditors who refused to play along with the restructuring is actually a riveting, if drawn out, courtroom drama.   Under Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the government just seems to come up with one bad policy after another.   But it isn’t North Korea either: People seem to have relatively comfortable lives in Argentina.   How does that happen?

• We have visited new places over the past few years, but always feel like we are settling in just when it is time to move on.  What’s it like to stay in the same place for a few weeks?

• Do you ever read the author bios on book Jackets?  Seems like everyone divides their time between two homes.   I want to give that a go, in my own small way.

Go to the next post: Settling in