The energy of Porteños

Why so many Europeans they so easily succumb to the charms of Buenos Aires? Perhaps, paradoxically, because the scenery does not feel it. Walking through the streets of the Argentine capital, the traveler finds, with surprise, a town resembling a European metropolis retro sixties. The illusion is perfect if it remains in the center. It disappears when you discover the slums on the outskirts of the city. We remember when you are in Latin America.

Despite its size and car traffic worthy of a major city in South America, Buenos Aires is a charming city, multi-faceted. Here and there the smell of asados ​​fleet, the famous Argentine barbecue. The bife chorizo ​​and appreciate churipan on the terraces with friends and family. Squares, drinking mate, an infusion of herbs of Indian origin, sucked through a straw made of metal, which is happening with friends celebrating life.

The temperament of Buenos Aires is probably less than that of openly gay Rio de Janeiro, another mythical city of the subcontinent. It is said that in Argentina found the highest density of psychoanalysts in the world. Nevertheless, one of the most addictive charms of the city lies in its people, the Porteños, these "people of the port," at once so bruised by history and so enterprising. The many political and economic crises that rocked Argentina in recent decades, however, have left an indelible mark in the hearts and minds. Every Thursday on the Plaza de Mayo, the women come from nearly thirty years, mourn their loved ones during the dark years of dictatorship.

Other evidence of a deep social malaise inherited from the collapse of the economy in 2001: the cartoneros, that collect waste from rich districts and bring them to the recycling center for a few pesos, but the doors of banks tagged. And yet, Buenos Aires is reinventing itself again and again. Proof of the irresistible and insatiable energy of its inhabitants.