Nearby Naked Neighbor

Today is Sunday. And on this particular Sunday, we went for a small explore. Mainly we stayed near where we live. We saw some shops, some restaurants, and probably most interesting, the Parque Rivadavia.

Dedicated to Simon Bolivar

It is here that our nearby naked neighbor lives. If you look in her direction from the street, she is mooning you. But if you go into the park, you can see her bent posture is not meant in disrespect. She seems to be intent on drawing water out of an empty well. Alrica, as you might expect, is very jealous that I show any interest in the nearby naked neighbor. But there's little to worry about. The neighbor won't even look at me. She just ignores me with stony indifference.

She must find it much warmer here in October than I do

The Parque Rivadavia is really interesting for a variety of reasons. There is an arch in the center dedicated to Simón Bolivar. And on the west end of the park are these green shacks that sell books. Not all of them sell books, some sell music and some sell magazines and some sell comic books too. But these shops get a lot of traffic.

Magazines for sale

Great place to get your comics (in Spanish)

The book Dynamic Mathematics was such a hit, it needed a sequel!

Records hanging from the fence along with instructional material

Those shops seem to be open most days. But on Sundays, there were white tents with a craft market in the middle of the park. And near the green shacks, there was an entire crowd milling about. We wondered what they were doing. They were trading football cards!

Just one small section of the card trading crowd

By football cards, I mean, naturally, soccer cards. People had big decks of these cards with soccer players or team logos. Some families had lists of cards they were looking for. People interacted with one another to make trades or possibly sales. It was fascinating how many people, including some very young and some very old, were here and engaged in the trading.

Those are football cards in his hand

To be honest, I don't know if the soccer card traders (or the craft fair) is an every Sunday thing or if it was just this particular Sunday. This is my first Sunday in Argentina. But it was very interesting to see.

Something that we find surprising is that Buenos Aires is more expensive than we expected. Looking at the cost of living calculators, we expected it to cost more than say Lima, but not more than Florianopolis. But it does cost more. I would say a modest meal out at a restaurant here is running us about 15 USD per person. That's comparable to what the USA was like when we left it. But it just seems high compared to everywhere else we've been in South America so far.

This brings me to the question of shoes. So far, my shoes are doing well. But the tread is rubbed reasonable thin, the insoles are somewhat shot, and there will come a time I need to replace them. But shoes here are not a great price.

From what I've read, Santiago, Chile is much better and prices are lower, plus they have basically no tariffs on imports. I guess we'll see. But it inspired me to write this song (to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which is itself a parody as I noted in my previous blog post from Harpers Ferry, WV.

I could buy in Buenos Aires where the shoes will cost a lot.
If I wait for Santiago, I have heard that they will not.
I did not buy shoes in Lima, or Medellín, or Brazil.
Now my shoes are hanging on, but I doubt they always will.
Last I bought them in Malaysia.
Now, I'm far away from Asia.
Here, the prices shock and phase ya.
Please, shoes, keep hanging on.