We’re approaching the end of our time in Buenos Aires. Tomorrow we have our final presentations and last full day in the city. We’ve completed all our lectures, which meant today was much more relaxing. In the morning, we had a lot of free time and spent it going to the Japanese Gardens and shopping in Florida Ave. The gardens was a paradise:devoid of urban noise pollution and the hecticness of a city. It was peaceful, and most importantly, mosquito free. Having a Japanese Garden within a South American city was interesting to see – the city lacks a bit of diversity and I liked that we got to see a glimpse of some. After, we went to Florida Avenue and wandered the shops. The cambios, or the money traders, densely populate the streets and try and draw you into different shops to exchange USD into Pesos. It’s interesting to see the dense commercialism within the city and its differences to America.
Later in the day we went to a couple of museums: Museo de los immigrates, and Museo etnografica. The first museum was located on the docks where all immigrants used to come in from, and where the current immigration center still is. It was interesting to see the diverse groups of people that were immigrating to the country during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. People found ways to collaborate with each other and build new communities with people of similar origins. Unlike the US, Argentina is much more open to immigrants and makes it very easy for them to enter the country and gain citizenship. Even now, the immigration process is much easier here. It’s also interesting that it’s a lot more normal to move to a different country here since it’s centrally located and surrounded by several other countries.
The last museum we went to was about historical Latin American artificacts. There were many artifacts used across different time periods and blending different cultures, and some items dated back 2000 years. There are so many different influences across the country that make different periods and regions unique from each other.
