Spring Break '09!

BarilocheSo for spring break we went to Patagonia. I flew down to Bariloche with a group of four and then a friend and I took buses back, stopping in another small town in Patagonia, Neuquen, and Mendoza then back to Buenos Aires; 31 hours on buses total. In Bariloche we thought it would be a good idea to rent a car. Without getting into the details, they are kind of embarrassing let me just say it wasn't a good idea, and I recommend never renting a car in Argentina again, even if you feel you have a strong grasp of stick shift driving. Well we were all in our rental car, driving from Bariloche to a small hippie town a few hours away named El Bolson. We were stopped a checkpoint. It is strange to be in a country with things like checkpoints; I guess anything compared to a military dictatorship feels un-invasive. Of course we had left our passports at the hostel under lock and key, like good exchange students, far away from the risk of loss or theft. Of course we did not expect a checkpoint. We were pulled over, asked for our passports, told our driver's licenses were not enough, that as far as they knew we were traveling illegally through Argentina. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Our first instinct of course was to call the program director and ask her what to do. Of course they told us they had no phone and our cell phones had no reception, just to add to the illegitimacy, at least to us, of the whole experience. In the end we were left with little choice. Fill out and sign their forms in triplicate and register at the immigration office the next day or be full on detained. We filled out the forms, and went to the immigration office in Bariloche the next day and nothing really came of it; the deskman at the immigration office took the forms, and made copies of our passports for their records and that was it. The whole thing was unsettling though.

The police presence in this country is a strange thing; they are so visible in some places, and so conspicuously absent in others. The café around the corner from the center, a place you can find at least 3 NYU kids in at any time of day, has been held up three times in the past week. Laptops, cell phones, backpacks were stolen. I guess that could happen in the US... I guess, but three times in the past week? And then to be stopped simply because we looked foreign, because they could. Then again I guess that's common in the US too, though it's technically illegal.

Argentina has existed under oppressive dictatorships for more years collectively since its independence than democracies.... The effects are still present.