Changing times in Argentina (?)

Today is the inauguration of president elect Millei and we are having breakfast in a hotel in Rio Gallegos.  We are also resting a little and importantly securing getting more camping gas (the morning is simply not the same without a cup of hot coffee) before entering Tierra de Fuego tomorrow.

During our time in Argentina, we have observed a surprisingly calm atmosphere (this might change during the inauguration today), and most people we have inflation and a huge foreign debt, many people though appears angry and frustrated with the outgoing president and the entire Kirschner-era.

A few days ago, while still in Puerto San Julian, we had a couple of interesting conversation with locals. Mona observed an interesting historic storage/import-export commerce building for agricultural products (the place is called Argensud – https://www.argensudcultural.com/) and asked if we could take al look inside. The current owner, a young, more or less middle aged, couple, invited us for a personalized tour of the premises consisting of several large halls.  We soon learned that the building now functions as a gastro-bar, disco, and location for cultural events throughout the year. The photos below illustrate the graffities made by the owner – graffities with narratives and illustrations which offer a visual tour of Argentina’s modern pollical and social turmoil.

Touching on politics and economics, the couple complained, but told us that they were getting by despite the economic turmoil. The did not however, indicate any political opinion, but the graffities themselves (painted and narrated by the male owner) reveal a mix of protest and rebellion.

Another conversation we had was with a middle-aged electrician who helped us connect new working lights on the truck.

Jaime, the electrician, also expressed great political skepticism and frustration with the inflation, telling us that all banks and businesses have an inflation-algorithm built into their systems perfectly keeping pace with the changing value of the peso versus US dollars. Also, he, just laughed and threw up his hands in annoyance over Argentine politicians and politics. Interestingly, neither in this case was it possible to guess how he possibly had voted.       

And, now Ushuaia here we come (if you enlarge the photo you’ll see that there is only 597 km left before reaching Ushuaia)!