La Vida Argentina

On Thursday we gave our final presentation at the National University of La Plata. To an audience of students, faculty and folks from Grameen La Plata, we shared our two months of experiences at the bank and in Argentina. The presentation went great! Everyone seemed to find something valuable in what we said -- or at least were astonished by how much our Spanish improved.

After the presentation, I said adieu to La Plata. We said bye to our friends and as we left, I realized how attached I had gotten to everything and everyone here. As excited as I am to return to the US, Argentina started to feel like a second home. Despite the differences in culture and language and lack of spicy food, I felt really comfortable with Argentina. I think a lot of that had to do with all the welcoming people we met along the way.

The La Plata Crew!

This summer has been everything I wanted it to be and more. In my first blog post (many, many posts ago...), I had given this list as a preview of what I expected to do:

1. Trials of Maté (Argentina's national drink, which is a cross between green tea and coffee sipped through a metal straw).
2. Riding horses in Gaucho Country (sort of like Argentinean cowboys)
3. Attempts to Tango
4. Soccer/Futbol
5. A weekly count of number of steaks eaten

Not only did I do all of these, but so much more. The breadth and depth of my experiences were beyond what I could have imagined. Here is a quick list of some of my favorite unexpected adventures:

1. Paragliding over the Andes
2. Exploring Chile
3. Roaming the Salt Flats
4. Riding a 4-wheeler through Uruguay
5. Sailing under a waterfall

In two months, I visited three countries traveling through mountains, valleys and waterfalls on buses, trains, planes, boats and even a horse.

When I first started this blog, I named it La Vida Argentina or The Argentinian Life, with the hopes to become immersed in the country and its culture. While I didn't become fluent in Spanish (I probably forgot a lot of it on the airplane ride back) or become a fantastic Tango dancer, I am definitely bringing back a bit of Argentina with me and leaving a part of me in Argentina.

While I will miss empanadas and dulce de leche, I am ready to start senior year with a refreshed outlook and tons of stories and photos to share!

Signing off on La Vida Argentina!

Get it, Girls!

Today we went to the barrios of La Plata for the last time. After getting our last round of surveys completed for ADITO's impact study on microcredit, I enjoyed listening to the ladies laugh, chat and resolve issues together.

During the meeting, Stella asked if I had any questions or comments and I thanked the ladies for sharing their lives with us. After a mini applause for my little speech, I got to thinking about why Grameen and microcredit is so great. Given that microfinance is relatively new and not proven effective in reducing poverty, I can't say if giving a 2000 peso loan to start a bakery or supermarket would be enough for these ladies to escape poverty.

However, what I can say is that microcredit creates community and solidarity among these women in such a way that makes living in extreme poverty easier. Today, the ladies decided to give a loan to one of the ladies so she could take care of her husband's health problems. Without this community, this borrower would have struggled to make ends meet. Microcredit, or at least Grameen La Plata, relieves pressure on the poor and creates solidarity for these women and their families to fight against poverty together.

When I look back on our Mondays and Tuesdays in the barrios, I will always remember how impressive these ladies were. With only a primary school education (at the most), these ladies understand their world, want to improve their lives and resolve difficulties together.

All I have to say is, get it, girls!

High School Dayz

Miguel, the president of the FARG (the federation of microcredit banks Grameen La Plata belongs to) invited us to speak to his 11th grade class this morning. The school is a non-for-profit private school that follows the Waldorf system of education. This system emphasizes creativity and developing an inner enthusiasm of learning and appreciating the world (http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/).

Miguel wanted us to come speak about our experiences in college and at our banks. Miguel found it impressive that we had volunteered our summers to be in Argentina to work in microfinance and forgo paying jobs in the US. Therefore, he hoped that we would impress on the students our love of learning and interest in exploring the world around us.

Not sure how well we did that, but the experience of visiting a high school here and meeting the students impacted me. I really enjoyed chatting with everyone. I think they might have liked us too because after class they all stayed around and talked to us instead of going on their break. I had all the girls around me while Aditya and Pramod held court with the boys. One girl, Malena, drew me a mandala pattern. The school emphasizes the arts, so it was sweet of her to share her work with me.


After our morning at the school, we headed to the barrios to meet the Monday group of ladies for the last time. Alicia, the president of Grameen La Plata, who heads the Monday meetings asked us to share our thoughts on what we have learned. We discussed the sense of community and solidarity among the ladies as the most important aspects of Grameen that we felt were as important as the loans the ladies received. Alicia told us that we had discovered the spirit of Grameen.

Overall today was a great day. Tomorrow is our final day in the barrios and Thursday is our presentation in front of the National University of La Plata. I have an action-packed last few days!

The Last Weekend

I'm leaving on Friday, so this past weekend was my last in Buenos Aires! This summer has gone by so quickly, I don't know what happened. Good thing I have this blog to remind me!

On Thursday, after sleeping most of the afternoon from being exhausted from the bus ride back from Chile, I headed to Milión, which is a mansion that was converted into a bar/restaurant to meet Priya and some kids from Harvard. The Fall study abroad students are already here -- school is really creeping up on us! After drinks, we went for hot chocolate and churros, but the churros were not there, so we settled on medialunas. Still amazingly good and a great snack before heading back for bed.

Friday, we met with Shiv who was visiting Buenos Aires for the weekend. We went to Plaza Mayo and to see the Congress building. Then, we introduced Shiv to our favorite restaurant, Cumaná. After that, Pramod and I headed to La Plata for a meeting with Ricardo, one of our bosses. We thought this would be a short chat and that we would be back in BA in a jiffy. Little did we know, our boss and friends in La Plata had planned an asado (a.k.a. BBQ) in our honor that night. After our meeting, we watched Ricardo heat up the grill before chowing down on a delicious meal.

Our leisurely meal unfolded into a leisurely feast of ice cream and tea. By 1 am, we had cleared the dinner table. One of our friends, Sofía, studies music at college, so we all coaxed her into playing the guitar. We ended up having a jam fest with her and Cristian playing the guitar and the rest of us singing along (well, me croaking along).

Around 3 am, a couple of Cristian's friends joined us and we played pictionary and taboo in Spanish. That was quite a task for us. We fared well, but I needed máte to stay awake. By 6:45 am, we decided it was time to return to BA. We ended our night with the morning crowd heading back to the city. This is our second night without sleeping in 1 week...I think we have succeeded in living the Argentinian lifestyle.

Waking up around 3:30 pm, we met Shiv and walked around Recoleta market and then headed to the art museum. The museum of fine arts in Buenos Aires is free to all visitors. While Argentina is not well known for its art, it was a nice museum to explore. In the evening, after an empanada dinner, I met Priya and we started our own "pub crawl." It included a pirate bar, which made my night.


On Sunday, I met Priya and Laura (another Harvard student) at natural deli. I had a sandwich with spinach and pesto, two things I haven't had in months. After lunch, Laura and I browsed the market near Recoleta cemetery. The weather was beautiful and there were so many cool street performers around. Spring is in the air in Buenos Aires!


Later that evening, we met Daniela and her boyfriend, Agustin, for drinks. Daniela was one of my roommates in Mendoza at the conference and a volunteer at Lapis bank. We had such a great time and wonderful conversation. Meeting on a Sunday for drinks, while all of us had early mornings on Monday was so worth it. The emphasis on meeting people, even if not at the most convenient of times or days, is something I will really miss about Argentina. The simple love of life and openness towards others are wonderful parts of South American culture that I hope not to lose when I get back to the States.

Skyscaping Mountains

We dedicated our last day in Chile to Santiago. After exploring the coastal cities, we wanted to see one of the large cities in South America that rivals Buenos Aires. Despite being neighbors, Chile and Argentina are very distinct countries and their major cities have unique flavors. While Buenos Aires is very European and geographically flat, Santiago is more of a generic world city, but surrounded by the most beautiful mountain ranges. I like to compare Chile and Argentina to Canada and the United States. Chileans are a bit quieter and more reserved like Canadians and Argentinians are more rowdy and energetic like folks from USA.

Santiago was absolutely wonderful. More modern than Buenos Aires, the city has one of the best subways I have ever been on. Much cleaner and more modern subway cars than Boston or New York. One of the most breathtaking aspects of Santiago is its location in the middle of the Andes. We took a furnicular train up Cerro San Cristobal to take in a bird's eye view of the city.


A bit thirsty from the walk around the top of the hill, we got something to drink. Ryan got Mote (not to be confused with máte), which is this ridiculously sweet concoction of grains, apricots and apricot juice -- what a sugar buzz.


After grabbing a delicious churrasco sandwich with avocados (the meat reminded me of gyros, yum!), we headed to La Chascona, one of Pablo Neruda's three homes in Chile. The best way to describe Pablo Neruda is a rockstar poet. Neruda won the noble prize in literature in 1971. Neruda was extremely eccentric and a lover of architecture, so his homes in Chile were converted into museums. I wish I was friends with Neruda. This guy was friends with most famous Latin American writers and artists -- Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera were his drinking buddies. We saw artworks that were made just as gifts from Picasso and Rivera for Neruda. He was also a big collector of funky junk and one of his famous collections is paintings of watermelons. Seriously, too cool.

In the evening we met Mallika and had dinner with her host family. What a fun night! We were offered pisco, a grape liquor common in Chile and Peru. It tasted somewhere in between vodka and rum -- pretty good with coke (that is called a piscola). The conversation over dinner was terrific (so was the dinner -- they made fajitas!) because it covered such a wide range of topics. We discussed differences between Chile and Argentina, such as people and even slang/curse words. We also got to learn more about Mallika's host mom's tango school and their family. I love how willing to share people are in South America! Here is Pramod and I with Mallika's host parents and sister.


After dinner we met up with a lot of other Harvard kids who are doing programs in Chile this summer. We went to an Irish pub (there is a lot of British influence) and then to a club. Nightlife in Chile is far less intense than Argentina. Chilean dance halls close at 4 am not 8 am like in Argentina. I guess in Chile, people understand that nightlife should really just be during the night.

Deciding to not go to sleep that night (or really the two hours before we needed to be up anyway), we got ready for our early morning 21-hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires. This conference/vacation in Mendoza and Chile was absolutely fantastic. Not only were all the places we visited gorgeous and activities we did tons of fun, but the vast array of interesting people we met on this trip really added value to our travels. I left feeling like I had truly experienced life as a backpacker meeting and chatting with fellow travelers. While we could have been more comfortable in a hotel, living in a hostel allowed us to get to know more people and share our adventures!

Along the Pacific

Last Monday (apologies for the lag in blog updates) we had our first full day in Chile. We visited Valparaíso, a shipping town along the pacific coast. Before the Panama Canal was constructed, Valparaíso was an important seaport because it was a stopover for ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Straits of Magellan. Many Europeans involved in the shipping industry immigrated to the city. Thus, many of the houses were built in styles of these countries. There is a large German and British population in Valparaíso that remains in the city generations after it lost its geopolitical importance as a seaport.

A European-style house

Geograpically, Valparaíso is not an ideal location to place a city. With many cliffs and little flat land, houses in Valparaíso lay slanted on hillsides. Thus, the city has been designed vertically and they use funicular elevators to reach different neighborhoods elevated on the rocky land.


In addition to rough terrrain, Valparaíso is earthquake magnet. They had a very large earthquake in 2006, which destroyed much of the city. Luckily, however, many houses that should have collapsed did not collapse because of the materials, such as malleable wood, that absorbed the shocks from the earthquake. This photo does not do it justice, but if you notice the building on the left was made of wood and is still in habitable, but the building on the right was made of stone and has cracks in it and had to be vacated. For someone who finds natural disasters fascinating, this is kind of interesting (apologies for those who don't ;))


Perhaps my favorite part of Valparaíso was its color and street murals. The city is eye candy, even on the most foggiest of days.


After visiting Valparaíso, we went to Vina del Mar, which is a beach town. Think the beach towns along the U.S. East Coast. Vina del Mar is a ritzy town that was first inhabited by the richest of rich from the shipping business as their summer homes. We ate along the beach in a fantastic little restaurant called Siete Mares (7 Seas). Unlike, Argentina that is only endowed with great red meat, Chile is also well endowed with seafood. Our lunch was delicious -- The best part was clams topped with hot fried cheese. It sounds disgusting, but actually one of the tastiest seafood dishes I've ever had.

Sleepy and full, we headed back to Santiago, but first stopped to watch the sea lions along the shore. Pretty loud, fat and angry creatures. For some reason, I thought they would be cute.


In the evening, we made friends with Ryan, a fellow American at our hostel, who has been traveling around the world for the last 10 months. He is finishing his world tour with South America and is hoping to get an apprenticeship as a welder in Antarctica after his trip. What an awesome way to spend a year!

We met up with Shiv and Pri who are interning in Santiago for drinks. It has been so great to have friends all over South America to meet up this summer!

Border Control

After a short session in the morning, we left Mendoza for Chile! Only 7-8 hours by bus, I did not want to miss the opportunity to visit and explore another country in South America. Before I describe the most beautiful drive of my life, let me recap on our conference.

Our internship and job in Argentina has been minimal. Without an office or a full-time boss looking over us constantly, our work schedule has been flexible and based on what we think is necessary to fulfill our tasks. We spent a couple days each week in La Plata to interview and get to know the bank workers and borrowers. While I have learned a lot, the summer internship lacked a thesis. What was all our work here for and for whom? This weekend served as a thesis. After presenting last night, I realized how much I have learned. And more importantly, in what ways the little we have done and are still doing is valuable to the organization and the development of microcredit in Argentina.

With the other interns

After saying adios to our bosses and new friends, we took a bus to Santiago de Chile. Crossing from Argentina to Chile requires going over the Andes. With the best seats on the bus (we were lucky kids), I literally had my mouth open in awe of the scenery for the entire 8 hour bus ride. As the Argentineans love to say about anything and everything beautiful, awesome, fantastic (basically anything good/beautiful) -- Qué Lindo!

I wish I was this motorcyclist!

A snowy entrance into Chile

Meet the Federation

While paragliding and wine were ridiculous satisfying, they were not the reasons we came to Mendoza. Our bank, Grameen La Plata, is part of a federation of microcredit institutions in Argentina. Once a year, they all get together to present each bank's progress, discuss how to grow the federation and individual banks, and finally a choosen theme for the conference. This year's theme was the work of branch managers. Branch managers work directly with the borrowers to manage loans and create a sense of community within each bank center.

In small groups of branch managers representing each of the 5 banks in the federation (and 2 in the process of joining the federation), everyone discussed the challenges facing bank managers and the sustainability of their work. A common issue was the lack of income received by managers. For those who are full-time and have no other sources of income, volunteering to help the poorest of the poor comes at a higher cost. Without incentives to work for the bank, the sustainability of microcredit institutions comes into question.

As the oldest bank in the federation, Grameen La Plata dominated the discussions and provided its experience to the rest. This conference showed how young microcredit is in Argentina relative to other countries, such as Bangladesh and India. Whether microfinance is effective here and what scope there is for its growth is unclear.

In the evening, Pramod and I gave our presentation to the federation about our experiences at Grameen La Plata, such as what we think our benefits, problems and possible opportunities for the bank. Although a bit nervous to present in Spanish without an outline or what I was going to say, the presentation was well-received. Our boss was super happy with it and some folks asked if we could send them our presentation PowerPoint.


In addition getting to know other staff of the different banks, we were all introduced to the borrowers in Mendoza. The ladies put on a fashion show for us of the styles they developed and sell using microcredit loans.

After a long day at the conference, we hit the town for ice cream. Given the number of cows and Italian immigrants, the ice cream/gelato in Argentina is beyond delicious. Not only is the quality great, but the flavors are awesome. I had Ferrero Rocher (my favorite upscale chocolate) flavor. I almost passed out from happiness.

Mountains of Grapes

On our second day in Mendoza, we took a wine tour. Our first stop was an industrial winery (a.k.a. bodega) that used large metal towers to ferment and store wine. Next, we headed to an organic bodega that didn't use chemicals such as pesticides to grow the grapes. Interestingly, they used different flowers and trees to divert pests from the grapevines. Our last stop on the tour was a boutique family-owned winery. My favorite part of each stop was the wine tasting! We tried Malbec, which is a grape that grows best in Argentina.

Perhaps the funniest little fact I learned on the trip came from a poster in the industrial bodega that listed an array of flavors and aromas in wine. While different nuts, fruits and flowers dominated the list, one interesting aroma stuck out -- buttered toast. Wine and its taster have an intimate and personal relationship. No one smells or tastes the same thing in each wine. Smell and taste depend largely on individuals' taste buds and sense of smell. However, is buttered toast that major of an aroma to make it to the poster of most common scents and flavors? I hope to never think my wine tastes or smells like toast.


After a morning of drinking wine, our tour group headed to an old governor's home, which was converted into a restaurant for lunch. This feast was amazing -- from the start with picadas, which are like finger foods, to the ice cream dessert. Below is the finger foods we were greeted with when we first came into our dining room. There was too much for us to finish as a group and most of it we could not recognize. If anyone knows what purple rice is, let me know. It was delicious!


The tour was a great way to appreciate the wine culture of Mendoza. Our diverse group from all over the world was also a ton of fun. Perhaps the wine loosened everyone up, but it was wonderful to chat and swap stories with fellow travelers on our trip.


We returned after our tour and moved out of our hostel to the hotel booked for our conference. Almost 2 months later, we met our boss for the second time all summer...After he greeted us, we caught up with our fellow interns from ADITO and La Plata.