Brett's Southern Crossing

I thought I’d share a few interesting things I learned about Argentina since I’ve been here:

• The president of Argentina, Cristina F’ernandez Kirchner, thinks eating Pork can be better than taking Viagra, saying that after a meal of pork “things went very well that weekend, so it could well be true.”

• The national sport of Argentina is Pato…described as a combination between polo and basketball.  The game is played on horseback and the object is to put the ball (pato) through a metal hoop at the opposing side of the field.  However originally the game was played using a live duck instead of a ball!  Pato is the spanish word for duck.  In the early days it was a dangerous sport due to the likelihood of a knife fight breaking out.  I’m looking forward to seeing a match once the season starts later this year!

• The Jorge Newbery Airport, Buenos Aires’s airport for domestic flights, is built on land that was reclaimed from the Río de la Plata.  The river was filled with rubble from the wreckage of London after bombing during WWII (it was carried as ballast in freighters).

• Argentina is the 5th largest wine producer in the world, but consumes 90% of its production domestically.  The average Argentine drinks 12 gallons of wine per year!  The beer selection here is really small, so it makes sense to take advantage of so many great choices of wine.

• Up to 60% of Argentine’s are at least partially of Italian descent, though as you would expect Spanish ancestry is most common.