We had been in Mendoza, Argentina, for a few days and now another long trip on train was ahead of us. We were going to the capital Buenos Aires, more than 1000km away.
The train left early morning on a nice and sunny day and the train porter told us that it will take at least 14 hours to arrive to Buenos Aries. The journey went past the town of St. Luis and arriving to Junin, a small town, it started to be dark.
When we finally arrived to the Grand railway station of Buenos Aires, it was almost 11 a clock at night but the streets were still very busy with traffic and crowds of people moving around, very different to Mendoza… We asked a taxi driver to bring us to an economic hotel, but with good location. Arriving at the hotel, the driver told us that this was very close to the famous Plaza de Mayo, but also next to a busy street with bars and restaurants. It sounded good to, so we checked in and went to a close bar to have a nightcap.
In the morning, after having breakfast at the hotel, we started to discover the area and found that we were only 5 minutes away from this huge Plaza de Mayo, but also not so far from the port. One of my friends was determent to see what kind of vessels were at the quay, so we went to have a look. The port was very close to the city center. We had no problem to pass the custom gate with our seamen ID. One of the first cargo vessels at the quay was a Norwegian, Fred Olsen liner, we asked permission to board. It so happened that my friend knew a few mates on this vessel and they told him that a vacancy just appeared. My friend, who was a ship electrician, accepted the job and was told to sign on the day after! I was not so happy about him leaving that soon, but it was his decision. Later that day we celebrated his departure and we wished him all the best on his new job. My other mate told me later next day, that he also liked to find a new job on a Swedish vessel on next occasion. It only took him two day, before he was offered a place on Johnson Liner, M/s Chile as a deckhand.
I was alone, in the big city of the Argentine capital, my adventure had just started! My plan was not to find a job on a ship at this moment, there were so much to explore in Buenos Aries and liked to stay 2-3 month.
The first night alone, I returned to the bar that we had visited when arriving, it was crowded with people and many of them were seamen. After a while, sitting at the bar, a fight between 4 guys started with loud voices and pushing. I heard that they spoke in Scandinavian language so I approached the group, to try to calm things down. This resulted that I almost got involved in the brawl, but as by nature my strength was diplomatic, I finally managed to sort out their differences and was later invited to join them for a beer.
They were Swedes, Danes and Norwegian sailors and finally I knew them as a nice group of guys. After some time of hangout, they left and I was alone, the barman called me and told me that the big boss liked to have a talk with me. I was surprised and started to worry if I had done something wrong.
I was shown into a room at the back where a little fat man sat with his feet up on the desk in front of him. He told me that he had seen how well I managed to sort out the trouble with the Scandinavians and offered me a job as a doorman, 3-4 nights per week. I was flattered by his offer and accepted, as I mainly liked to see the surrounding by daytime.
The day after I went to visit Plaza de Mayo, it was huge and in the far end of the park was the President palace, Casa Rosa. I met some people that told me the story about when it had been bombed under a revolution just some years back and that the political situation still was fragile. The president Arturo Illia was having problem with the opposition leader Juan Perón. I was not very interested in politics at that time and did not think much about it.
During the coming days I was strolling around at the main streets and found that in the busy shopping areas the street names was written in Spanish and German! How weird I thought, but was later told at the hotel that this was because of the millions of rich Germans that had fled from the Second World War and settled in Argentine.
It was first in the end the month of June, when I realized the problem with the political situation. I was working at the bar when the news came regarding a military coup to take the power of the Casa Rosa! This happen the 26th, it was some high rank military that stormed the President Palace, but was soon defeated buy the security force of Arturu Illia. The next morning, a heavy military vehicle was moving on the street just outside the hotel. The receptionist called me to come down to the lobby immediately. In the hall a group of military halted me and asked me to show my room and documents. My hotel room was searched, but with luck nothing was found of their interest. They told me that I was cleared and pot a blue ribbon on my arm!
The same night a large demonstration with thousands of people was gathered on the street. It was later called,” La Noche de los Bastones Largo” and 400-500 people were beaten and arrested. It seemed to have been organized by the movement Peronistas. The street of Buenos Aries was like a warzone, with barricades and Tanks in every street corner. I tried to keep up the good mode and not to be involved in any problems. Many people were arrested, just because of kissing on the street! It was forbidden!
Things calmed down after two weeks and the life on the streets was back to normal. The military was still present, but now more friendly, the patrol that who was in control of the street where I worked stopped many times and talked to me. One day they invited me to join for dinner! The restaurant was not so big, but it had a very nice patio in the centre and well known as one of the best Steakhouse in the area.
I still remembered my meal in Mendoza at the Ranch, but this was even better. The steak covered the whole plate and about 3 cm thick; it was so tender that I could almost cut it with my fork. We had a great time together, with red wine from Mendoza wine yards and the meat from The Pampas. This place became my favorite restaurant!
My new friends, the military, taught me a “legal” way to make some extra money when they heard that I was changing US dollars into Peso. They told me to take the ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay, that was less than 1 hour’s trip. As I had Swedish passport and seamen card, I was able to travel freely between the two countries.
One morning I took the ferry to Montevideo and started to discover the capital of Uruguay. It was different to Buenos Aries the people were more relaxed and very friendly. I went to a bar that I´ve been recommended, the owner was American and told me that he been living in Montevideo for over ten years.
When I asked him who could change my US $ to Pesos, he lowered his voice and told me to come to a back room. This is a “black market” he told me and asked me to not tell anybody about this.
Uruguay Peso was floating on the exchange market, at that moment he was willing to pay me 70 Pesos per Dollar. Official rate was only 12 Peso! I changed 100 USD and traveled back to Argentina. Later I went to a bank office, to change my 7000 U.Pesos to A.Pesos and gave me an official exchange rate, less the costs to recive it in cash.
Totally I gained almost 300% on my change route! This was a good deal, so I repeated the trip several times until one day it was not worth it, because the Uruguay central bank froze the rate.
My planned 3 month stay went quickly, but I had enjoyed every day with lots of new experience. I decided to go down to the port and put my name on the vacancy list. Three days later the Swedish Johnson Liner, M/s Chile entered at the quay, it was the same vessel as my friend took. I asked where it was heading. And when I was told that the Ms Chile was going back to Gothenburg, Sweden I decided to sign on. She was an old “Lady” from 1950, but it did not matter.
I had not been back to Sweden for almost 3 years and my family was waiting to meet me, the trip was going to take about 3 weeks, direct from Buenos Aires to Gothenburg.
The homesickness grew within me!
Thank you for reading my Windmush #reality history, I will soon be back!
