Well, it’s Tuesday, and it’s back to business as usual in the streets of Buenos Aires.

Yesterday, the city celebrated its Dia de la Virgen, a national holiday that closed many businesses, including the stock exchange. After the break, the exchange is opening higher today.

The one immediate way you can tell BA is back in business is by listening to the traffic.

My hotel is on a busy street, Sarmiento that runs east to west, parallel to major corridors, like Av. Cordoba and Av. Corrientes. As people make their way down to Puerto Madero, or out to the Palacio del Congresso (where I spent some time this morning), many of them pass right under my “balcony.”

(It’s actually more of the size of a step, but it’s pretty.)

The sidewalks are packed with people on their way to somewhere… It reminds me a bit of New York. I even saw one gentleman get nudged by a car trying to pull into an alley. There was the inevitable fist slamming on the hood, and curses in Spanish, and the flow of people around the problem never stopping.

As far as I can tell, people will only stop to watch a fight at a futbol match…

I popped into a restaurant/cafe for some empanadas de jamon y queso (ham and cheese) on the way back to the hotel. They were scrumptious. It’s fast food, but I stood with the locals at the high tables, and ate with a knife and fork.

It’s a bit overcast today, and muggy. I was sure we were going to get a storm last night. We did see some lightening and a quick shower, but the humidity is sticking around, it would seem.

That means I’ll be sweating through my T-shirt as I make my way to the Palermo neighborhood.

Enjoy your Tuesday, and I’ll chat with you again this evening.

There is no other way to describe it. Pucon means Villarica… With about 10,000 to 20,000 residents, Pucon turns into an absolute Mecca for adventurers in high season.

With vistas like this, how can it not?

Aside from tour companies offering everything from rafting to volcano climbing, supermarkets are probably the most common store in the town. Everything from small, local shops to big national chains, there’s places to buy food everywhere.

Most of the hostels here have a kitchen, so it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to make your own meals than eat out at a cafe every night. Continue Reading »

I promised you some pictures of Santiago, and here they are. Yesterday was a busy day, touring the winery, finding dinner, and preparing to leave the financial capital of Chile…

Which is why I’m writing you from the picturesque, bucolic town of Pucon.

This town has only about 10,000 residents, but this number can swell to well over 80,000 during peak seasons, like skiing in winter. So tourism is a big part of the economy in this region. Continue Reading »

Late October, Brazil and Argentina announced that their governments would buy up private assets in financial markets.

Brazil’s plan would allow its state-controlled banks (Banco do Brasil and Caixa Economica Federal) to buy stakes in private financial institutions. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced that the government would take over the $30 billion private pension fund.

These announcements pushed Latin American markets well into the red, but they also knocked Spain’s Ibex index off 184 points, or 2%.

That should come as no surprise. Spain and Latin America have many economic ties, and some Spanish companies do so much business across the pond that 29% of net profits come from that region.

So when news of nationalization hit last week, naturally Spanish markets shuddered… With good reason.

Just look at Bolivia and Venezuela, both controlled by heavily nationalistic leaders.

Venezuela has had three major blackouts this year. Some areas spent more than two weeks without power at a time. Bolivia continues to buy up local and international stakes in its natural gas pipeline infrastructure, but it’s been shipping less than 50% of its contracted amount of natural gas to Argentina since September.

Problems like this led to a severe power crisis last summer, and forced Argentina to buy energy from Brazil.

So the question is… Will government intervention result in protection from global markets, or will pensioner and investors alike be holding worthless papers and wondering where all their money went?

And how will markets in both Latin America and Spain respond?

Continue Reading »