A Cab Drivers Take on Buenos Aires

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I didn’t spend much time in Buenos Aires, so here are the views of the cab driver who took me to the airport. He often got so excited that he would take his hands off the steering wheel to wave them around in the air while we were changing lanes. I am paraphrasing as it has been a couple of days since I had internet access and my memory isn’t that good.

“Millhouse [this was the name of the hostel I was staying at], what does it mean? casa is Spanish for house, what is Spanish for mill?

What team do you support? [Liverpool, and then asked him the same question] The only team, Boca, the King of Kings, this team is the best of the best it is the only team. It has won more international trophies than any other, 16, there are four teams that have won 15 Santos, Internationale, Real Madrid [and I forget the other]. All the men in support this team, the women support whoever, this is the mens team. The other team, River, they are womens team they are what you call a female chicken in Spanish we call them chickos? hen, yes, they are just hens.

Those are not real houses [at this point he points to what looks like a shanty town on our right hand side] the people there are strange, they just go there and build them, they are not real houses. That is a public park, they are in, the people can just go there and build them.

All roads lead to the river, you see, we left the river and now we are coming back to it. All roads lead to the river. This river is known as the River of Silver, because of the silver ships that the Spanish would sail our of here. It is the biggest river in the world it is 200 miles wide (yes he did say miles)

Those fishermen are crazy,why they keep fishing there I don’t know. You cannot eat the fish, they are crazy, if you put anything in the river then ´uctch´[he holds his hand out in a claw] it is so contaminated so I don´t understand why they do it. They cannot eat it.