Malos Aires

A running joke here is that Buenos Aires (literally translated as "Good Airs") is a real misnomer and that the city should be called Malos Aires ("Bad Airs") instead. Between the cars, the buses, the smokers, and the rest of the polluting entities that go hand in hand with any large city, it's true - the air really isn't that great. However in the past few days it has gotten nearly unbearable. A smog has settled on the city and it does not seem to be going anywhere. It is stinky and makes my eyes slightly irritated and I imagine if I had particularly bad allergies or asthma, I would be in even worse shape. I thought that I would get used to the smell after a while, because that's usually what happens with noxious odors, but unfortunately such has not been that case. It's now the fourth day (for me anyway) of living in the smoggy air and I have yet to adjust. I am blowing my nose and rubbing my eyes as we speak, trying to avoid breathing through my nose and having to smell the odor.

Photos Courtesy LANACION.com, Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

I am getting ahead of myself though. Let me explain what is actually going on and where all this smog, or humo, is coming from. Apparently at the delta of the Rio Paraná, located in the interior of the province of Buenos Aires, the farmers decided to burn the livestock pastures to renew them. Other reports say that the pastures were being burned to renew and prepare for new crops of soybeans. In either case, these are fires that were started deliberately, but carelessly and without the right technique, equipment, etc. and now the fires are out of control (so the government admitted publicly yesterday). Anyway, newspapers say that the smog itself is really more of an annoyance than an actual health concern. However the smog is causing larger problems as far as travelers are concerned. More than a few major highways have been shut down because the low visibility accompanying the smog has led to large car accidents. Additionally, many of the bus lines that go to the outer provinces are not running, and flights from the domestic airport are limited. Of course the government and farmers are throwing the blame every which way, firefighters have been photographed hilariously carrying a single bucket of water, and the porteños complain that the smog wakes them up with its stink in the middle of the night. The Secretary of the Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina says that only a climate change (wind, rain, etc.) will extinguish the fires. I personally will be my crossing my fingers for something, anything to chase away the smog. And after this, I will not be complaining a bit about a few smokers and some car emissions.