Buenos Aires Time
The first clue that we would have to make some adjustments to our body clocks came in our landlord’s verbal checklist: Open the window like this, turn on the oven like that, and “Best to put out the trash in the afternoon,” he said, “between 6 and 8 p.m.”
Maybe it was just a shaky translation. Could 8 p.m. be considered anything but the dead of night?
At home we are, like all industrious Americans, “early to bed, early to rise.” But here we have been slipping almost unaware into Buenos Aires time.
It is not an issue of jet lag. The day here simply begins and ends later.
Flipping through my guidebook, I can find only one museum that opens before 2 p.m. Restaurants open for dinner at 9 p.m. and diners begin to trickle in at 10 p.m. or so.
From our bedroom window, you can watch people – lots of them – leisurely walking their dogs between 3 and 4 in the morning.
The tango show we saw last week began at 11 p.m. Everyone around seemed to think this was completely normal.
It’s no wonder, I suppose, that we are still in pajamas at 10:30 in the morning and that we look at our watches during an outing to find that it’s not 2 p.m., but 5 p.m.
When October arrives, we expect our days to grow shorter, but here in South America, the tenth month brings the long, leafy days of spring.
Our signals have gone awry.
We are upside down, posing for a picture next to a blooming azalea bush – and sitting down for dinner at bedtime.
5 comments
When in Rome…
Sounds like the clock I was on in my previous life. I knew all along I was in the wrong country!! Love you guys.
Dougie
Dani,
If you’re looking for some good local insight on Buenos Aires, check out PlanetEye.com’s local expert – http://cli.gs/SZgBe5
Being a night owl, it didn’t take long at all for us to adjust to the Argentine clock. But it was hard on my 13 year old. She had to get up before six to get ready for the bus to take her to school north of the city.
I hope you guys get to stay in BA a little longer. If you would like me to make introductions to the expat community there, just email me.
David
Welcome to the city that truly never sleeps. Hope you enjoy it. To add a little extra information, most of us, university students, take the lessons from 7 pm up to 24 pm in some cases. We are very used to it. If you go to a disco at 1:30 in the morning, it will be almost empty. I started to realize how strange it was only when I travelled to places like Norway, where they have dinner at 4 pm haha