In honor of our last post about Argentina’s spiraling inflation…this is the currency exchange sign at EZE Airport!

MyID: 8:49am, Sunday, April 1, 2012: Buenos Aires-Ezeiza International Airport

United Airlines flight UA847 from Washington-Dulles

Getting ready for my first visit to Argentina, I remember reading a lot about the country’s problems with corruption (although it is hardly alone there), and just giving myself the typical abroad-for-the-first-time pep talk about watching my back, making sure I looked like I knew what I was doing, where I was going, etc.

Looking down into the brown waters of Rio de la Plata

When we began our Initial Descent into Ezeiza, I remember being surprised at what I saw out the window below, despite not having any preconception about what to expect in terms of physical landscape. Looking at the Rio de la Plata glistening below, I did not see what looked like a sea at all, but rather something that resembled a mud puddle. It was completely brown, as far as I could see. It turns out that it is just sediments that are carried into the body of water by local rivers–not pollution–but it is definitely eye-catching to see how it appears in the image below.

In this NASA satellite photo, you can see how the Rio de la Plata appears brown from sediments beginning around Montevideo, Uruguay (the large city visible left of the inlet), up through Buenos Aires (the larger city towards the bottom right).

Having gathered myself from the sight of the brown water, as we approached land I could see the outskirts of the city, then a vast plain of green and brown farmland rolling onto the horizon, and minutes later I was outside in the Autumn sun looking for Bus 86 to whisk me away to the city.