Day 11 - Boca Juniors

Last day of the trip. That also means travel day = overnight flight. Due to the cancellation of our flight on Friday, our tour of Buenos Aires was held this morning from 9-1. We went around the city again, but since we did most of this on Sunday, some of it was repetition. We did go back to the cemetery which was cool because our guide told us different stories about some of the people buried there. But my highlight of the day was our trip to Boca Juniors stadium, La Bombonera! See pictures below as well as more under Day 11 Pictures. Seeing we did a case on Boca in International Marketing, the group seemed to have a much more appreciation for this visit, but I was stoked. Unfortunately, the team is out of town until Feb. so no games for us to witness.

Quotes of the day:

"Did you all know that my dry cleaning was sent to Santiago for cleaning?" - Chris

My last thoughts on Buenos Aires:

Large modern city

Reminiscent slightly of NYC

Fabulous architecture

Many different neighborhoods with different feels

More established, more history and culture

Numerous artisans and sculptures throughout the city

Safer than previously thought

Friendly people

Talent pool is large

Desire to succeed and represent Latin America

Pride

Not as formal as imagined

Lots of corruption

Day 10 - Down go "the Mensas"

Our first meeting was with Google and their CFO (the first employee in Argentina) of the Argentina office. Google notes below: 

• Building was in an old warehouse overlooking the water (close to our hotel). See pics of Day 10. Very much like NYC
• He spoke about his experience and the 13 interviews he had prior to starting with Google
• Evolution of the Internet - 1) Information 2) Distribution & Communication 3) Networking
• 77M users in 1998, 1.3B users in 2009 expected
• Cheaper storage space, Cloud computing 
• The "Long Tail"
• Talked about a site www.blurb.com - I will be using this site for this blog and pictures, will keep you posted on how it turns out
• 42% penetration rate in Argentina, 50% in Chile
• Mostly sales people in Argentina office, no real innovation located here
• Corporate culture - very relaxed atmosphere just like what people say about Google
• Google reaches 84% of all users
• Connects users, advertisers & publishers
• 3 Latin America Google offices - Mexico City, Sao Paulo, BA

Lunch was @ Quirandi Restaurant in the heart of Buenos Aires. As we approached the end of lunch, "Mensa" One, Sara, got something in her eye that caused her eye to water and swell. She removed her contact and nothing changed. Instead of going to the next visit with Esso she went back to the hotel for a nap, how convenient, jk. This was the first of 2 "Mensas" to go down. Between lunch and our next visit we had sometime to go by the Plaza de Mayo area where we took more pictures. While getting back on the bus Chico, "Mensa" Two ran into a sign on the street. I don't have the picture, but I have staffers out working their magic to get a copy and I will then post a picture of his dome showing his battle wound. He didn't have to go home, but you could tell he was quite woozy, ha, jk. 

Our second meeting was with Esso. The presenter was a Public Relations gentleman. This meeting was a little awkward as all he did was explain the oil process business. My notes are as followed:

• 2 Pars in the oil business - 1) Upstream (Exploration, Production, & Refining) 2) Downstream (Distribution & Marketing) - Argentina focuses on Downstream
• Western Argentina is where most of the oil is produced
• 643 barrels a day
• The quality is half good/light and the other half is just ok
• Demand is less than the production
• Domestic crude is declining 3% a yr.
• In 5 yrs., they might need to import light crude

Dinner was @ a restaurant kinda like a buffet for meat. Yes, all you can eat beef, pasta, pizza, you name it. It was an interesting setup, but ok. I will call myself out on the blog. In mid sentence with Chico, I dribble red wine out the side of my mouth. Not sure how this happened, but it was definitely blog material so here it is, ha. Luckily for me I was wearing my money black shirt so no visual site of a stain. Again, drinks at the hotel bar to very late in the evening. It went so late, we had to have some folks go back to their room to get more bottles of wine they bought! This was after a large bar tab and Jay/Drew's bottle of Pisco! 

Day 9 - Buenos Aires Company Presentations

General facts about Argentina:

• Population = 40M
• Inflation = 8.5%
• Unemployment = 8%
• 2001 Crisis set them back a bunch
• Exports = Corn, Soybean, wheat, meat, crude, fuels
• Growth Rate = 8.5% (2003-08)
• Lots of corruption
• 70% of people in Argentina work & study

Our first meeting and probably our best meeting of the whole trip was with Globant, a software solutions company based out of Buenos Aires. The presenter was one of the four founders and CTO. Below are my highlights from the presentation:

• Very relaxed environment - Yoga, T-shirts, shorts, plasmas, ping pong tables
• Founded in 2003 by 4 people, now at 1000 at the end of 2008, trying to get to 2000 in the next couple years. IPO goal of 2yrs (NASDAQ)
• 4 forces of work - 1) Increasing outsourcing 2) off-shoring 3) open sourcing 4) IT spending
• Started with a $5K investment, now have raised $14M total
• Currently @ $100M in Revenue
• Largest exporter of IT services in all of Argentina
• The Argentina environment - A crisis every 5 yrs., no sources of financing, defaulted foreign debt, severe devaluation, interesting talent pool, weak local demand for IT (Globant focused on where the demand was, U.S. & UK), good cost structure
• Ranked 2nd best place to work in Argentina
• Finance the company by equity
• Google is one of their biggest customers
• **Social Networking, e-commerce & video games
• They have a MIT business case published
• Reasons for the IPO - much more visibility even with the increased regulation (SOX)
• Recruiting process - Started by giving out green apples at a trade show with their sticker on it and stuck ever since, green everything around the office (see pics of Day 9). Advertised a puzzle in newspapers with no company name. If the candidate could figure it out, they could then move to the next step, eventually determining the company. They look for problem solvers! Lots of referrals 
• Looking to expand in U.S. through the IPO and M&A possibly
• 10% of the shares are in the hands of employees
• The atmosphere was described as a "college culture"
• The conference rooms were named after cartoon characters (Simpsons, He-Man, etc.)

http://www.globant.com/Content/Home/

I can't remember where and what I had for lunch, so moving right along. I'm sure it was good, but hard to remember all these meals and names after awhile. After lunch we had a meeting with Transparency International, a global civil organization leading to fight against corruption. We met with the Director (one of 34 employees in BA office).

Highlights from this meeting:

• Founded in 1989, based in Buenos Aires
• "How do we fix it?"
• Corruption is high in Argentina - one of the reasons it is hard to get investments from U.S. (Mexico and Brazil in better situation currently).
• Limited or no regulations and laws
• Difficulty exercising rights
• Utilize partnerships
• The best way to get any information is to get coverage from the media. If not, extremely hard to to get company information (relationships are significant).
• Even if you get the information that is requested, it takes forever
• "silent majority"
• Have limited resources and funding (spent only $650K in 2008)
• They had 1st public hearing in 2008 - (14yrs. an avg corruption case)
• Only NGO in Argentina
• **They weren't too optimistic for future improvement either!
• Integrity and ethical issues
• Funding source - International donors
• More issues come from other provinces and local govt
• Win campaigns using transparency

www.transparency.org 

Dinner was on our own, but a large group of 16 of us went to an Italian restaurant nearby. The restaurant did tables of 4 so I sat with Drew, Chico and Kristen. Our meal and wine was fabulous. Mushroom risotto, salad, tenderloin & lasagna. We learned that Chico is a baker! I know there was some quote I needed to add here, but my memory is struggling. I will update if I can remember.

A small group went over to this bad@ss hotel named The Faena Hotel for drinks by the pool. Check out the site below for pics. We then returned to our hotel for a night cap. An early morning the next day, but still ended up closing the place down, ha

www.faenahotelanduniverse.com

Day 8 - Full day in Buenos Aires

This morning came very early as a small group stayed up late the night before talking about the trip and the program. My iTouch, aka alarm clock was "magically" shut off in the middle of the night and I was awaken instead by Ehsan's phone call to my room. I rushed to throw on some clothes and met Steve, Ameer and Ehsan in the lobby @ 10:15 for a full day on our own. Below is a list of places we went in order:

• San Telmo - the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Today is Sunday, so the antique fair is going on which makes the area much more crowded, but great energy. Beautiful colonial buildings, cafes, cobblestone roads, tango dancing & more make this place special.
• We then walked to Av de Mayo where the Catedral Metropolitana, Plaza de Mayo & Cabildo are located (See all the pics on the blog for Day 8). Some of the best architecture in the city.
• Then over to Obelisco (the Washington Monument of Buenos Aires imo) & Av. 9 de Julio. The street is named after Argentina's Independence Day in 1816.
• We decided it was time for lunch, so what better place than the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires, Cafe Tortoni (pic below). I had a small ham, tomato & olive pizza finished off with the best cafe in the city.

• We then took a taxi over to La Recoleta Cemetery which was probably my favorite part of the day. Weird to say since it is a cemetery, but after looking at the pictures, one might agree. Our guide said it was the 3rd largest cemetery in the world. These graves were enormous and beautiful. Eva Peron, the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 - 1952 (when she died) is buried here in Recoleta (pic below). She was extremely important for labor rights while First Lady and is still a significant cultural figure in the society.

• Palermo Soho was next up for some walking and shopping. Soho is a subdivision within Palermo, the largest area in Buenos Aires. Another great neighborhood known for its fashion, design, restaurants, pubs & street culture. It is more "alternative" making it young, hip & energetic.
• We finished off the afternoon back at Florida Street for some shopping and people watching.

Once we got back to the hotel around 6 or so, I was able to see online that my NY Giants laid an egg against the Eagles in the NFL playoffs. Thank god I didn't waste my time in Buenos Aires to watch. At 8pm, the same group and Kristen went over to Cabana Las Lilas for some steak! This meal had to be the best steak of the whole trip. We actually even met a nice family from Clemson, SC who had friends that grew up with Frank Beamer. HokieNation baby! Check out the picture below of the meats, yum. Dinner capped a great day walking around the city.

Quote of the day:

What kind of milk did you drink when you were younger? Giraffe milk? - Ehsan

Day 7 - The River Tour

Put on your shorts and boat shoes people, we're all going on a boat ride, yes sir! The Tigre River awaits....

Our first full day in Buenos Aires will be spent on the water on a tour of the Tigre River. The group met at 10:30am in the hotel lobby. It was a short bus ride over to the dock where we all piled on boat and off we went. Please see the pictures on the blog (around 70 pics) under Day 7 pictures. I tried to caption much of the pictures so that everyone had an idea of what each pic was. Below is a picture of the group shortly after leaving Buenos Aires.

It was a great trip! The first 20-30 minutes took us out away from Buenos Aires, so during this time we were able to see great views of skyline and really appreciate how big BA really is, 12M strong (Santiago = $6M). It almost reminded many of us of NYC with the way the city looked from the boat (see pics). Once we got to the Tigre River, the waterway became narrow and the views changed completely. On this waterway, you will see many small houses with docks, small restaurants, an amusement park, old boats as well as small resorts. We asked our guide how much an average house on the Tigre costs and she told us $60-75K, but the homes can only be accessed by boat and they don't have running water. Also, all the groceries and water are delivered by boat, so maintenance and cost to up keep the home are high. The picture below is a building that was along the river, check out how big it is and the architecture! No, this isn't a house, but buildings like this were out there as well.  

Lunch was along the river at a restaurant (i forgot the name). I don't think it was the original restaurant as they were caught off guard when we showed up, but whatever. It was ok, but the wine was good! Back on the boat.

On the way back from the tour, the group was dropped off on Florida St. in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires where the street is filled with shops on both sides. I got a couple things, but nothing crazy. It is somewhat of a tourist trap, but definitely a place to visit as the area has great buildings and extremely high energy. 

Dinner was @ Divinia Patagonia in the area of Buenos Aires called Palermo Soho. A great area of town. My meal was ok (I had boar and some lamb empanadas/still not a fan of lamb), but the wine was great, ha. It seemed like this was a night that the cohort might get a little rowdy and we did. Most of the group came back to the hotel bar and closed it down again. Actually a small group stayed up talking about topics from the trip to work until 4:30am. It was a great time, but when John said it was that late, I was donesville. Off to bed for a long and productive day tomorrow (a few hours really) in Buenos Aires!

Day 6 - Travel Day Goodbye Chile, Hello Buenos Aires...

Today is our travel day to Buenos Aires. It started bright and early as we left for the airport at 7:15am sharp for our "scheduled" 9:45am flight. Once arriving at the airport, we had to say goodbye to our good friend and Chilean tour guide, Fran. The airport was extremely crowded and after waiting close to an hour in line to check in, we found out our flight was canceled, bummer! Thank god the next flight out of Santiago was only 3 hours later. Unfortunately for me, I had to pay $30 for too much luggage, which is crap, but whatever. Oh, and I got stuck in a middle seat next to 2 random people, no fellow classmates for me.

Some last thoughts on Santiago, Chile before moving on

• Impression that the world is becoming "flat"
• "long pants"
• stability
• Pride/Proud culture
• Potential 
• Regulation
• Partnerships
• Friendliness
• Long-term goals
• Global economy 
• No need for Expats
• Good service
• Much more advanced than we thought
• Great food
• Tie zone changes and importance 
• Truthful and opened

Once arriving to Buenos Aires, the group went straight to a LATE lunch, i mean we ate at 5:30pm @ a place called La Bisteca Restaurant where I had fried mozzarella, white salmon with a potato pancake and chocolate mousse for dessert.

After lunch, we were finally able to get back to the hotel for a quick shower, but left immediately for dinner, ha, yes, dinner at 8pm @ Carlos Gardel a Tango dinner show. See pictures on the blog. Most of them are pretty dark, but gives you a feel for some of the things we saw while there. Other than the fact that they hurried us through our dinner, the show was pretty good. It was definitely for us tourists, but again, I thought it was good. Oh, and we had front and center seats. The dinner was really good too, but I think everyone was pretty full from lunch. 

A small group had a night cap once arriving back to the hotel which finally ended our first day in Buenos Aires at 2am, long day for sure, but worth the wait. Talk tomorrow. A tour of the Tigre River!

Day 5 - Chilean Wine Country!!

Ladies and gentlemen (my 6 blog followers out there), I'm back!! Sorry for the delay, this blogging thing is tough. Combined with long days and late nights, as well as canceled flight and changed plans, writing time is hard to come by, so I apologize for my tardiness.

So, on Day 5 the group was off to Vina del Mar winery out in the Casablanca area of Chile (1 hour bus ride from Santiago). Prior to leaving that morning, I decided to walk around the area by our hotel to just get another sense of the environment of downtown Santiago. And I wanted to find a specific Starbucks mug from Chile, but unfortunately I didn't find. Downtown Santiago is a happening place. The streets are crowded with numerous young professionals, well dressed and in many instances, very trendy. This hour walk was a perfect way to start one of my favorites days in Santiago.

At 10:30am, the bus was loaded and we were off to Casablanca. The hour drive gave us another chance to see something other than downtown Chile since the only other time was from the airport to the hotel on the first day. Other than the 15mins. after you get out from the tunnel, the drive was so scenic! Beautiful clay looking mountains and countryside full of crops. No real exciting stories on the bus ride that I can remember, but I'm sure I will have some later on. Below is a picture of the wine that the winery produced.

Upon arrival, the group had a chance to take some pictures, but within 5 mins. the guide was ready to go. We were given a tour of the facilities as well as a detailed explanation of the process this winery goes through to produce and make their wine. From the picking of the grapes to the packing and distribution. Our guide was so good John decided to invite her to our lunch that afternoon. Please see pictures of the tour on the blog site (Day 5 Pictures).

The picture below of the "Three Amigos" was taken on the second floor on the winery where the group had our lunch. The lunch was fantastic!

By far the best lunch of the whole entire trip and the best steak I ate on the trip as well. It was so good that when fellow classmate Kristen offered me her steak that she wasn't going to eat, Ameer and I split, ha. Don't laugh cause it was damn good. The dessert was so good as well, Creme Brulee. At lunch the guide sat across from me which was nice because she provided some additional information about the Chilean wine industry as well as the Chilean countryside. The second picture below is of the group after lunch. All in all, a great trip to Vina del Mar.

While on the bus ride back, Steve, Ameer and a few other classmates had a really good conversation about our observations thus far of the trip. The consensus was that most of the students didn't have too many expectations in regards to Santiago, Chile, but after being here for a few days, we all were extremely impressed. I think everyone said they enjoyed Chile so much that they would recommend it other people.

We had a short break once returning to the hotel, so some of us went to another area (10mins by taxi) to see some outside shops. I picked up a few little things, but nothing too exciting. It was just another chance to get out and see some of the other parts of town.

Dinner was @ La Tabla in a more expensive part of town. How expensive you ask? A 3 bedroom apartment to rent goes for $400-500 a month! Not half shabby huh!? To put that in perspective, to rent a 1 bedroom apartment in Washington, D.C. costs about $1600-2000 a month. An average Chilean makes $11K per year. A random point here, Fran, our guide saw a man running on the sidewalk with his shirt off and she said that police can give you a ticket if you run with your shirt off, that's was weird to me. I had the best dinner thus far this evening. It is called Napolitan Milanesa. It was a flat steak with a slice of ham on top covered in mozzarella cheese and a read sauce, muy bueno!! Don't worry, we had dessert of course, ice cream, hmm! We washed it all down with 8 bottles of red wine. My teeth would be dark purple if I lived down here all the time, seriously! People drink wine at every meal, its great. We finished the evening with a small group on the 17th floor bar at our hotel. We found out some good stuff........

Day 5 was my favorite day in Chile. The meals, the winery, the conversations, all good fun....I'm out