Since the Mendoza winecountry and the Andes surrounding it are definitely part of those highlights, the 1200 km straight highway nr. 7 that connects BA and Mendoza is a recurring part of those journeys. As soon as you are 20 km's outside of the BA city center however, highway might be a somewhat overrated title as it turns into a two lane road with level crossings and passing through almost every village along the way. With this being the main thoroughfare through the country from east to west and on to Chile, it is used by all the trucks as well and the locals penchant for overtaking everywhere can be a hazardous process, as oncoming cars who suddenly swerve into your lane tend to make for an entertaining drive. Combine this with no lighting and cows that tend to lie down on the still warm tarmac in the evenings and you will understand that driving at night is not really an option.
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| Regular Highway 7 |
That is.... until you suddenly come up to the small province of San Luis, smack in the middle of the country. As soon as you enter the province the nr. 7 becomes a modern 4 and 6-lane highway with streetlights, guardrails and ringroads around the main villages and the provincial capital. No level crossing in sight and you suddenly make amazing progress if only for about 100 miles, before you leave San Luis again. When you then also see roadsigns advertising free WiFi in the entire province, a free laptop for all schoolchildren, a PGA Golf Tournament and even a National Poetry Museum, you feel like you have entered an alternative reality from the Argentina I know and love, but also sometimes wish would try a little bit harder to succeed.
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| Just one exit of San Luis part of Ruta 7 |
Being stuck in the middle of the country without big tourist attractions, vineyards or a main port, it is amazing to see how well San Luis is doing and has been for the last 30 years at least. It seems that a big part of the succes comes down to the Rodriguez Saa family who have been virtually controlling the state for generations now. Grandfather Rodriguez Saa was already a governor, father was the chief of police and older brother Adolfo of the current governor Alberto, was the governor before him from 1983 till 2001.
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| Alberto Rodruguez Saa |
They made the state an attractive place to locate factories with different tax incentives, specially for the food industry and also turned it into a transportation hub for the country as a whole. It reminds me very much of what Lee Kuan Yew managed to do with Singapore in a few decades. The family, according to various reporters, profited from their governing as well, so we would probably not qualify it completely as democracy with all checks and balances, but for Argentina it seems they pulled of an amazing feat. I never quite got why a country the size of India that only needs to take care of 38 million inhabitants and has one of the BRIC countries right next door, should not be able to perform much better on a global level.
I also notice that, more and more, young people are full of enthusiasm and a strong will to restore Argentina to its former economic glory and with some capable people in government who start to rule by example instead of enriching themselves as much as possible, amazing things should be possible.
At the moment it looks like Alberto Rodriguez Saa could be one of the main contenders for the presidential elections next year and if he manages to stay away from the crony-ism that plagued the past few presidencies, I have some silent hope for a more successful government.
Fingers crossed then and let's hope the possible second Rodriguez Saa president lasts a bit longer than his brother who took over as president for about a week in 2001 at the height of the riots and after the subsequent resignation of Fernando la Rua.
As a final side note: De La Rua is nowadays better known as Colombian singer Shakira's father in law. Politics in Argentina, never a dull moment ;-)
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