In 2008 I did a tour of Argentina and Chile
Part of that vacation was staying at a hotel in the town of Cafayate in Argentina
In the hotel car park was a car with two men sitting in it
They were there in the morning when we went out
They were sitting in the car when we came back in the evening
That’s odd I thought
I asked my friend “why do you think there are two men sitting in that car all day?”
She said, “which two men?”
I said, “the two men that look like police or secret police?” not pointing with my finger
Not wanting the two men in the car to know we were talking about them
Me being paranoid, I guess
So I took the hotel concierge to one side
He said in a whisper that’s the hotel was owned by La presidenta
(Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner who is often referred to by her initials CFK, served as President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015)
He pointed with his head across the grass and said
“The house over there is her summer residence” he looked nervously around
So what would you do? (I'm laughing as I write this)
With a car full of secret police in the car park…. of course!
My friend decides to take photos of CFK's house
She picks up her SLR camera and starts marching towards CFK's house for some photos
At that point the two men in the car park, get out of their car
And walk at a pace towards us
Talking to us in Spanish, it was very clear we might like to reconsider the photo session
Looking back at my photos I see no photos of the hotel or anything else
Just 43 blurry shots of my friend nervously smiling on the lawn
And one crystal-clear image of a very stern man in sunglasses holding up a hand and saying something that probably translates to: “Delete that... or we delete your vacation"
Needless to say, we spent the rest of the trip photographing rock formations
Very non-political rock formations
