At the push of a button.

I'm desperately uninspired so this leaves me no other choice but to write about toilets.  This is not my first time writing about toilets and bathrooms(refer to "How to use a Japanese toilet" for further entertainment).  There could literally be an encyclopedia written about the ways and places in which we rid ourselves of digested steak and old coffee the world over, thus the second installment of Barbers Without Borders Encyclopedia of the World's Toilets commences. 

One of my first days in Buenos Aires I began to notice a lack of toilet tanks in bathrooms.  There was just a long button sticking out of the wall, some toilet paper(maybe), a toilet(hopefully) and sometimes a small waste basket.  There was no other visible means by which to flush the toilet so I figured I'd have to give this ambiguous button a try.  Couldn't hurt, right?  Voila, it flushes the toilet.  No surprise there necessarily.  However, the funny thing to me about all of this is it leaves an air of mystery(no pun intended)as to where the actual toilet tank is and how the water gets from the button into the bowl, and beyond.  In the below picture we can see sort of a ghost image of where a round tank used to be, but what happened to it?  Where did it go and who decided to send it to its grave?  So many unanswered questions.

The other part of this mystery is where is the water coming from now?  Is there a tank hidden in the wall that is so ugly we could not possibly be bothered to look at it while going?  Or is it some sort of system that just uses a certain dose of water from a general source?  Is there little leprechauns that live inside the wall providing access to their waters for the waste removal of human beings to yet another world unknown?  Barbers Without Borders has research to do.  Will I do this research?  No, I could actually care less, but it makes for good writing.

Another unexplained phenomena of Argentine bathrooms, that unfortunately I do not have photo evidence of, is the presence of bidets.  I have been informed by many however that most people here do not use the bidet.  I'm like WTF?  There's nothing quite like cool water running over one's nether regions after "getting the job done" for a cleansing and refreshing experience.  Better than just moving the poo around with some rough paper posing as tissue.  Sometimes I feel as though the Argentines are devolving.  Though this leaves me with one final question:  Who am I to say that people are devolving when I'm the one writing about toilets?