gsjackson wrote: ↑May 27th, 2025, 10:53 pm
Ditto on the interest in Argentina. Mendoza and Cordoba have recently shown up on my radar. For one thing, you can basically stay there as long as you want. If you don't want to do a visa run every 90 days you can just overstay the tourist visa for an indefinite period and pay about a $45 fine when you leave, regardless of how long you overstayed and with no repercussions like denied entry in the future. One impression I'd be particularly interested in is how safe you feel heading into the center for a night on the town and getting into a cab to return home -- something you definitely wouldn't want to do in, say, Medellin, Colombia. I know -- ordinary cautions apply -- you don't want to do drunk stupid anywhere in Latin America.
Crime has always been the disincentive for me on Latin America, in particular the getting kidnapped thing. Otherwise, the generally great climate, beautiful countryside, relatively inexpensive steaks and wine of the highest caliber, and spirited senoritas -- what's not to like about Argentina?
Currently in Nis, Serbia -- one vibrant little city -- but cracked a rib nine days ago so won't be partaking in the vibrancy for a while.
I came to Argentina in the cold season because I'm
more tolerant of cold and darkness than heat and too much sun. Also, cold season is less popular with tourists, so wide availability of apartments.
What I normally do is test drive an apartment and landlord through booking.com for a week, then if I like the apartment and trust the landlord, I offer to pay by the week in cash (US $100 bills) for about 60% of the rate listed on booking.com. Booking.com charges 15% commission and weekly discount is typically 1 or 2 free days per week (14% or 28%, respectively) plus landlord avoids income tax and vacancies, so good deal for landlord if I stay multiple weeks. So for example, if rate listed at booking is $60/night, I would offer US$250/week, paid in advance for 2 weeks at a time (so 5 * US$100 bills). Current apartment has another tenant arriving tomorrow plus I want to test at least one more apartment/landlord, so I haven't made this type offer yet in Argentina, but I did in Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia with success. As it happens, booking.com is automatically giving me last minute 40% discounts anyway, perhaps because landlords set up some option for last minute discounts to avoid vacancies. There are cheaper and more expensive options, but US$250/week is a perfectly adequate budget for nice furnished apartments, especially if you are at Genius 3 level with booking.com (repeat customer with booking.com).
Prices for groceries, restaurants in Argentina are about 2 times as expensive as Spain or USA. Prices for clothing are similar to Spain and USA. Not sure why groceries and restaurants are so expensive. I can only guess some incentive to export agricultural products rather than sell domestically. To take a simple example, peanuts grown in Argentina that I bought in Spain for US$1.50 cost US$3.00 here in Argentina, and this was at a low price supermarket in both cases, 200g in both cases.
All information about prices in Argentina from more than 1 month ago is obsolete. Things are changing rapidly.
I am located in downtown Buenos Aires and walked down to near Autopista 25 de Mayo and then back north to near Avenida Santa Fe at 2AM Saturday morning using side streets and felt perfectly safe, same as in Belgrade or Niš Serbia at 2 in the morning. Plenty of ordinary people out in the downtown area early Saturday or Sunday. There are occasional homeless sleeping on the sidewalk and some rowdy groups of teenagers drinking in parks, but nothing felt menacing. I hate taxis but I heard they are cheap, though be sure to use an app to arrange payment if you aren't fluent in Spanish.
No, you cannot overstay visa. Visa policy is changing rapidly. Yes, the penalty for overstaying is still low but they may ban you from future entry if you overstay, same as in Europe. You need to show return/onward ticket upon entry and the computer may cross check the ticket number with the airline. Also need to give address where you are staying. I had booking.com reservation, so no problem. They are also changing long term visa rules. I'm not interested in permanent residency but it is currently and will continue to be easy if you have substantial passive retirement income (pension, social security, stocks and bonds). Argentina income taxes are high, so good reason not to be permanent resident.
Because this is the slow tourist season, no SIMs for sale in the airport. So first night accommodation should be hotel with 24 hour reservation. I was lucky that my host agreed to wait for me in the apartment. Take taxi or Manuel Tienda León minibus to obelisk in center of downtown, then go to Claro mobile store at Avenida 25 de Mayo 878 and buy a SIM there (unless you have global roaming). Exchange money at either airport or various stores near obelisk. No need to seek out cuevas any more: legitimate exchange stores offer good exchange rate. Credit cards also offer good exchange rates, though I hate to use credit cards because of potential for fraud.
After staying out late that one Friday night and into Saturday morning, I realized (once again) that I'm too old to be a night person. Bedtime for me is 10PM and awake at 5AM. Fortunately,,% Buenos Aires has afternoon tango milongas, since tango dancing is what I came here for. Afternoon Milongas run 15:00-20:00 typically, so fit perfectly with my sleep schedule. Attendees tend to be old people, but that's okay. I mostly just want to listen to the music and watch. Plus the older women (40-60) are much better dancers, at least until their bodies start to fall apart after age 60. There were younger women at the Sunday afternoon milonga. My plan is to do my morning exercises then eat in the park, return home to shower and dress up, go to afternoon milonga every day of the week for several hours and dance a few times, return home and get into bed early and sleep properly. I have zero interest in the countryside here, since I camp 3 spring months in Spain, 2 autumn months in Bulgaria and 2 winter months in the USA Mojave desert. Jun-Aug is my season for city living.
I'm not planning on any sexual adventures here. Eventually, when I return to Kyiv, I want to find a permanent young concubine (or maybe retrieve that girl who went to Ireland) and then spend summer and winter there (continue to hike in Spain and Bulgaria in spring and autumn). Then I will subsidize somebody to setup afternoon tango milongas in Kyiv for me to attend. Doesn't have to be every day: 3 afternoons/week should suffice, then 3 afternoons with the concubine and 1 afternoon to rest.
I will pass through Niš after I return to Europe (return flight to Madrid, flight to Belgrade same day, bus to Niš and onward to Sofia). I spent several weeks there in May 2023, one week in August 2024. Niš can get very hot in July/August.
Good luck with your broken rib. Speaking of health, there is a pullup bar in northeast corner of Park Čair in Niš and along river, south side and 200m west of Bulevar Nikola Tesla bridge. I'm always keeping track of pullups bars, which is the one piece of supplementary exercise equipment I need, besides my camping sleep mat which I carry everywhere.
but the subway system in Buenos Aires was excellent which I used the most, cheap, efficient and took you all around the city.