El_Caudillo wrote:Yes, all told I've spent two and a half years there. Buenos Aires is a great city and since the economic crash in 2001 has remained a cheap location for visitors. You can get your feet wet there in the swankier tourist neighbourhoods of Palermo and Recoleta eating steaks to your fill while staring at beautiful ladies. There is nothing better than sitting at an outside table in Plaza Serrano with a litro of cerveza watching the eye candy go by. Once you're done with the swanky neighbourhoods you can move on to the bohemia of San Telmo and the edgy kitch of La Boca. If you actually want to live there I recommend the central neighbourhoods of Almagro and Caballito which have nightlife, parks and restaurants not frequented by the tourist crowd. After a while you may be sick of the simple Argentine fare of meat, pizza, pasta and empanadas. At that stage you can get into the city's Peruvian restaurants, which provide a more varied range of dishes. This might be after a couple of months in town when you are realizing what an international place it is - Bolivians run the groceries, Paraguayans run the shantytowns, Chinese run the small supermarkets and a lot waitresses are Colombian. The nationality most represented amongst tourists when I was there was the Brazilians. With education being free a lot of people come to study in Buenos Aires from other South American countries.
The city certainly has its dangerous areas and you should keep your eyes open and read up on the areas you are going to go to. In general the north of the city is thought to be safer. I don't necessarily agree, but areas like Nueva Pompeya and back street La Boca are probably best not to wander around in your first week there. In the north in regions like San Isidro you'll find the upper classes who often do speak English well. You'll find a lot of people who speak English in Buenos Aires and a lot who don't.
I found it easy to be friends with the local guys, once you get past the language barrier you may find you have quite similar interests and viewpoints. A lot of people there are free-thinkers, well read and the smart ones are not sensitive about criticism of their country (very different from Asia). In fact self-analysis and self-criticism are a national past-times. It's the city with the highest percentage of psychologists in the world.
The women are beautiful and engaging. I never found it hard to talk to the women there. The local guys are aggressive so most women are used to dealing with advances, but in general they like attention. Just because you are getting on well in a conversation with a girl doesn't mean anything though. Many a time I talked for an Argentine girl for an hour only for her to mention she had a boyfriend when I tried to get her number. The girls in Buenos Aires have a reputation of being difficult and I think it is warranted. Both the girlfriends I had there were from other South American countries.
In the north of Argentina things are a bit more like you'd expect in South America....siestas, plazas with big churches, dry landscapes, indigenous features. Up there if you can speak Spanish you'll meet many women with good education who are tired of the local guys. Drugs are a big problem up there, as is employment so the local guys aren't always impressing the girls. It's cheap up there too. I'd be back there if I could figure out how to make money there. Anyway I recommend the place, especially for guys who make their money online.
I can't recall the suburbs I was in. I was put up in the Club Navale. The only other guests there were admirals and generals. Most of my hosts were former military officers and they took me around. They said no problem if I need a military helicopter to get around. Lots of meals in Piazzas, with steaks, and Italian style food. It was like a land of siesta, with late start to the work day, long afternoon lunch, but they work into the evening. At night it was late meals and socialising. Just men. I found that strange as here we would bring wives. Very non anglo saxon. I enjoyed it after I put my work ethic on go slow.
I flew out to Rio Gallegos and then inland. Totally different world. Looks like the SA veld but with mestizos instead of white people. No english what so ever. It was also very dark and very cold as I was there in the winter. No foreigners at all, except me. I shared a house with several Argentinian men. All white. Very good people, but our communication was very limited as I had never heard spanish until I got there. They 'got' my french and I got what they say in spanish. Yet in spain I cant understand a word. If I spoke english, I may as well speak Afrikaans or Greek.
On my last day, the admiral sent his secretary to help me shop for my wife. The women have very feminine tastes and are indeed very engaging. The stuff she picked out was really nice and stylish. For sure, they are easy on the eye. Not fat, well dressed, very feminine and with a sense of style. Yet the men are not handsome, wear perfume and pink shirts. WTF.
In BA there was a Mcdonalds within sight of the next one. I didn't get that when the local food is much nicer. But the US dollar was the same as the peso and you could use either.
I found it much more Med in culture than american.
Compared to the black areas of SA, Argentina is totally safe. I never felt threatened or unsafe. It depends on what you are used to. Then again, I find USA safe compared to what I'm used to.
Across the river was Uruguay, which offers very lucrative deals for former SA military to immigrate. I know a former SAAF former border war pilot who was going. Also very white and a good standard of living. he put me on to it and said myself and my kids would be high on the list of prospects. But SA laws prevent travel for minors without both parents signing an affidavit. I have less chance of that than getting a jew to admit the hollowhoax was a money making scam.
