Category : Hacking Buenos Aires
It’s a well-worn theme in all of the blogs, online expat newspapers and forums: new electronics – computers, laptops, iPhones, stereos, TVs, games consoles, cameras and so on – are very expensive here in Argentina. The problem, of course, is the import duties that the government sees fit to impose.
If you want to get your hands on some sweet electronics, and you don’t want to pay the insane prices at your local Garbarino, you have a couple of options. Getting a friend who’s going back to the States to buy what you want there and courier it back to you is definitely the best, but when that’s just not possible it’s time to do what the locals do and log on to MercadoLibre .
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(In Part Two of this guide, we look at ‘the squirt’ and at muggings and shakedowns. Enjoy!)
The squirt
The squirt is really just pick pocketing with a specific misdirection technique, but it’s become so common that we will give it a section all of its own.
The squirt usually works like this: a perp comes up to the victim and spills or squirts something onto their clothes, often onto their back where they won’t notice it right away. If the perp is being observed, they’ll make it look like an accident. The substance is usually food: mustard; chocolate milk, tomato sauce or something similar. This is the first step.
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Buenos Aires is, unfortunately, a pretty easy city to get robbed in. Shock! I know. It’s quite a revelation. The number of expat or tourist forum and blog posts dedicated to the topic is pretty staggering; you’d think that every single foreigner who ever set foot in Buenos Aires had been robbed at least once.
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If you’re reading this, then chances are you have at least a passing interest in photography: very few people leave home and travel half-way around the globe without wanting to capture their new environment. After all, how will you impress the folks back home without photographs of your new and exotic surroundings?
Photographing Buenos Aires is a little bit tricky though. Sure, there’s stuff like tango, the dog walkers in Recoleta, the colorful houses of La Boca, and that most classic photo of all – you, about to eat a huge steak – but there’s no grand vista, no easy-to-capture skyline that sums the city up in one shot. The only instantly recognizable physical landmark that Buenos Aires has is the Obelisk, and that’s pretty hard to get a good shot of. Shooting it from ground level on Avenida 9 de Julio just doesn’t do it justice: you’ll have to point your camera up at it and it’ll look like it’s falling over backwards in the photos.
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Anyone living in Buenos Aires is going to want to take at least a couple of trips inside Argentina during their stay and will want them to be cheap. The two big destinations are of course Iguazú Falls in the north of the country, and Patagonia in the south – towns like El Calafate, Bariloche, Ushuaia and Puerto Madryn. These places are absolutely unmissable.
Argentina is a big country though, so how are you going to get there? Bus? That might work if you have: a) a penchant for suffering; b) a healthy supply of Valium, and c) an entire day (or more) to waste, but otherwise it’s a terrible option. Puerto Iguazú is a 17 hour journey from Buenos Aires by bus, Bariloche is 19 hours, and Ushuaia? You’ll need to block out a lazy 50 hours in your diary for that one.
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UPDATE, JAN 22, 2011: With inflation eating into the value of the Argentine Peso each passing month, this article might be a little far fetched at the present moment as opposed to when it was written a year ago. Never fear, the information contained here is still valuable for enjoying Buenos Aires Cheaply!!
While Buenos Aires is not as cheap for Gringos as it used to be, hacking your budget can still be achieved with relative ease. Does this mean you are going to be living like a king? No, but if you are on a tight budget and want to see how long you can push it, you can still enjoy Buenos Aires. So lets talk about how you can live in Buenos Aires on only 5 dollars per day.
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