Buenos Aires

Big Apple, París del Sur, Capital de Tango, Ciudad de Libros

Things I notice about BA...

It's the most racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse Latin American city I've visited. I see people of African and Asian descent and whites with all different hair colors. There are Italian restaurants and reggae type shops. People are speaking a variety of languages and signs are written in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

It's a tall, dense city. Yes, there are plaza-parks like all cities founded by Spaniards, but they are smaller and less frequent. Instead, there are tight blocks, one way streets, and multi-story buildings.

Everything is old. The streets are cobblestone, buildings original, refurbished US school buses from several decades ago make up the public fleet, and the metro trains and stations are reminiscent of the 70s. While this can be inconvenient and sometimes impractical, it does give a special character to the city.

Everything is broken and leaking. Part of this is because of the age of the infrastructure. The high inflation, unemployment, and slowness of government work also play a significant role.

Porteños love book stores. They're everywhere. There aren't near as many pharmacies as there are in Santiago (which means there's a normal amount here).

The metro system is terrible. It's closed when it rains, requires several transfers to get pretty much anywhere, has old confusing creepy stations, is limited by strikes, and doesn't go to much of the city.

There is little cat calling compared to the other Latin American cities I've been to. In fact, I haven't been cat called even once and have only heard a couple incidences of it.

Women wear shorts, dresses, and skirts more frequently. They are not expected to wear pants all the time.

There are always Argentines who want to exchange US dollars on the streets. Because of the high inflation of the Argentine peso, most companies and apartment building owners establish prices in dollars. But Argentines continue to be paid in pesos and the government continues to limit the number of US dollars that an Argentine can spend/withdraw via banks. Thus, Argentines are desperate for US dollars and go to the streets. They offer 6 pesos per dollar to outcompete the banks. The current official exchange rate established by the government and used by the banks is 4.9 pesos per dollar.