Amazing how expensive BsArs is

[davonz]

Many porteños I've met make under AR$1000 monthly.

So you were here as a tourist and you met lots if portenos who make less than AR$1000 ?

I have been living here for 5 1/2 years.. when i first arrived i met cleaners who made AR$600 a month, and at the time i think the average wage for police/nurse/teacher was AR$800 - after tax from what i recall. The next year i think the gov made the minimim AR$1200, 2 years ago the average was around AR$2500. So i am guessing its probably above AR$3000 now...

 

[steveinbsas]

I don't get it. I use fabric softener but air-dried towels and underwear still come out hard as a rock!

My laundry is soft because it's dried outside on a 20 meter line six feet from the ground and there is often enough wind blowing across an open meadow to dry them quickly and soften them as well. If I use a drying rack indoors or even outdoors under the covered patio when it's raining they aren't nearly as soft.

 

[surfing]

My laundry is soft because it's dried outside on a 20 meter line six feet from the ground and there is often enough wind to dry them quickly and soften them as well. If I use a drying rack indoors or even outdoors under the covered patio when it's raining they aren't nearly as soft.

This is why our housekeeper irons EVERYTHING (including towels) after indoor drying. Once ironed, the softness returns.

 

[steveinbsas]

This is why our housekeeper irons EVERYTHING (including towels) after indoor drying. Once ironed, the softness returns.

My sheets and towels fluttering in the wind look just like the labels on bottles of fabric softener. It's just one more reason I don't need a housekeeper and haven't used fabric softener, my forced air (electric) clothes dryer, or my iron in almost two years.

Country life is beautiful, especially when almost all of the city "conveniences" are less than ten minutes from my house and most of the groceries and hardware I need are less than two...and I enjoy the peace and quite of the country 24/7...without living on the "potential zone of chaos" known as Capital Federal and its surroundings (including Pilar and Tigre, et. al.).

 

[mariano-BCN]

where do you live Steve? It seems like you're living in a place in Argentina I don't know.

 

[steveinbsas]

where do you live Steve? It seems like you're living in a place in Argentina I don't know.

I live in Villa Arias (actually in a quinta about 1 KM from the center of Villa Arias).

Go to google earth and enter Vilia Arias AR in the search.

You will see Villa Arias has a V shape.

There is a dirt road leading out of the Villa in the upper right corner.

Just below the "dogleg" you can find the red tile roof of my house.

 

[mariano-BCN]

I was only curious, Steve, it seems like you've found your happy place. And for sure food is there cheaper than in bsArs. I just arrived in Amsterdam and I'll stay here 'cause BsArs is too expensive for me, believe it or not.
Maybe I'll try Colombia, very friendly people there and a way lot cheaper than Arg.

 

[steveinbsas]

I was only curious, Steve, it seems like you've found your happy place. And for sure food is there cheaper than in bsArs. I just arrived in Amsterdam and I'll stay here 'cause BsArs is too expensive for me, believe it or not.
Maybe I'll try Colombia, very friendly people there and a way lot cheaper than Arg.

Yes, it's correct to say I've found my "happy place" and it's wonderful, but not because it's cheaper.

It really is wonderful, and it's everything I ever hoped for...and more.

 

[AlexanderB]

So you were here as a tourist and you met lots if portenos who make less than AR$1000 ?

I got to talking with a crew of manual labourers one day. Not sure exactly what they did, but it seemed like it was related to plumbing or duct work.

Well, okay, to be fair, they were probably not native porteños, but Paraguayans or Bolivians, but yes. Unless more than half a dozen people concertedly lied to me about their average monthly income. They did say that they have some months better than others, but that in the end it comes out to around a thousand pesos.

They could have just been trying to score some pity money out of a gringo, but they didn't seem like the sort. Besides, I can play the "WTF man, I'm an unemployed Russian, I don't have any money either" card pretty convincingly.

Incidentally, lots of Russian immigrants in BsAs! Many of them left Russia's economic crisis in 1998, only to wander into another one, the irony of which was not lost on them. Also, as an ethnic half-Armenian, I was surprised to see so many Armenian last names on tombstones at the Recoleta cemetery and associated with real estate in Palermo, though I mostly kept quiet in San Telmo.

 

[garygrunson]

and I enjoy the peace and quite of the country 24/7...without living on the "potential zone of chaos" known as Capital Federal and its surroundings (including Pilar and Tigre, et. al.).

Steve you are starting to sound and look more like the unabomber everyday. But at least you are not boring. Looking forward to that manifesto.