BsAs Safety

[Ahhemm..]

Hi there. I am from Florida, USA. At the moment I am in Argentina on a 3-month-long trip to explore different places to return to during my retirement. On May 18 we will pass through Buenos Aires again for 3 days. Another group I belong to is having and asado (in a large part to meet the Americans) and I was excited to return until I read this thread on Lonelyplanet:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2200042

Now I just want to get in and out of there as quickly as possible. As residents of BsAs I am sure you can put this issue in more informed perspective.

Thanks,
Ahhemm..

 

[nicoenarg]

I would just quote the following from the article you linked to:

This is no Paris. Whoever said Buenos Aires is the Paris of the south was on crack. It is a dangerous city, and the economy is getting worse. Use extreme caution and do not take anything valuable with you. For all the women out there, please be careful! Cops and Taxi's are not always safe, and people will follow you. Walk in pairs or groups and use your judgement when choosing your cab driver (and make sure you know where you're going!)

All of the points in the article do not seem like exaggerations to me. However, I have been here for the last 4 months, no one has stolen anything off of me (they robbed apartments in the building I am in and stole one of the door handles). The reason might be that I don't have anything worth stealing when I am on the streets. I have an iPhone 4 that I have never used in public. The phone I use is an old, rusted motorola that no one wants to steal. I even hate the damn thing so much that I sometimes wish they'd steal it!

I also don't use an iPod or whatever and if I ever do, I don't use the white earphones that tell everyone what it is that I am using as my music device.

However, on the other hand, whenever I travel on the subte (I do not use buses here, drivers are freakin' crazy), I see half the people there on their blackberries, samsungs, nokias and what have you. I see a lot of people with white earphones too. And most of the times they don't seem to care if their electronics are going to get stolen or not.

I am hoping you're going to be staying with a friend or a 4-5 star hotel in a safe part of town where you can leave your more expensive belongings in your room when you're out and about. However, even the 5-star hotels are not safe and robberies do often happen.

You really need to be careful where you hang out and what time you are out as well.

Anyway, like I said, I personally have not been robbed. And you can survive here but the key is not to let on that you're a tourist. If you don't shower for like 3 days, you might fit in as a local...

No I am just kidding. Just be careful, don't act like a tourist with a big-ass camera and all that, have fun and be aware of your surroundings, you should be fine.

 

[sesamosinsal]

In another thread, you wrote that you've been to Quito. If you survived Quito, you will survive Buenos Aires.

 

[steveinbsas]

I just read all of the posts on the linked thread. Number 13 wrote the following:

"One of my friends who lives in Villa Elisa, Entre Rios says that before returning home he has to do everything possible to check if there are no robbers inside his house waiting to attack him."


Just yesterday I found a lisitng on ReMax for two hectares in Villa Elisa for $130,000 USD.

There are two hectares near my home for sale here for $165,000 pesos....and I believe that it's much safer here...and will be if there is another economic crisis.

I believe that I live in one of the safest places in the world...unless there is a mega-volcanic erruption or an electro magnitic pulse that wipes out all of civilization.

The "natives" are friendly and you can raise your own chickens and goats as desired.

Without fear of either leaving or coming home.

 

[ElQueso]

I'm thinking about leaving Argentina altogether. We're thinking of moving to Paraguay, my wife's country.

I like modern conveniences, the ability to go a relatively short distance to get things I need. I'm a car guy, always have been, so a short drive to get to the store is fine for me, it doesn't have to be walking distance.

But if the crap ever gets tossed in the grinder, my wife's family has a 10 hectare farm about 80 kilometers from Concepcion. They are mostly subsistence farmers, although we finally got them a pump to extract water from a 150 meter well they managed to pay to have dug some years back but were unable to take advantage of. At the end of the year we're planning on setting up a irrigation system. Soon they will have a very small, but producing, farm growing things like strawberries, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers (for example) instead of being dependent on sesame, mandioca and tartago.

I know a lot of people who are buying precious metals in feared anticipation of a world-wide meltdown, but in the first few years of something like that, I would think, land and food would be a much more stable currency...

But my possible move to Paraguay lies in the rising prices and the possible political instability I'm seeing. Paraguay isn't heaven on Earth, no doubt about that, but the laws governing imports/exports and labor are much more favorable to all than they are here.

Plus the cost of living is about 1/2 what it is here. I'm not impressed all that much by faux-European architecture and "cultural" type things in a setting that opresses people. I just got notice that my rent is going up 58% on my apartment (and given the market, I was paying a really low price anyway, so I can't blame the guy). For the price the owner is now going to get from me, I could lease a 500 sm small mansion, with lots of property and a pool in Asuncion.

And there are no shortages of imported goods, restrictions on dollars and getting money in and out of the country (aside from taxes which are reasonable, if not a little higher than I'd like) and a lot of the instability that's going on here.

 

[Zissou]

I agree it's more dangerous than it was but honestly, that person to me had especially bad luck or something. In the 3ish years I've been here I haven't encountered that much crime among the sum of my acquaintances.

I would not think you need to get in and get out - there are plenty of areas that are more than safe enough for a major city. Especially if you've traveled anywhere that isn't first world... street sense required. You need to be careful but ... while that post may reflect that person's experience, I've never encountered anyone else whose experience mirrors that.

 

[steveinbsas]

I know a lot of people who are buying precious metals in feared anticipation of a world-wide meltdown, but in the first few years of something like that, I would think, land and food would be a much more stable currency...

You can't eat or drink gold or silver.

Chicken eggs and goat's milk are far more digestable.

And the eggs can be cooked in a tin foil pan (made from the tin foil that those who will be starving previously joked about...though we never used the tin foil as hats in the first place).

I never anticipated an alien invasion...just the consequences of collectivism.

BA may be somewhat dangerous, but tourists can still visit in relative safety if they are cautious.

The chances of being robbed or harmed are not really not very great.

I may not want to go back to BA, but I'm certainly not afraid of going there...yet.

 

[pompeygazza]

I've only been in BsAs for 2 months but nothing has happened to me yet. I lived in Barcelona for 5 years and was robbed three times, and most of what was described in the Lonely Planet article could have happened there too. Looking back on the three times I was robbed in Barcelona, I realise that I was being careless on each occasion. I now go by two basic principles:

1. If you haven't got it, they can't steal it.

2. If you've got it but they don't know where it is, they don't know how to steal it.

Even with those two principles, I'm still very careful, but still managing to have a good time...

 

[gpop]

I know a lot of people who are buying precious metals in feared anticipation of a world-wide meltdown, but in the first few years of something like that, I would think, land and food would be a much more stable currency...

And where, during a worldwide meltdown, would anyone exchange gold for food??? In '01 the banks were locked down or closing, nobody was doing much banking during that mess.
If you want to invest in gold, get junk gold, at least you would be able to get somewhat of a fair trade on some gold trinkets for food at the local "chinos" market, you'd get robbed blind trying to exchange gold coins. Plus, if I remember correctly, folks had issues with getting food and water during the crisis.

 

[ElQueso]

And where, during a worldwide meltdown, would anyone exchange gold for food??? In '01 the banks were locked down or closing, nobody was doing much banking during that mess.
If you want to invest in gold, get junk gold, at least you would be able to get somewhat of a fair trade on some gold trinkets for food at the local "chinos" market, you'd get robbed blind trying to exchange gold coins. Plus, if I remember correctly, folks had issues with getting food and water during the crisis.

Yeah, my point exactly. I've not understood everyone buying precious metals if they really think the world as a whole is going to meltdown. In a local crisis, I can understand to an extent, as the outside world still exists, but that doesn't mean that a few people with precious metals will find sellers when products in bulk don't make it into the country. Unless the seller has a surplus from produce and such grown on his land and can afford to hold on to the gold when things get better.

I want land. And probably be a good idea to have weapons to defend it...