My answer is yes, there have been thrilling moments since my arrival in Argentina and, yes, living in Argentina has been much better than living in Mexico.
My house in Mexico was invaded twice at night while I was in bed. I didn't hear or see the second intruder (who stole some new sheets and some canned food), but the first one actually entered my bedroom at five AM. I was fully dressed and he ran away when I jumped out of bed and shouted at him to get the F out of my house. He was probably about 5'6" and I'm 6'2".
About thirty minutes later he invaded another expat's house (high above mine) and actually fought with the owner, saying he would kill him with the knife he was holding. As they fought, the expat was able to turn the knife the attacker was holding and plunge it into his abdomen.
I could hear the screams of the expat's wife as it happened. By the time I got to their house the attacker had fled, leaving a trail of blood. l considedr myself incredibly fortunate that I was not on the receiving end of that knife a half hour earlier. I was equally happy that my friends were also unharmed.
Before my Argentine girlfriend threw the sculptures at me (which I mentioned in the post you quoted), I had not been the object of violence of any kind since high school
When I asked her to watch my dog while I went to Bariloche to look at property, her response was to smack me on the side of the head. This resulted in permanent hearing loss to my left ear.
Fortunately, prior to this (third and final) violent incident.she ordered me to get out of a taxi in calle Cordoba a block or two before reaching her office building. She didn't want anyone in her workplace to see that she had been with me for over two hours after telling her boss she was just going to the bank. We had been at the office of the lawyer that she insisted that I use to apply for temporary residency.
I still had to walk past her building to get to the Callo subte station to return to my apartment in Recoleta. Standing directly in front of her building was a beautiful young woman with a clipboard. She was conducting "sidewalk surveys for a nutritional supplement company.
To make a long story short, two months later (after I fled the apartment of my Argentine girlfriend for the last time) I called the woman I met in the street. She helped me get residency without the lawyer, then helped me through the process of buying an apartment, and then moved in with me.
I have no regrets whatsoever about my decision to live in Argentina instead of staying in Mexico and I have never been happier in my life than I am now, living at my present location. The noise level is never annoying (let alone intolerable), even though there is an outdoor local for "eventos" about 400 meters down the street from my house, and I can hardly ever hear my closest neighbors (200 meters behind me), either.
When I'm outside during the day I occasionally hear roosters in the distance, but I never hear them when I'm inside. That's a huge difference from the dozen or so fighting cocks crowing at each other 24/7 in their cages less than 40 meters from my bedroom window in Sayulita.
PS: Geog,graphically speaking, moving to Argentina in 2006 (after coming for two months for a look-see) is still the second best move I have made in my life.
Moving to Park City, Utah in 1975 (after buying a vacant lot on Main Street in 1973) is still the first.
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