How To Deal With Crazy Argentine Neighbors

[Gringoboy]

Who vacuums at 4 am?
I mean,seriously.

 

[Caliexpat]

Who vacuums at 4 am?
I mean,seriously.

I lived in Buenos Aires a few years and found that people are superwired at night and it is much more common that they vacuumclean or make noise in the early hours of the morning . Must be all the mate and other substances they inhale

 

[cbonanni]

Ceviche ,

No offense , but the actions of your neighbors do not seem to me to be too highly out of line. Unfortunately , there is not much you can do. Some good suggestions by other posters here. I will not even go into what I have to deal with with my upstairs neighbor. You got it easy.

Claude

 

[Ceviche]

What are they going to do to you?

Complaint to the owner of the house. Who will tell me "amigo, learn to live in harmony with your neighbors. Do not destroy the gym floor by dropping the weights. Do not make too much noise when u r lifting weights." bla bla bla...

 

[Ceviche]

If you don't like it you can move to Chile.

Thats a Rubbish suggestion.

 

[Ceviche]

Who vacuums at 4 am?
I mean,seriously.

because some people are crazy and obsessed with cleaniness.

 

[Ceviche]

I am surprised an apartment block gym has enough machines and free weights (over 5 kg) for a bodybuilder.

You obviously haven't seen the posh buildings here.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

Ok, if this was me this is what I'd do / have done.

Weights in the gym:
1. Let the "tourists" have the gym on the weekdays. These women want to use the cycle, stairmaster, treadmill and TALK. They really want to TALK but are using the machines in order to think they are getting a good workout at the same time. I bet a $100 they head to Starbucks afterwards for full-fat lattes and muffins and to TALK. I don't skate at Rosedal on Saturday and Sunday because of all the cross-use of dogs, cats, kids on bikes, kids on skateboards, people who let their dogs sh*t on the track, families of 30 piled into those pedal carts careening into other people, and people who are completely oblivious that there is actually a track there and other people are using it. And, me buzzing around on my skates at 30km/hr is an accident waiting to happen. But they have a right to use the park and I got tired of yelling, "Ojo!" so I just skate elsewhere.
2. Talk to the consortium and see if they will pick up some rubberized mats. I do a lot of floor exercises in my house (sometimes at 2am) and I brought 6 mats with me on my last trip to the US. The lady downstairs has yet to complain after a year.
3. Bring a radio.
4. Set up a video camera for one of your workouts. Not only will it give you another perspective on adjusting your form, but it will also let you know if you are actually being loud. Loud is relative, especially if you are used to working out in a "man's" gym. There was a gym that opened near my house in Philly trying to cater to women. Some of the rules were no grunting and no throwing weights. I'm not kidding. The only people I ever saw there were women in yoga pants (not that I ever have anything against yoga pants)
4. Just keep working out and ignore them.

Lady upstairs.
1. Go up and knock on her door when the noise is being made. When she answers the door have your cell phone on video. Tell her you've recorded the noise and if it keeps up you'll be taking it to the association.
2. Do the superglue / duct tape trick on her door buzzer. We have a neighbor who lets her hound sit outside on the balcony and howl non-stop for hours. It's always when she is not home so going during the problem wasn't the answer. So, whenever I'd walk by her building - usually early Sunday morning on a run/skate or late late at night after beers with my friends I'd have a small strip of duct tape. She moved after 2 months. NOTE! Make sure you are not on cctv on your building or buildings nearby! You need to really LOOK first or you will be speaking with Mr. Policeman.
3. Tape a small note to the buzzer panel (NOT over her buzzer) with an arrow pointing to her apt and Baluda! Maleducada! That way everyone else sees it.
4. Some noise you'll just have to get used to but moving furniture at 3am probably isn't one of those things.

Good luck!

GS

 

[Davidglen77]

An Argentine friend of mine had problems with the neighbors above him putting on music very very loud on the weekdays at 3 am in the morning. This what he did:
1. First time at 3 AM, he went and knocked on the door and told him to turn down the music. The guy complied.
2. The second time it happened, he did the same. The guy turned it down, then turned it back up after 15 min.
3. The third time, my friend went downstairs to the door, got some very strong glue that dries quickly, and glued down the buzzer to the apartment above him. He never had a problem again.
Argentines ignore others complaints about things much worse than that. What are they going to do to you?

I think this is an excellent and VERY true example of how you have to handle things here in Capital Federal, as porteños are generally very difficult people to deal with. I used to try and deal with people on a one to one level to resolve conflicts and was rarely successful due to the nature of porteños. So now I resort to torture - not physical in any way, but in cunning, diabolical ways. Here are some ideas: 1) Make a complaint against the encargado to the SUTERH building worker's union, and give that neighbor's name is the complainant. Create some letters (using the management company's letterhead, this is easy to copy in MSWord or Photoshop) and send nasty complaints to multiple neighbors stating that "such and such" person complained about them. Sign them up for all kinds of services, post signs in the elevator asking "apartment XX" to stop making so much noise when they do the nasty, and sign her name to it. After a while, her life will become impossible, and she will either go crazy, and / or move. These are tried and true tactics to deal with difficult neighbors in Capital Federal and certain parts of Zona Norte. In other parts of Argentina you can talk to people directly and generally they will apologize and be reasonable about disturbing you.

 

[camberiu]

Davidglen77 and GS-Dirtboy,

Your messages are clear proof of what happens when expats stay in Buenos Aires too long. As Nietzsche said:

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."