How To Not Pass For A Tourist?

[Cialu]

I brought my Vibrams with me and have not worn them once. But I never wore them in public at home either, just for walking on my treadmill. Thought I would use them if we went hiking here, but I didn't even wear them when we went to Iguazu. Don't bother packing them.

could i ask you why? i practically lived in mine last summer, only changed into heels at the office

 

[Aussiegirl]

I've lived and travelled all over the world and find it's best to just dress like yourself.. treat the place like your second home.. feel comfortable with it.. and then you wont look awkward! haha I'm laughing at this thread as I have never been robbed or really felt unsafe so I wonder if my constant state of living in fairy land as I wander around keeps me protected!!??

 

[ajoknoblauch]

For men:
- Wear a River Plate shirt (South of Puerto Madero, use a Boca one).
- For your hair, use a "rat's tail"
- A thermos under your arm + a mate in your hand

And there you go!

With a thermos under your arm, the Porteños will think you're Uruguayan.

 

[lamarque]

With a thermos under your arm, the Porteños will think you're Uruguayan.

Actually they will think you are from the provinces inside the country, and their second guess will be Uruguayan.

 

[Triolis]

I've lived and travelled all over the world and find it's best to just dress like yourself.. treat the place like your second home.. feel comfortable with it.. and then you wont look awkward! haha I'm laughing at this thread as I have never been robbed or really felt unsafe so I wonder if my constant state of living in fairy land as I wander around keeps me protected!!??

That worked for me as well, perfectly! And if I felt unsafe in one or the other situation, I always remember what I've seen in a documentary about gorillas, many years ago when I was a kid: never look them into the eyes.

I was in some parts of the world where friends of mine were robbed, but I never felt really insecure. Even if people told me to take care or that we are in a really dangerous place (parts of Bogota/Amsterdam/Paris/Barcelona in the middle of the night aso.)... the only places that I felt a kind of fear were when we took a wrong exit in L.A. (I wanted to ask for the way and the guy inside a fortified desk looked paranoid to the left and to the right, I knew it's time to get back into the car and drive away) or when I crossed besides a scene when a group of guys watched like one of them were beating up a women *activated the invisible mode* (I felt bad that I couldn't do anything, but I'm not bullet proof I guess). Well, I got smaked once when quite drunk in a tourist place... how could I know that the guy, that I was mocking about, is from my home town and understood my dialect??

Some weeks ago, when preparing my travel to Bs As, I stumbled up this page (was researching about security here) and I started to ask myself if it would be really that scary in some places when reading some lines about the topic. And the first thing that I've seen when leaving my place at night were quite a lot of people sleeping in the streets. And in such situations, I always think... in their situation, I probably would try to rob a guy like me. I had no idea if i really look like a foreigner. Well, today, somebody asked me if the balance is working, in a pharmacy... I guess he thought that I'm working there, hehe... and if I look on some people here, I'm not looking that different I guess (not like in Colombia for example, when I really was "el mono").

To make a point... yesterday, I was searching for something and came to this page again... and I was reading a lot and have to say... I couldn't stop! So many funny things... the topic about pizza! :lol: I almost never eat pizza outside home because I know how to make a pizza that I like most... but yesterday, I just ate a slice and have to admit... it's not that bad. And Bs As is such a big city, it's impossible to say the pizza here is better/worse than in Italy for example... the worst pizza I've ever eaten was in Rome... but that doesn't mean ALL the pizzas in Italy are bad... one of the worst pizzas I've eaten were in the US... but one of the best pizzas as well. (sorry about that, I don't want to warm it up again. My pizza is very good when cold as well).

To come back to the original topic here (second point, hehe). Bs As is a big city, with probably... 99(and more)% immigrants (if we go back for centuries), you find people originally from about every corner of the world, with all possible ways to dress/express/behave themselves... like Aussiegirl said...just dress like yourself! If you don't want to look like a tourist, just don't look into a map while standing in the way of the traffic.

Ah, before I forget...

@Cialu: wear your lilac 20s style cloche, that must look very nice! It doesn't matter in which part of the world. Well, I imagine, best would be probably in an old café in Montmartre, nipping on a Pontarlier glass of Absinthe - just my imagination (is there such a bar here, btw?).

Entonces... enjoy being in this wonderful city! It's our perception anyway I guess, that make a place beautiful... stressy, durty, lovely... as a citizen of fairy land, I have no other choise than imagine it a save and lovely place for everybody (at least I try, unless I catch again a terrible noro or what ever made me puke all Saturday or was it the half raw meat, or sushi??)

 

[French jurist]

With a thermos under your arm, the Porteños will think you're Uruguayan.

Indeed, I agree (much more common in Uruguay)!

 

[trennod]

Lamarque where in the interior are you originally from? I just assumed you were porteño all this time on the forum! Not that there is anything wrong with being porteño

 

[lamarque]

Lamarque where in the interior are you originally from? I just assumed you were porteño all this time on the forum! Not that there is anything wrong with being porteño

I'm from Patagonia, A little town in the province of Rio Negro, i live there until 18 then i move to Bahia Blanca and after i came to Buenos Aires, later on I move to Europe and now back here and the shock is big when you first come to Buenos Aires, porteños don't drink so much mate as we do, they don't have the same way to socialize and they are a more closed society, it is more difficult to get into their social groups, they are paranoid in my point of view and very distrusted on other people.
Normally when you see a person with a mate equipment walking here in the capital they are from the Interior not from the city or second guess would be that they are from Uruguay, Porteños are different in many ways i would say, to the rest of the country.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Somehow I guess I've passed the test, because Porteños and other Argentines often stop me in the street to ask directions (and more often than not, I can give the correct answer). But I haven't gone out of my way to look like a local.

 

[Hybrid Ambassador]

Somehow I guess I've passed the test, because Porteños and other Argentines often stop me in the street to ask directions (and more often than not, I can give the correct answer). But I haven't gone out of my way to look like a local.

Hey ajoknoblauch-san, Are you an western Ninja.? I just saw you in Santiago de Chile a few heurs a go.! You do post in Allchile.net and in BA expats very often..! Question: Iam now days just put on a Trainer Suit to go out to the Gym and stop at the Costco to buy me a few things to cook at home from time to time, Like I said before the Work out suits are so comfy, you know a la Nike trainers suit or similar brands. Do I pass as local Portenyos in this fashion.? Or will I be seen as a Hay-Seeds "Extarnjero" genre people..? Will the Bs As ites would recognise me as a"Forastero" or will they give the seal as being local ?