Is Your Family Abroad Worried For You?

[Girino]

I have been here 8 months straight and it is the first time I stay away from family that much time. My mom is worried sick for me, also because when Argentina makes the news is for very bad stuff, plus when you google "Argentina" or travel blog about Argentina they all feature some sort of horror story about petty crimes or armed robberies. She is not the type of independent world traveller, she lives okay in her small town and doesn't like to go off her beaten track, so there is no way she is taking a plane to visit me - and that is okay with me.

I keep telling her that I am okay and I do feel fine, and that I am ready to leave the day things won't look that good for me anymore.
Now I have been having people from home visiting (relatives and friends) since November, and the ones who have yet to come are scared to death about coming here (nobody asked them to come, by the way). Of course I warned them about how to dress and to be extra careful when going around, to bring cash because of the better exchange rate and because sometimes foreign credit cards just don't work, etc.

Also arranging internal trips by plane by paying cash at Aerolineas branch instead of by credit card through website seems something drastic to my European friends/family. I have been here too little time to be already used to these 'adjustments', I believe... so what is all the fuss about? Is it really so dramatic here? Or is it me that got used to the Argentinean way of life?

Will they change their mind once arrived here and seeing with their own eyes that this is not Lagos?
These people are asking odd questions that make me think they have no idea of where they are going to land in 20 days...

Q: Is it true that if I wear short I will be spotted as a tourist or is it the anglo saxon sense of fashion of my Lonely Planet guide?
Q: We are staying 3 weeks and we want to see BsAs, las pampas, Iguazú and the glaciers in the south. And we want to go there by bus to save money
Q: We want to go around the country without a plan and rent a car. We made the international driving license. Are we okay? (...we will rescue them 20 days later in La Plata, I guess)
Q: We have decided to go to Iguazú - is it an island?


Someone please comfort me.

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

It sounds like you're the one freaking people out. Telling them how to dress and to be extra careful. Paying for a trip in cash makes it cheaper but you can certainly travel here using foreign cards in local ATMs.

The only time my foreign family got worried was when the called to make sure I wasn't on the Sarmiento train in once that day a few years ago.

Also, of you habe time, driving around the country with a flexible itinerary is an amazing way to get to know Argentina. There is so much (and occasionally impressively little) between the tourist destinations. I've done 3 trips like this and they've been some of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

 

[Girino]

It sounds like you're the one freaking people out. Telling them how to dress and to be extra careful. Paying for a trip in cash makes it cheaper but you can certainly travel here using foreign cards in local ATMs.

Maybe I read too much of this forum. None of the things described on here ever happened to me and I never saw any of the assault/robberies or ATM not working reported on this forum.

 

[mmoon]

Good post Serafina. I've lived in and out of Argentina, the U.S. and Europe for the past 15 years, so I've been on different sides looking in and out at the way things operate in different places. I don't think it's so much that you are freaking out as that things are done so differently in Argentina, and it is a shock for people when they first come up against it. For example, going to an airline ticket office in person to buy your tickets in cash used to strike me as completely insane. Now I am used to it because cash is king and everything else is unreliable. I buy tons of stuff and tickets via the Internet in the US, but virtually none of my friends in Argentina do it, for a myriad of reasons. The process to rent a car (or buy one, God forbid) can make you lose your mind. Opening a bank account? Could be easier to simply start your own investment bank probably. I think I remenber you are from Italy, and although Italy is pretty much the mother ship for Argentina, I found the bureaucracy and general way of doing things to be far easier and clearer in Italy.
Visitors never have a sense of how huge Argentina is until they get there. Our visitors always want to see Iguazu, Mendoza, Bariloche, BA, maybe the whales at Puerto Madryn and still have time for several days on the beach...all in a few weeks. They look at the map and seem to miss noticing all those hours of uninterrupted pampa!!!
However, I would say don't wear shorts. Dead giveaway if you aren't at the beach. Don't use your iPhone openly. Bring cash but don't flash it. Be open to adventure, because you will get it.

 

[estebandepraga]

The only time my family worries about me is when I went to North Korea and Mali and on my now frequent travels to Iran.Argentina compared to many places is quite safe

 

[BaltRochGirl]

People who don't travel much and have never lived abroad or have even left the place they grew up are often very worried about anything different! For your Mom I would just avoid telling her anything that could make her worry, you can't control the news, but if you second those things she will just worry more, it's a case of less is more. Then if you need to vent, call your friends, they usually can deal with the frustrations you're feeling a lot better.

Most visitors are a bit weirded out by the informal economy, exchanging in Blue, paying all in cash, the savvy ones get over it quick, for the others just try not to make it a big deal and if you can just work around them being involved in that step, do it. If you have to just tell them they will get HUGE international transaction charges on all their CC's so you're doing it to save them that added cost!

Most adjust OK once here, but you can't control that so don't worry too much.

As for their questions. I wear shorts all the time and no one ever stares at me, I see people wearing them all over the city as well, it's hot! Now if you're wearing safari shorts, white sneakers with your socks up to your knees, that could be a different scenario. I generally tell people to just bring their normal clothes for BA, and comfortable walking shoes as we're going to be out and about a lot, but something normal for dinners out and what not.

Thinking they will see the whole country in 3 weeks, well it's possible depending on where they want to go and for how long, but in general people all over the world underestimate the size of a country they don't know. I'm from the US and people always tell me all the things they want to plan to visit on their 1-2 week vacation and it's insane and totally impossible, no one checks a map they just hear about places and go oh we should visit that too.

International driving licenses always make me think I should have invented that! It's such a waste of $ and almost no country requires them, I bet they would just making renting a car way more confusing here.

Iguazu does have some islands in the middle doesn't it? Just like people wanting to go on a beach vacation to Argentina, thinking it's the Caribbean cause it's South

 

[Girino]

Hallo! Ich nicht sprach Español...

 

[Crema Americana]

I'm sure my parents worry sometimes... but they are parents. It's natural. The reality of the situation is that Buenos Aires isn't the safest city in the world when it comes to muggings, break ins, etc -- but awful things happen everywhere. There's plenty of bad news coming from Miami too, so I just point that out.

When my brother and his wife visited, they said they felt safe in the city... certainly better than some areas of Atlanta, where they came from. My cousin from Barcelona did okay as well... but she's also used to city living (watching your purse and pockets.) I think that's the biggest adjustment... those from big cities tend to be a little more cautious.... while my mom, who comes from a small town, lives in a nice suburb in the US, doesn't have the same wits about her. I'm sure they all had a little trepidation about coming, some more than others, but once they were here they seemed fine. Anyone who travels to a country or a continent for the first time feels that trepidation, especially if they've heard negative things.


As for the clothes... normal attire is fine. Obviously you don't want to look like the stereotypical tourist with an expensive camera around your neck, but whatever you wear where you're from should be fine.* Jewelry isn't a huge deal either - I wouldn't wear a $10K engagement ring, but I do wear small daily gold jewelry and never had any issue (wedding band, medallion, etc.) The main thing is you want to avoid appearing loaded and vulnerable.

*The dead give aways for Americans are University t-shirts, baseball caps, flip flops, and baggy clothing.
Shorts are common here, but they are reserved for summer. Not when it's 60 degrees in fall/winter, as summer-ish as that may feel to people from the frozen tundra.


Sometimes travelers scare themselves by reading too many "travel tips" online. Buenos Aires definitely isn't a theme park city, but most visitors get along just fine. The biggest risks are pickpockets and scams.

 

[Cecil Fox Palmer]

Yup.

I avoid telling her anything that might worry or upset her. Unless it's some type of emergency, I don't tell her about it, or I tell her casually like it's no big deal. When she was visiting, I didn't share my paranoid thoughts with her. The most I probably said was (when going to Retiro to take the train to Tigre) to stay close and try not to talk to strangers. She talked to strangers anyways. Nothing bad happened.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

nope, grew up in north belfast in the 80s/90. Saw various things in person which give the ma & da magico sharp perspective.

They get worried when I tell them we are driving anywhere long distance here though.