Is Your Family Abroad Worried For You?

[lucha54]

When my mom came (the most hysterical mom on the planet by far) she felt pretty safe in Alto Palermo area.
But when I told her about my sublet in Almagro she said, 'isn't it dangerous the further you go from Palermo?'
I told some Americans from my hometown recently that pedestrians don't have the right-of-way and they were shocked! Just shocked!

I guess it depends what kind of travel experiences people have had. Yes things work very differently and the currency/cash thing is pretty strange and unique to here (and maybe Venezuela and Zimbabwe or something) but other than that I just tell people it's a slightly more sketchy blend of Italy and Spain and if they can handle those places, they'll do OK here.

 

[Napoleon]

My mom is a little nuts and I know this. So...

1) I never told her about being on my belly in the kitchen of a "country" as two armed chorros robbed 4 of us of our money & phones before marching us into a back bathroom where they could have shot us and the echos would have carried over a soccer field and a fence before dissipating into nothing as the sound died out over farmland.

2) I never told her about the French guy photographing the Malvinas Memorial and then getting stabbed to death in broad daylight when he didn't immediately hand over his camera.

3) I never told her that I carried pepper spray on my tours after that, because many times I would pass in front of the Malvinas Memorial with retirees carrying expensive cameras.

4) I never told her about the Austrian kid who hopped on the bus right after me (and two clients) in La Boca and proceeded to ask if La Boca was a bad neighborhood, because someone had just put a gun to the side of his head and stolen his camera and his wallet. (At the end of his first week of a 3 month trip through South America.)

5) I never told her about watching a drunk homeless man pick up a folding chair in Plaza Dorrego and try to smash it over a tourist's head, only to hit the table's umbrella and one of those supports smacked one of the tourist's nose and caused it to bleed.

6) I never told her about a friend talking on a cell phone in front of his building when a motochorro tried to grab his phone. Or that after my friend pushed him to the ground and kicked him a few times, it wasn't until the chorro jumped on the back of his friend's bike before my friend looked down at his shin and noticed blood trickling down from where he'd been stabbed.

7) I never told her about watching a motorchorro grab the phone out of a man's hand as he was falling to the ground in the crosswalk of Diagonal Sud in front of the Roca monument and then turn and slowly walk to his buddy's bike to make a casual getaway as the victim's wife started to cry out... and I was giving a tour to two 50-something female doctors from Philly just about 30 yards away.

8) I never told her about a man (homeless?) running from the park in front of the Teatro Colón who grabbed an Asian lady's necklace and ripped it away from her as she stood on the Teatro Colón side of Tucuman at Libertad and then run off down toward Av. 9 de Julio as the victim screamed and someone managed to grab the theif's backpack as he continued to sprint toward the avenue.

9) I never told her about the lady who was tied-up and beaten to death just 4 blocks from my apartment (and about two blocks from the Evita Museum) while her husband was at Synagogue... or that it was most definitely an inside job involving the Encargado.

10) I never told her that virtually everyone I knew had been mugged at least once in Buenos Aires.


The more you tell your family, the more worried they get. They don't need to know anything. Tell them that "Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America", but without as much religious fanaticism... or at least that there hadn't been any car bombs since 1994. (That's over 20 years.) And that there hasn't been a military dictatorship in over 30 years! (That should make them feel safe... as long as you don't mention that witnesses scheduled to testify about a train wreck that could make the government look back ultimately died of "lead poisoning" before they could talk.)

Everything is fiiiiiiine. As long as you've got a two week supply of tampons, there is nothing for your family to worry about.

 

[garryl]

I told some Americans from my hometown recently that pedestrians don't have the right-of-way and they were shocked! Just shocked!

I am sure your hometown is not central LA, where pedestriansget get run over or shot

 

[pitipur]

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.

Wait are you implying that only foreigners wear shorts when theyre not at the beach?

 

[wild_horses]

In Argentina we wear burkas, so it is easy to spot a pale tourist with shorts.

 

[mmoon]

Wait are you implying that only foreigners wear shorts when theyre not at the beach?

I love that this is the take home comment after my loooooong post. Baexpats, you never fail me.

 

[Montauk_Project]

In 2002 I came here in the midst of the financial/political crisis. I was 20 years old, fresh out of college and the reason I was coming here was to study the financial crisis (so I knew what I was getting into). My Dad is a retired airplane pilot who flied for years to Argentina. He actually held an intervention (AA style) with friends and family to convince me not to go. I did anyway, and compared to 2002 Buenos Aires is 100 times safer and works better. Now my Dad visits me once a year, and he says that in the US the news about Argentina is bad but he loves it here.
Here are some practical answers to give:
1) traveling times "Argentina is the size of India. . . really! But with almost no population. This means that travel distances can be very long and you can drive for hours without even a rest stop in Patagonia. If you have limited time the best to do is fly or to limit yourself to one region, or plan on spending 90% of your trip in transit."
2) Buenos Aires has the same muder rate as New York City and is one of the safest cities of Latin America. However, there are robberies. Keep in mind that something not valuable to you, like an I-phone, might be worth a lot of money here and make you a target. Be careful taking photos with expensive cameras, using laptops in public places or kindles. Just treat it like you are going to any major city.
3) No matter how hard you try, you will probably not look like an Argentine. That is ok, just don´t look like you are going on a saffari. People in Buenos Aires tend to dress trendy and informal, more European than American. But wear what you want.
4) In Buenos Aires everything can be bought with cash, even houses! Most Argentines prefer cash, and if you bring dollars you can get a great exchange rate. But if cash makes you uncompfortable, don´t worry, you will be able to get out money in ATMS and use credit cards in most places that tourists would go to. But always bring at least 500USD. (if people don´t want to save money, don´t force them to).
5) The US media loves to print bad news about Argentina, and Argentines love to complain about the economy, crime, the government, the weather, whatever! It is in their blood. But did you know that more than 100,000 Americans call Buenos Aires home? That there is a lot of immigration? Very active industry? (This is where I throw in facts about the film industry, auto industry, great medical care, the satelite, etc). So don´t worry about the bad news. In Paris a gunman killed 13 people in a magazine, but will stop you from going to France? Or will Sandyhook stop you from going to Boston? Every place has its good sides and bad sides, but things here are pretty good.

These comments usually stop the negative stuff pretty quick. Good luck.

(note, I use "americans" assuming i am talking to people from US).

 

[Supercharged]

my friends and family are worried when I am in the US. I got two shootings, Target and Bubank, while i lived in LA and in the UK twice stuck on the tube for terrorist attacks...coupled by two shooting while working in an institution in the US

BA seems like a pic nic in comparison with all the shooting at universities and everywhere you go in the US; just check the news!

 

[cwo4uscgret]

My wife is from Bogota; when we met she was living and working in Mexico City. On this trip that started for me on Thanksgiving Day I flew to Bogota, spent 3 weeks there, flew to Cartegena and took a cuise to Aruba, LaGuira Venezuela, Curacao, and Colon returning to Cartegena then Bogota, and on 12/28 flew into Buenos Aires and won't leave until 1/25 going back to Bogota then Michigan and home.

After retiring from 30 years in the military I spent 10-1/2 years as a US Customs Officer on the US-Canadian Border. I've seen some very graphic pictures of the drug cartel violence in Mexico; beheadings, hangings, etc. My wife has a condo in Acapulco; where the drug violence has killed several tourists. Of all the places we've visited in the last 3 years Paris is the only city where we've experienced crime personally - my wife, not paying attention, had her cell phone stolen from her hand but we got it back; the police did a great job.

Its amazing - what my former Customs Officers have to say about my travels; calling me crazy - that I may get kidnapped in Colombia; I worry more when I have to go to the VA Hospital in Detroit!

Crime is everywhere; I am 6'2" with silver hair and full beard; although it is hard to blend in I try to not make myself look vulnerable - like a potential crime victim. This weekend we will probably go to the eFormula Race and I will bring my "expensive" camera; and will take pictures, putting the camera back into the backpack when done.

Am I worried about crime - not worried but aware of it and am careful about the watch I wear, how much money I carry, and where I go.