NY Post: What's the deal with Buenos Aires?

[chieftahosa]

http://www.nypost.com/p/lifestyle/travel/what_the_deal_with_buenos_aires_xTxvxUu6ubpIfUavqV01dM

This is a fun little article. What do you all think?

As a recent arrival and likely future half-of-the-year resident, I find myself, like the author, getting "sucked in" rather inexorably by Bs. As. after a 3-month stay. I know we all have our "reasons" for being here, some lofty, some not so loft. At least for me, however, having weighed the pros and cons of living here and in the US, or in other Latin American countries, it's more just a gut feeling that this is where I, at 34 years of age, want to be, at least for the next chapter in life...

 

[steveinbsas]

From the article:

"I've always suspected that much of the ado made about Buenos Aires is made by expat writers who live there. It is pretty intoxicating, this idea of buying your way into the nicest neighborhoods in town for a few hundred bucks a month. File a couple of stories a month to your editors in the States, and you're living like a king. Really, who wouldn't love the idea of getting out of the grocery store with a full basket for twenty dollars, as I did last week, turning that basketful into no less than 5 or 6 meals. The better wines are pitifully cheap. It's pretty awesome."

While the notion of "buying your way into the nicest neighborhoods in town for a few hundred bucks a month" is utter nonsense and dangerously misleading (to wannabe expats who "move" here without ever having visited), "the idea of getting out of the grocery store with a full basket for twenty dollars, as I did last week, turning that basketful into no less than 5 or 6 meals" is true, along with the fact that "The better wines are pitifully cheap." (italics mine)

Of course the author either failed to note or simply doesn't know that prices for many items in the grocery stores have doubled in the past three or four years...and continue to rise at an alarming rate. Such is the risk of falling in love and even deciding to move to BA without really knowing the reality of life (or true cost of living) here.

As the saying goes, "Love is blind."

So are many wannabe BAexpats.

 

[syngirl]

Of course the author either failed to note or simply doesn't know that prices for many items in the grocery stores have doubled in the past three or four years...and continue to rise at an alarming rate. Such is the risk of falling in love and even deciding to move to BA without really knowing the reality of life (or true cost of living) here.

As the saying goes, "Love is blind."

So are many wannabe BAexpats.

Lol -- yeah I guess my mistake was that I moved here in 2005, when 20 pesos, not 20 dollars, got me a large basket of food from the grocery store. I guess the perspective as to whether things are cheap here is proportionate to your arrival date in the country! Yes, I understand for someone from NYC 20 dollars is still cheap, but for those of us that have stuck around awhile, we know that prices have been rising steadily, if not in great leaps and bounds, for more years than even I have been here...

The author who wrote that may not have been aware that many items have increased even 20-30% since January (Oroweat bread: used to be 10 pesos, and we thought we were crazy to buy it then -- last weekend at Jumbo they wanted 17! I guess it really is made of oro!)

 

[JoeBlow]

I guess it really is made of oro!)

Hah!
Hah!
Hah!

(See if that's 10 charcaters.)

 

[JoeBlow]

From the article:

"who wouldn't love the idea of getting out of the grocery store with a full basket for twenty dollars, as I did last week, turning that basketful into no less than 5 or 6 meals"

Damn! Where's that supermarket? I guess if you shop at the mercado central (which I'd like to do sometime).

Anyways, I wanted to get my highhorse on my soapbox:

It sounds really belittling saying look how much food I can buy with 20 dollars! What a tourist can or cannot do here shouldn't really matter; what you should care about (if I may say) is the buying power of a local salary.

Well I'm at it, I'm sure you could also go to Ethiopia and eat for even cheaper. Why be wasting all your money here?

I'm just sayin.

 

[steveinbsas]

It sounds really belittling saying look how much food I can buy with 20 dollars! What a tourist can or cannot do here shouldn't really matter; what you should care about (if I may say) is the buying power of a local salary.

Actually, I think there are enough "tourists" who rent apartments with kitchens for as short term as a week or two, so this info is relevant. The article doesn't deal with the issue of foreigners working here on local salaries. Even though the author didn't mention the broken sidewalks decorated with dog poop, screaming buses belching noxious fumes, or the dangers of crossing the street in the crosswalk with the "WALK" signal, I got the impression from reading this article that Ciudad Buneos Aires is basically a pseudo-European shithole, and after living there for four years I have to agree.

 

[shpunter]

Nice to see that the Post is as charming as ever and continues hiring ace reporters who really do their homework. I think it was when he referred to the scam artists as "pathetic peasants" and made a completely unsubstantiated comment about their being so many here that is makes Mexico look like Canada that I knew what kind of person I was reading.

Let's face it, you get from another culture what you are willing to put into it.

 

[steveinbsas]

Let's face it, you get from another culture what you are willing to put into it.

Does this apply to the expats who have been robbed or repeatedly mugged?

 

[gouchobob]

This mainly just a travel piece, you can always expect them to say nice things. I've never read one in any publication that states that a place is a hell-hole and you should stay away. The writer may or may not have been anywhere near B.A. recently. The article is probably OK for someone considering a week or two vacation, as a guide for permanent relocation it is seriously deficient.

 

[thebookcellar]

I was in and out of England, travelling, working in other countries for 6-7 years before i got to Buenos Aires. It was not so much as i wanted to move here, but that i met an Argentine who lives in the city...
Now, after more than two years, i have found a way to describe what i feel -
I've always lived in other places thinking about the next, but Buenos Aires is the first place i have ever lived where i don't feel like or think about leaving.
Reasons? don't know