travelling with teenage girls/safety??

[ppab]

Hi, Im a 19 year old boy that knows buenos aires and great buenos aires pretty well. What did you do with the cell phone is a very good deal. Everything depends on which clubs they are going, and depends a lot of the neighbourhood too. Im a local but I have a fluent level of english. If you don´t look for trouble you won´t get it.For moving remis and radio taxi are good alternatives, as a local i use the bus and i really don´t have any problem. But for your tranquility use the first ones
Don´t hesitate in writing me about any advice my email is [email protected], i would also like to know more other young people who i can help in the city.

 

[Ron]

I really appreciate everyone who took the time to give me advice. It was really helpful and I am glad to know that my girls, following a few basic rules, will be able to safely enjoy themselves.
To sum it up, I'll suggest that they go to the Crobar or Pacha, take a remis, and have a remis waiting for them at a designated time. I'll also try to get more recommendations on boliches in our closer to Recoletta. If for some reason, there is a problem with the remis, they'll call a Radio Taxi. They will lock the doors. They'll take only small bills and they'll carry a card with the address of our rented apartment. And they will carry a cell phone that we'll rent with a local phone number. Thank you everyone.

 

[Ron]

Oh, one more question: Napolean said that the 16 year olds might be able to get in the boliches without id saying they are 18. Does anyone else know more about this?
(For those of you who didn't read all of the posts, I have a daughter who is 19 and is bringing a 19 year old girlfriend, and another daughter who is 16 and who is bringing a 16 year old girlfriend)

 

[ReemsterCARP]

The ID-thing is kind of hit-and miss. Over the last year I went to quite a few nightclubs, and at times I (being 23) have been asked for an ID. The same thing happened with the girls I was with. It's not like being a 16 year old girls won't have any trouble at all getting in to nightclubs.

 

[Dudester]

Ron, I have no idea if you've done this or not so I'm just gonna throw it out there (so please don't get offended if you're one of the few enlightened, liberal parents around). I hope you've had real SERIOUS discussions with your girls (well the 19 year old is a Woman, isn't she - 18 and over I believe) about sex, birth control, libido, alcohol, drugs, desire.... all the stuff that teenagers and young adults go through. The more real and raw you can be with them the better off everyone will be in the end IMHO. They're gonna do what they wanna do and it's your job to make sure they understand why it's not a good idea to go along with certain situations.

I don't want to stereo type BUT my European friends (mainly French) are so much more realistic about sex, birth control, and all that with their kids than my American friends that it's like night and day sometimes. The European kids seem to have much more of a healthy balance when it comes to their feelings and understanding about their own sexuality and about basic human sexuality in general. I notice some of the Americans I know love to bring in religion and the bible into the picture as they try to lay all this fear and guilt on their kids which I find very harmful and cowardly - again, not saying you do this, just talking from observations I have made (+ the FACT that there's much more unwanted pregnancy in the USA compared to Europe). Be straight up and open with them as well as all the above mentioned ways of staying safe in BA and I don't think there'll be much to worry about. Just thought I'd add this cause it never seems to be talked about as much as it should be. Dudester (much better than Dr. Phil)

 

[steveinbsas]

One of the best tips on this thread is to only give the taxi driver the names of the streets at the closest intersection. At the suggestion of Argentine friends, I started doing this to prevent the taxi drivers (who may have other kinds of "friends") from knowing where a foreigner lives. We are targets. I also follow my friends' advice and don't speak English in the streets. Though I always speak in Spanish with the taxi drivers, I am surely recognized by most as a foreigner as soon as I open my mouth. Recently, a couple of guys came to the door of my Recoleta apartment building and told two girls who were entering the building that they were there to see the yankie who lived on the fourth floor (that would be me). At the lift they pulled a knife and proceeded to the girl's apartment (I wasn't home). They talked a lot and even told the girls that they had a van waiting outside and that they had previously been in the building looking through key holes to see which apartments had the best loot. Fortunately, no one was hurt and building security has since been improved. Keep this story in mind as you enter the building where you are staying (especially the girls coming home late at night or when returning from Dudster's sex-ed classes). Never let anyone you don't know or recognize enter with you, and if anyone else is waiting outside as you approach the entrance, I'd suggest you wait (perhaps a few doors away) until they have been met by a building resident or have entered with their key before doing so yourself. I occasionally stop and look at the listings in the window of the real estate office next door if I am concerned about someone else waiting outside. This isn't paranoia. This is just being careful. Calling for a radio taxi to your building will mean giving the address, but the dispatcher will have a record of the call and the identity of the driver.

 

[Dudester]

....OK, very cute Steve... "Dudester's sex-ed classes"... I guess I deserve it by not being clear enough in what I am trying to say (and Steve, for the record, that little comment did have me LOL, rest of the story is very unsettling though). I'm just trying to say the more straight up you are with the girls, the more they will be aware and handle whatever situation comes at them. Of course at their age they are hip to the basics, of course, but you don't want them to over or under react either, that's all I'm saying - an open discussion is what I believe is the proper course here. If you are a parent that's already that way then more power to you, BRAVO, and all that stuff. The problem is, I have too many friends that have teenage children and they can't seem to talk to them about ANYTHING personal or touchy (but then I have some weird friends, what can I say. These are the ones that go back to Elementary and Jr High School - I'm sure we can all relate). So, with all that said, I do hope my main message is making it through the cracks in the fog of my lack of articulation - at least some of it. (GWB was my English Teacher, I'll blame it on him - lol) - Dudester

 

[steveinbsas]

Well, Dudester, I'm glad you got a laugh out of my post. That line
was meant to lighten up an otherwise very serious post on a very
serious topic. I've enjoyed reading your posts and share your love for
Paris and admiration of French civility. Given the girls' ages perhaps
we can also blame GWB for any lack of sex-ed they may have suffered
during the years they should have received it (perhaps due to the lack
of federal funding for the appropriate classes as a result of the Bush
tax cuts for the rich). He would have been at the helm throughout their
"formative" years and therefore ultimately responsible for the state of
public education in the US. Unless the girls' parents are liberals,
they probably have no idea where babies come from. If the parents are conservative, they might even
suffer the delusion that children are a gift from God. If the parents
are libs, then they'll know that everything is a gift from the
government.

But seriously, I would imagine that the chance of any of the
girls becoming pregnant as a result of a visit to a Buenos Aires disco
is extremely small. The danger in the streets is far greater. I have
lived here two years, and though my circle of friends is small and
includes no expats, almost everyone I know has either been a victim of
street crime: picked picket, purse snatched, watch stolen at gunpoint,
or a "home invasion" as I described in my previous post has occurred in
the buildings where they live. I was certainly the target of the
latter and an elderly Argentine man was killed in a similar incident
not far from my apartment in December '07. I've also felt fingers going
into the pocket of my jeans on the subway. One Argentine with whom I do
business was recently robbed of $48,000 US Dollars as he and his wife
left the bank. He also told me the story of a woman in GBA who observed her car being stolen. When she went to the comisaria to file a report, she found herself face to face with the thieves who stole her car. They also happened to be policemen. She went "over their heads" and filed another report with their superiors. Soon after, her house was invaded. They took everything. She did not file another report.



Buenos Aires is called the Paris of South America. Where are the gendarmes when we need them?

 

[steveinbsas]

'robbed of $48,000 as they left the bank' ???According to the man I know who was robbed, ELEVEN such robberies occurred in a two month period early this year in GBA (in a two barrio area). ALL followed real estate transactions where everything is usually paid for in US Dollars. I know this is true from personal experience. When I bought my apartment, I paid the seller in cash. He stuffed all of the currency (100 dollar bills) into a fisherman's-camera style vest and a jacket and an overcoat and walked out into the streets when we were finished. Many Argentines have learned from bitter experience not to keep their money (especially dollars) in Argentine banks. All dollar accounts were forcibly converted to pesos in January 2002 resulting in an almost 70% loss of value overnight.'I am not saying that crime isn't getting worse and 'home invasion'
isn't happening - but the watch robbery seems to be too common - is it
a 'padded' insurance claim? I saw one once and it seemed to be
incredibly co-ordinated. 'I doubt it is usually an insurance scam, but that's just my opinion. I think it would be rather petty for the watch owner to make a claim, and even if it is a scam it would be difficult for the watch owner to repeat. If anyone ever demands my Casio watch in the street they will get it immediately and I will probably not report it. I never carry my passport (just a photocopy) and only take my ATM card with me when I am going to withdraw money and return immediately to my apartment. There were 3,000 reported robberies of businesses (mostly kioskos and locutorios) in GBA in January 08. I don't have figure for the months since, but I don;t think there is much of a war on crime here.

One note to Ron about Recoleta: It is considered by many (including me) to be safer than most other areas of the city, especially at night, but crime can and obviously does happen everywhere. Prostitution is legal here, and there are a number of "night clubs" that offer "escort" type services in the area of Village Recoleta. I hope that Ron and his party have rented an apartment that isn't above or close to one of them. A few months ago, a Parisian man made a post on this forum hoping to exchange his Paris apartment for one in Buenos Aires in July and August. We exchanged a few emails, and though we are not going to exchange our apartments, we did discover that an apartment he was considering for an exchange was indeed located very close to one of the "night club/brothels" as well as a "sex hotel" on the back side of the Cemetery Recoleta. (The apartment owner did not provide this information when offering to make the exchange.)
This link provides a list of Buenos Aires "night clubs" and most, but not all of them facilitate (legal) prostitution. http://www.gemidos.com.ar/tips/night_clubs.html. Caution: gemidos.com.ar IS a website which features ads (with nudity) from independent escorts and other adult entertainers.
'French civility' Parisians? - really? I like to meet them!! Parlez-vous francias, fishface?

If you want to make friends in Paris and discover true French civility, just learn to say the following: Je ne parle pas le beaucoup de français pas encor. Je ne crois pas que la France soit le pays le plus civilisé dans le monde. Je crois que la France est le seul pays civilisé dans le monde.
They will love you.

 

[ppab]

The ID-thing is kind of hit-and miss. Over the last year I went to quite a few nightclubs, and at times I (being 23) have been asked for an ID. The same thing happened with the girls I was with. It's not like being a 16 year old girls won't have any trouble at all getting in to nightclubs.

They wont have trouble entering without ID in the clubs located in great buenos aires, like Pinar de Rocha, Coyote, etc (Not the best option for you). They also may have problems to getting into in some clubs in capital specially recoleta, barrio norte and palermo because there are different age allowances depending on the day. For being clearer i give you an hypotetic example, just for explanation: The club xxxx is organizes techno nights on saturday for 21+, and on friday there is reggae night 18+.