Beginner's Guide to Buenos Aires
Lately, I have been meeting people who are heading to Buenos Aires, or who have recently arrived in Buenos Aires who ask me for advice. I've been back in the U.S. for 4 or 5 months after living there so I've definitely had some time to think about what I wish I would have known before I left.
I'm not sure how I became so well-adjusted to a city I originally didn't like at all. It can feel so scary and overwhelming to move to an area of 14 million people who speak a different language than you, but after being there for 6 months, I knew enough people that I would generally run into someone I knew, no matter which bars I went to at night. I conquered a completely baffling system of buses enough that I didn't need to look up directions about 70 percent of the time. I developed a lasting love for fernet, and mate, and staying out late like the porteños do, and I picked up a great (or snobby, as one Argentine from Córdoba I met the other day told me) Buenos Aires accent.
A lot of my love for Buenos Aires is due help I got: Lovely locals like my friend Valentina who adopted our study abroad group of yanquis and helped us navigate an insane, confusing city when our school's program completely failed us. Random new friends and friends of friends who invited me to asados so I could experience something really important to Argentina's culture. I also worked at a news publication, making it necessary for me to jump into the culture here and always know what's going on.
In hopes of helping everyone love Buenos Aires as much as I do, I am going to publish pseudo-guide here with the basics of starting to live in Buenos Aires. Porteño and expat friends, feel free to comment on this post with your thoughts. I'll keep changing it when I think of more things.
Before I left for Buenos Aires I asked my editor at the Argentina Independent if he had any suggestions of books so I could learn more before I arrived. I'm just going to copy and paste what he said directly:
One suggestion for books is 'The Argentina Reader', which has essays and a different sort of historical overview than the books below. It goes into indigenous issues, society, culture and is told through speeches, poetry and essays, by different notable types and historians from over the years, rather than being written as a straight book.
Another option is a more standard academic history book than The Argentina Reader. 'A history of Argentina in the 20th Century' by Luis Alberto Romero, which is a pretty straight history book. It's a little dry, but very comprehensive - if it is too much (a whole book!) definitely read from Perón onwards, as he is so influential still, you won't really understand anything about politics without knowing about him (although the early bits about the Radicals is interesting too, I found). After Perón the book goes through the turbulent 60s and 70s, the dictatorship, then the Alfonsín and Menem years.
As this book does not make it to the crisis, and you really should try to get your head around that, a good book (which really is more interesting than it sounds, and you don't have to be an economics buff to work your way through it) - 'And the money came rolling in (and out)' by Paul Blustein. It's a really good breakdown of what happened back in 2001/2 and also why it happened, and as you'll all be here for the anniversary of the crisis, we will most certainly be doing something on it.
If the Madres of Plaza de Mayo interest you, a great book is 'Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo' by Marguerite Guzman Bouvard. It goes into the dictatorship in a great amount of depth, and also analyses the social movement of the madres since the return of democracy, how they have become more polemic over the years, and the impunity that was present during the Menem years for the people who committed the worst atrocities.
Another book which is just generally a necessity, although most of you Latin American buffs will probably have read it, is 'Open Veins of Latin America' by Eduardo Galleano. It's pretty heavy stuff and I would read it in English unless you're feeling fairly bilingual already. It's a bit of a cliche, and was made famous last year after Chavez gave it to Obama, but if you want to understand the frustration most people on this continent feel and have a chance of empathy in interviews, it really is an excellent background read. And particularly relevant now as lots of bicentenary issues that are being raised at present point to a sort of, ok, 200 years, but how far haven't we come in that time, as well as how much has been achieved.
He also suggested some documentary films:
La República Perdida (I and II)
Part I: early 1900's to 1976
Part II: military dictatorship and return to democracy (the film is from the 80's)
(Can't find links with subtitles)
Memoria del Saqueo, by Pino Solanas
Explains the economic policies of the 90's and the 2001 crisis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH6_i8zuffs (subtitled but in 12 parts, alas)
The Take, by... Naomi Klein's husband!
Shows the 2001 crisis and the social movements and recuperated factories that came from it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzXln5kbuw
South of the Border, by Oliver Stone
Gives an overview of the current Latin American political processes and shows how they are misrepresented in the US media.
(Can't find link, but it may be not so hard to find abroad as it's a US movie...?)
War on Democracy, by John Pilger
History of US intervention in Latin America. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3739500579629840148
The Revolution will not be Televised
About the 2002 coup against Chávez in Venezuela and the role of the media and the opposition.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144
You can search for apartments on CompartoDepto or CraigsList. CompartoDepto in general has more ads from locals and Latin American students, and Craigslist has more expats and English-speakers. A furnished apartment in a shared house should cost you around US$400-500 a month (or around $1600-2500 pesos). Buenos Aires is comprised of 15 different barrios, but most young people and expats opt for places in Palermo or San Telmo. Other neighborhoods are nice, too, but I love living in Palermo because I rarely have to take the bus, as almost everywhere I want to go to is there. If you want to look into other neighborhoods, or see a really cool house on Craigslist but don't recognize the name of the area, I encourage you to check out this guide to neighborhoods in Gringo In Buenos Aires.
You can use the online city map to find how to get from one address to another using public transport. You can buy a Guia T from most newspaper stands (around $10) which is useful for getting around the city when you aren't connected to internet. Make sure you check that the Guía says "2013" on the front, sometimes they try to scam tourists and sell them old ones. Here is a very useful article on how to ride the buses here and how to use the Guía T.
To get around the city using buses and subways (subtes) you need to buy a Sube card which you can get at many Kioscos or subway stations. They cost about $15 and then you put money on them and swipe them. Often places that will charge your sube card have this sign in the window:
Subte fare: $2.50 (flat fare)
Bus fare: $1.50 (up to 3km), $1.60 (3-6km) or $1.70 (6km+) depending on the distance with SUBE. If you don't have a SUBE, it costs twice as much, and you need to pay with coins using a machine on the bus.
The subways are pretty limited so expect to use buses a lot.
Only take taxis that say "Radio Taxi" on them. Taxi drivers are notorious for ripping people off and you are slightly less likely to be ripped off in a Radio Taxi. On a similar note, they will often try to take a long route or drive in circles if you're foreign. Say: “¿Porqué estás dando vueltas?” (Why are you going around in circles?) and they'll stop usually.
Remember that you don't tip taxi drivers in Buenos Aires.
Argentina has a kind of weird money situation. You can read up on it here, but basically the government artificially pegs the peso to the dollar so there is the "official rate," which is currently about US$1 to $5.33 and the black market or "blue dollar" rate which is currently US$1 to $8.50 but changes constantly. A few weeks ago it was at $10 so anyone who used an ATM to get money at the official rate was getting half of what they could. It's frustrating for expats but probably even more frustrating for Argentinians, so don't complain.
How do you get the black market rate? You sell your dollars illegally. Places to sell your dollars change constantly and I'm not going to post them here. For that, you need to ask fellow expats or ask local friends if they would like to buy your dollars. Sometimes if people hear you are American they will ask you if you want to sell your dollars. Everyone wants them, so it's pretty easy to sell them, just be careful. In general, if you are coming to Argentina, bring as many dollars as you possibly can and your life will be a lot easier.
If you didn't bring dollars and/or want to get money in a legal way, use Xoom. You can read more about it here, but it is essentially a money transfer service that uses a rate closer to the Blue Dollar. It's completely legal and safe, just make an account on their website, send yourself money from your own bank account, and go pick it up at one of their locations. Bring your passport and be prepared to answer a few questions about why you're in Argentina in Spanish.
Regardless of which way you choose to get money, just don't go to an ATM because the official rate will rob you.
Buenos Aires has a pretty grueling weekend schedule, so prepare yourself. A typical night of going out works like this: You start previa or pregaming around 11 or midnight. Then you head to the club (called boliches here) around 3 a.m. Getting to a club before 2 a.m. is both fairly uncool and also a bad idea because nobody will be there. It's fairly normal to stay out until 6 or 7 am, or in some cases go to an after party at 8 or 9 in the morning.
If you are wondering where to go out, check the schedules at Wipe magazine for a more alternative scene, or Vuenos Airez under the "fiesta" tab for what's happening in boliches, etc. I also put every Facebook page I've liked since I got here into this list and you can follow it for updates on what's going on. Also, you know, make Argentinean friends who actually know what they're doing and let them adopt you/invite you to things. There's something happening every night of the week here and you will probably end up either going out a lot or suffering from crippling FOMO.
Almost every neighborhood has a cool outdoor market in it on weekends. My favorites were in Recoleta (in Plaza Francia near the cemetery), San Telmo (this is the biggest and best— don't eat before you go because the best street food ever is here), and Palermo (small but good).
Cultural Centers are my absolute favorite part of Buenos Aires and if you live here they are great resources for a variety of things: Classes, workshops, movie nights, bands, good food, etc.
Here's a rough list of some different Cultural Centers:
Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas: One of the best ways to improve your Spanish is to enroll in a class or workshop. Rojas has a huge variety of classes: Whether you want to learn videogame design, an indigenous language, or painting, Rojas has you covered. They even offer a class that just involves going to different galleries with a group of people. It's a great way to meet friends and learn Spanish and I'd highly recommend taking one!
Casa Presa: So far away, but worth the trip! They have classes, films, music, and weird experimental art. They also serve incredible homemade food.
Vuela el Pez: Restaurant/bar/music venue with classes and other things as well.
El Quetzal: This place has an adorable open-air restaurant and bar. They frequently show movies and have concerts and I think sometimes they offer classes. Also once I was eating brunch there and the DJ Avicii started filming a music video around us, so that's something, I guess.
These are some of my favorites but there are many other lists of other Centros Culturales, so explore them all!
Tired of weird Argentine laundry machines and hanging your clothes in random places to dry? There's a lavadero on every block here and it's insanely cheap. Bring a bag of dirty clothes and you'll have it back the next day in a bag washed, dried and folded nicely for the equivalent of about US$5
Don't take your iPhone out in public. In our group of 12 Americans, I think six of them had their iPhones stolen over the course of the semester. I don't think Buenos Aires is too much more dangerous than any other big city, but iPhones are banned here so they're worth a lot, making the risk higher.
Speaking of being robbed, the number for the police is 311, but you may not want to call it. When my apartment was broken into, we called the police and the police ended up robbing us of about $2,000 pesos. Welcome to Buenos Aires.
Buenos Aires Time means that everyone will arrive about 20 to 30 minutes or longer to any appointment or meeting you set up. If you are trying to schedule a really important meeting, tell people to come about 30 minutes before you really want them there.
Learn the local slang, it's amazing.
