Some Impressions of Buenos Aires

It is a vast city, sprawling for miles, as this view from our apartment shows.

 It has all the hazards of a large city - be wary - carry your bag in front of you - do not wear jewellery or gold chains or expensive watches. This is particularly important on the underground where there are a lot of pickpockets and people selling books and other stuff. Kids as young as 5 or 6 are involved. Musicians entertain and some are good and so a coin kept handy to donate is useful, if others are doing so.

Public tansport is very cheap. 20 pence gets you into the underground (Subte) for any journey and that is why some ride and sell all day and others sleep or beg. We saw some boys sleeping there. We took a bus journey from La Boca to Palermo where we had an apartment, it took an hour and cost 25 pence. Taxis are cheap and I would not attempt any other way of getting from A to B at night. At the end of our block we never waited for more than 1 minute for a yellow and black radio car to turn up. Travel across town was rarely more than 5 pounds for 20 minutes. Initially I wrote down addresses where I wanted to go but soon knew my numbers! When I was living alone here, I took out my name and apartment address on a piece of paper and just enough money for the night. Entrance to a milonga was about 4 pounds, taxi there and back, say 8, bottle of water 2, so a night out for less than 15, much less if a group of you share the taxi. Add 3 if you want a glass of champagne.

The driving is a miracle - fast, little use of the horn, not aggressive and with no regard to lanes. When there is a bend all take the racing line so it is a bit like Formula 1, often without seat belts! Most roads are one way and there are lots of crossroads and I never worked out the priority. I think it is the 'who blinks first' principle.



The pavements are dreadful - where a paving stone has been remove there will be a pile of rubble and this will be every 50m. If you are in an expensive shopping area they may throw an old carpet over the rubble! The Argentines are fond of their dogs, another reason for watching your step, but maybe not so fond of walking them. There are lots of dog walkers and 10 dogs is the most we have seen, all walking in harmony.



Of course there are all the benefits of a big city with so much to do during the day and any guide book will take you through those attractions. We had an apartmnt in Palermo which is relatively safe for walking around. It is a great area for shopping with countless individual shops and Alto Palermo for the biggest shopping mall which we did not bother with as it was all the international names.

The people seemed really friendly and countless times when we were arguing over which way round the map should be turned (actually not at all) someone would help us. It really helps to know some Spanish but we muddled through.

If you are of improver/intermediate standard and prepared to do simple things and not try to impress (because you won't) and just be one of the crowd then you can have a good time at the milongas. A few Argentines can stand out in a crowded milonga but mostly it is keeping up with the crowd, know your position, stay in lane and just be in wonder of where you are.