I was able to withdraw up to 2500 pesos daily with my Citibank debit card at Citibank ATMs. I believe the 300 peso withdrawal limit problem is mainly with Visa debit cards, regardless of the bank, but i'm not 100% on that. Citibank debit cards are Mastercards and i never heard anyone having a problem with Mastercards. Another benefit of using a Citibank debit card at Citibank ATMs is that they only charge for the exchange on the currency, no additional service charges from the ATM or bank.

both?

If i were to do it again i would certainly get as many Spanish lessons in as i could before i went. It will make your life a lot easier when you first arrive, and you will have a lot more fun in the early part of your trip. English is not spoken nearly as much as i was first led to believe.

Hey, I just got down here on Monday and would love to meet up with some 2+2ers/join the dinner club or whatever. PM me.....drinks on me. Peace.

What Airport do people fly into? Travel sites are coming up with Buenos Aires (BUE), Ministro Pistarini (EZE), and Jorge Newbery (AEP).

EZE is their international airport.

LC,
what's NL Hold'em like at the casinos in BA? I'll be flying in early August and staying till December and will be looking into checking out what it's like.

My opinions:

You can get by here with a debit card. If you have that (I don't), you probably won't need to worry that much about obtaining cash. Although I brought a fair amount of USD when i came, I don't think you need to if you have a debit card. Also, there's a credit card out there that only adds 1% for forex (don't remember which, it's googleable); AmEx is 2% (which still isn't bad).

As to Spanish, I think it depends on what you want to do. Alot of the Argentinos my age that I've met speak English. I mean, it's not perfect, but it's passable (usually). Often they want to practice their English. If all you want to do is get in a taxi, order at restaurants, go to the supermarket, etc, you don't really need that much Spanish and a phrasebook might be enough. For example, in the fancy restaurants of Palermo, there is almost always a menu in English, and almost always a waiter who speaks English if you really want one. If you want to really hang out with Portenos and experience the culture, you should know Spanish. Even if 3 of the 5 people in the group speak english, they're still going to speak Spanish to each other.

re: live poker
i don't like live poker, so I wouldn't know. My understanding from the old thread is that it is low stakes and rake is bad.

re: Rosetta Stone
I don't think it's a bad idea, but...I did some RS and while it was good, it didn't help that much. Argentines have.....almost their own language (exaggeration) between Spanish and Italian, and RS is just a really slow way to learn. If I were to do it over again, I would've started Spanish classes earlier here than I did. I wouldn't have done more in the US. But definitely other people are different; that's just me.

re: doing things differently
Not very much I'd have done differently. Not come right as winter was arriving? Not come right as needed to study for the CFA? The latter made it pretty difficult to establish relationships when I got here, and you're only new to a place for a limited amount of time. Still, hasn't been that much of a hinderance. One thing I might have done was bought a Wii and brought it here (I'm in the process of getting one now). Arges are very impressed by Wiis, and that makes for good social gatherings...

I have contacts with Spanish tutors (here they're called professors), so if any of y'all are interested, let me know. I doubt you'd get a better rate, and I think they're great.

Non-existent AFAIK. There used to be one table on the floating casino in Puerto Madero, but that casino closed down some time ago. I know of no other live games in any other casinos here. It's 90% slots with the odd roulette/blackjack table.

I have no idea.

This used to be the case. I have several debit/credits cards issued by varying UK banks, both Visa and Mastercard. The Visas were always limited, but up until April 2008 I could withdraw 3000 pesos at a time on my Mastercards. Then it all changed.

It just means instead of paying 2-3% to get my money I'm now paying 5% or so.

Anyone confirm/deny?

After two Porteno-style restaurants in a row, I figure we should mix it up a little. Let's try Al Andalus, an Arabian restaurant in Palermo Soho. As always, 9:00 PM on Tuesday.

http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/detail.php?ID=484

see yall there

just out of curiosity, how many people have shown up on Tuesdays?

Confirm

1. How cold/warm are the winters seasons (more importantly, how long does the cold weather last for). I live just south of San Fransisco, CA, and hate the climate from about November until July.
2. Good beaches in general?

My main ambition is to have warm weather year round, and have plenty of nice beach access.

Easy to travel northeast to Uruguay?

I have an HSBC Mastercard and I am only able to withdraw 300 pesos per transaction. However it seems to vary unexplainably, from roughly April-June I was able to withdraw up to 600 at a time.

john voight - There aren't any beaches really near the city. Uruguay is an easy ferry ride away. They have many beaches there, and live poker.

I read all of the huge Metetron thread last night and I got to say it was one of those life changing threads that are on 2+2. Really got me asking why I am not outsourcing my life when I am young and have the opportunity!

Now read the Thailand thread and enjoy the inner struggle of where to live next.

Questions about health care there, from theMet thread there is some info about it but not all that much and that info is a bit old I guess, so could someone who is living there now talk a little bit about healthcare/dental/eyecare and costs etc ?

I have a plan with Swiss Medical that costs AR$ 305 per month. It includes dental and eye care. I've only had it for one month and I haven't used it yet so I can't say anything about the quality.

what's the best way to go from Buenos Aires to Punta del Este in Uruguay?

Swiss Medical is the best... really top notch, even by US and EU standards. I have OSDE which is the most common insurer in the country. It includes Med and dental and I presume Eye, but I don't know. OSDE is like 160AR$. I will prolly switch to Swiss Medical soon bc they have a big private hospital a couple of blocks from me. Plus, $100US is laughable for Medical and Dental.

Depends how much you value your time. You can do ferry to Colonia then bus or Ferry to Montevideo then bus. Colonia then bus is like 5 hours all in.

A flight will prolly take half the time and cost twice as much. You will have to check the prices though. Since the airports and airlines are kinda a cluster**** here, I prefer the ferry-bus option. You also get to see a little of Montevideo and some of the countryside. They also drop you off in the middle of Punta instead of an airport a good ways out of town

Read that last year and almost went on in November but bailed at the last minute..

Sounds like Swiss Medical is the way forward