Hey everyone.

I know there's already been a thread, but it is moribund and in any case I'd like this thread's purview to extend beyond the capital.

In about a month, I'm planning to move to Argentina. Is anybody out there grinding right now? If so, where and how's it going for you? I'm not a poker player, but my internet demands are similar.


Of course, I'll be landing in BA. I have a few questions concerning the big city that I was wondering if anyone could answer:
-How are the ISPs? Is it reasonable for me to expect to find a stable, 20mb+ connection in a furnished room?
-How much would a studio cost in a decent area? I'd like to avoid the gringo tax as much as I can. My Spanish is quite good at least but I have no contacts and minimal experience dealing with non-patagonico Argentians.
-Is there any neighborhood I could live in that's not Palermo or Recoleta? I don't really like yuppie/gomelo/sofrino areas and if I recall correctly Palermo is mostly a place for young people to splash their disposable income around. I would prefer something more bohemian or intellectual.


Then I'd like to extend these questions to the country entire. My main concern is the internet: I just don't know what the ISP infrastructure is like in the country. Say for example in Mendoza and Cordoba, any ideas? Any hope of a FiOp running all the way to the cordillera?

Is it possible to buy Paygo data plans?

How about the money situation? Argentina I think is in yet another currency crisis. Would I be well served to have some disposable Paypall/ BTC/ et cetera?

I'm actually already very familiar with the Patagonian region on both sides of the border. So I can answer any questions anybody who wants to travel there may have.

Yes I've asked a lot of questions to which I probably won't receive any answers. Even so, I'll continue to update this thread so others may have a record of my experience.

Unfortunately I can’t help you regarding internet situ, although I drove the country and didn’t have a problem with internet throughout.

Get a bank account ASAP(if that is possible), to use a foreign card, there was a $10 fee per withdrawal with a max wd of ~$80, my bank doesn’t charge for overseas wd’s but if yours does would have to add that in also. Also Argentina was certainly the most expensive country I visited in SA and debatably my most expensive lifetime. Such is the nature of their inflation issues(for example, btc is currently at all time highs vrs their currency)

Thanks man! The thing about the internet is that what I need for my work is significantly more demanding than what I would need were I just traveling around the country. The speed doesn't matter that much, 15-20 would do, but I really need something that is stable with low latency.

Now that is concerning! I don't remember it being that bad, but I can believe it. Paying all those fees for such small withdrawals would make the country ludicrously overpriced. I know the dollar is very popular, which is why I'm hoping that there are some e-payment workarounds, but it sounds like setting up a local account would be the move for day-to-day stuff.

ATM fees did go up a while ago, but the max withdrawal varies. I found one machine that would give me 8000 pesos, but later it dropped to 7500. Others are 4000. I have no idea what's most common because I just use the ones closest to my house. But the maximums will all increase at some point due to inflation. They've been at 4000 for a while now.

I'm afraid to even try to answer the questions about the internet. It's generally reliable with some overnight outages for maintenance. The speed is more than sufficient for my needs, but I've never measured it. Latency is often poor just because the country is physically far away from where most websites are hosted and there are a lot of hops. Many websites have a noticeable lag before they load, but not all of them do. I'd assume that internet infrastructure is roughly the same in all of the cities, but I don't have any personal experience outside of Buenos Aires.