Hey folks, anyone in B.A. (or has been) and wants to share about restaurants, cultural events, stuff to do, specialized shops, theatre plays, tango shows, live music spots, women, places to visit (in B.A. or Argentina as a whole)!?!

COVID-19 lockdown and other life factors have made B.A. my home for the feasible future. This thread would be a nice way to explore life after the pandemic and, well, kill the boredom for now

Hey man,

Myself and a few other guys are planning on starting a poker house in BA around September (or whenever we can get there).

Do you know when Argentina will reopen to travel?
Which areas would you recommend living in?
Would AirBnB be the way to go?

Passed through BA on a tour. Stayed at the Hilton in Puerto Madero. I do recall there being a lot of shops and restaurants around that area from walking about when the tour company wasn't taking us around.

On the tour parts, there were interesting places, but I don't know how to get to them. San Telmo is a name that I remember, maybe that was a cool area?

Further afield, down by Ushuaia, Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego was nice. Probably wrong time of year now, but maybe in six months if you're still around. I don't recall anything special about the town itself.

Yeah, Puerto Madero is definitely a nice area (with the casino just around the block) and also the first place I got to visit when arriving in B.A. I never got to doing a bus tour of the city (not my thing usually, but want to do so when normality resumes), so I essentially did not get an overall picture of B.A. despite being here for 5 months+ Will look up Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego

September 1 is the date thrown around for opening up the borders... unless things change again, obviously There are several barrios where one could/would want to live in, but I would initially recommend to live in either Palermo, Recoleta or Puerto Madero. And yes, an AirBnB is the way to go for the first week to get a feel for the city before talking to your host and paying offline at 60% discount in pesos once you have changed USD$ on the black market (more on this later if thread picks up steam, but essentially the USD$ is officially listed at 70ARS$ per USD$, but is effectively 115ARS$ on the street market). You could also find much lower in housing prices if you seek long term rentals not AirBnB, but I mean, prices are so cheap right now.

Before posting suggestions/recommendations of my own and answering questions (if this thread picks up...), here is an exhaustive/elite af post by Oladipo taken from my PG & C :

A not-positive thing:

Oh yeah, watch out for the "bird ****/oops I spilled on you" scam. Apparently this was quite common. My tour group was warned of this before we went out; it actually happened to one couple, but Bob was able to recover his camera.

The scam is somebody sprays you with water or spills a drink on you, then offers to help clean you up. Of course, while you're distracted, an accomplice is pickpocketing you, or in Bob's case, stealing the camera he set down to deal with it.

Fortunately for him, he was able to get to the car the bad guy jumped in, banged on it and made enough noise to frighten the guy into returning the camera.

I'm pretty out of touch with the restaurant scene, but my experience with Puerto Madero was that the restaurants were really expensive and the food was very average. Only reason to eat there is if you're already there and too lazy to go elsewhere. Lúcuma (Peruvian cuisine) and Las Pizarras are a couple of my favorites. Both require reservations usually. Caldén del Soho has always been good to me for steak, although it's been some time since I've been there. Rodi Bar, despite its name, is an oldschool restaurant/parrilla I found a few years ago that's really popular with locals and which I had good experiences with. Buenos Aires Grill also has good steak, though sometimes they've overcooked my order. Another Peruvian restaurant I like is Quechua (because they offer more variety and prices are good). Palermo is full of ethnic restaurants that come and go... one of the most enduring is La Fábrica del Taco, which is a very casual place with cheap authentic Mexican food, namely tacos. Sarkis is really popular for Middle Eastern food.

Also, follow this blog if you're not already: https://pickupthefork.com/

To add to the post above, whenever you're in Buenos Aires you should always assume that people are trying to pickpocket you at all times. If anyone in public ever touches you for any reason, guard your pockets. Anytime something unusual happens in public, guard your pockets. Do not stop guarding your pockets as long as there are people anywhere near you. Make it a habit.

I have not heard of this one. The one that was rampant on the FB expat page, was of a guy (or 2) knocking on your front door and offering knife sharpening services. He quotes a price underneath his breath and then goes on to charge 10-20x the initial amount. Because they know where you live, it is hard not to pay the lol price.

Nice, I will check these out (in due/post-Cuarentena times) Yup, I was linked this website already.

Well, it's official : I have signed a 2 year lease, hence will be in B.A. for the feasible future Please shoutout (eventually) to meetup and let's share more (again, eventually) social life in these parts

hello everyone

I want to buy some stuff online for my friend who lives in BsAs. (random things like clothing, a yoga mat, etc).

Are there any good reliable options during lockdown who will deliver?

Even better if they accept btc for payment but visa/mastercard is fine too.

Btw I am not based in Argentina if that matters at all.

Thank you

This is troublesome if you are thinking in terms of international delivery which was already iffy by pre-Corona standards Expats in B.A. use mercado libre :

https://www.mercadolibre.com.ar

Pretty much every expat swears by it, especially now during the lockdown where products of all sorts can be delivered at your front door. I have never used it myself, but I assume you can easily purchase with an American credit card and get it delivered to your friends place...

Mercado Libre works pretty well in Mexico too. Happy to hear it's available in Argentina as well. Yes, I use an American CC for purchases on that site.

So this info is obviously all pre-COVID, which means, when factoring in the inflation since (the ARS$ has devalued 50% in the past 4 months), will naturally make the stakes 1/2 of what they were So anyhow, the cash games were pretty small, 50-50 ARS and 50-100. The former had several tables running while the latter only had 1 (albeit played fairly deep, with some peeps buying in for 500bbs). As you can expect, the games were incredibly soft where one can play ABC/value-town the living shyt out of your opponents and print. Rake was terrible (3% uncapped, from what I recall...). The poker room is one of the aesthetically worst I have seen with the nut worst customer service I have experienced (and I have played in several countries).

This said, my post-COVID plan is to grind the live MTT scene in these parts which is frankly enticing for a midstakes grinder. With the combined destinations of Punta del Este, Rio, Santiago (where series revolving around 1-5k ME can be found at least 4-8 times yearly) and our own B.A., which again, has soft fields and 10-20 monthly BIs in the 200-1k area (with a leaderboard with like 50k for the winner).

Anyhow, I hope this helps

How about safety issues when leaving the casino?

It is fine. I would just take an Uber outside (which I suggest, or a taxi). If I am understanding correctly, you are looking to grind lowstakes professionally? It is definitely easily manageable in B.A., me thinks, as pulling in 20-50k+, which, if you live cheply, 50k can actually easily cover your monthly expenses Spanish would be a must though, I fathom...

Posted this in my PG & C, but I also feel that it belongs here given how informative it is ; and perhaps this thread will get going, you know

Hey friend, how have you been? Still in Florida I take it!?!

A lot of stuff to breakdown here. When I first arrived, I got 75ARS per USD$ (the official rate was 60ARS which I only used once initially for pocket change before switching to the streets and then ultimately connecting with reliable traders ). The bank is now @ 77 while the Blue revolves around 165ARS I have myself been selling off some BTC and getting about 2-3% less then the blue, delivery included from a very reliable trader (guy hands me my 1-3k in cash while I send the BTC transaction minutes later from the comfort of my laptop )

Yup, cheapest I have been. And with much more commodities then the third world countries in SEA, more western, prettiest city in the Americas, a very strong culture and a ton of stuff to do in non-pandemic times

Just starting to get back indeed : it is not legal to eat inside (but certain restaurants do get away with it ; we entered just once, as we are not fully comfortable being while in the midst of our COVID peak and all), so it has been patios. We have been going on Wednesday's to a nearby Greek joint (very tasty) as a reliable option, as our neighbourhood is not exactly the richest/most known for its culinary hotspot (there are a few excellent Korean restaurants though) and the weather is just starting to turn thus making patios actually an enjoyable thing, you know

And food has been alright. I have a list of a few restaurants that I want to try out, am a member of a FB foodie page etc. Disclaimer : this is not Lima where you will find A TON of elite af restaurants while strolling in Miraflores, but when you seek out and research places, you will find some satisfying quality. Sushi has been disappointing though, as has been the Peruana joints. Typical Argentino food is meat-heavy, but I still managed to find some savoury non-meat dishes (as a semi-vegetarian).




The salads have been so-so depending on the establishment. Look at this selection of 2-3 vegetables with a few strips of fried shrimps This said, we have found some tasty salads, albeit the better option has been to make a chef's salad with 10-20 ingredients at home, you know




So B.A. has a strong Italian influence which has made me delight in numerous risottos over here ; this one is actually a beetroot - go figure - based one - with brie cheese - coming from a French culture, the selection of cheese is also quite mediocre . Anyhow, I have come across some GOAT risottos




An alright-but-nothing-to-write-home-about-ceviche




Frankly, some of the most savoury meals have been us cooking them at home, partly because of La Cuarentena but also due to having more of a sedentary life. L is also an excellent cook, albeit limited to Paraguay/Argentina cuisine


We will be biking up the coast tomorrow ; not sure if we will make it to Tigre (38kms), but nonetheless, just to get the f**k out of the city will feel amazing yo

Amazon is also on its way ; am not sure how I feel about this Actually, I do know how I politically feel about it, but it will be hard not to use it given how many more avenues of new product consumption it will open up...

I would have really loved to go BA in November, even got the girlfriend to agree to a 3 month vacay, but Argentina still isn't open for tourism, so looks like it'll have to wait.

Yea, still in Florida. I'm way past ready to start traveling again and not afraid to fly, but besides Mexico I don't think there are many borders open to Americans atm.

Wow, that's a crazy inflation rate! Has there been a corresponding increase in the cost of living (i.e., groceries, rent, restaurants, petrol, etc.) since the beginning of the year?

Yea, if you're not a carnivore you're probably not gonna' be that impressed with the food in Argentina. And though most everyone raves about the meat in Argentina (none more so than the locals...) when I was there I wasn't overly impressed. If I remember correctly, you're not much of a drinker, either. Too bad, as they've got good wine--it was very affordable when I was there, but must be absolutely dirt cheap atm.

Did you make it to Tigre??

I know from your other thread you're living a sedentary domesticated life, but nonetheless hope you get the chance to do some traveling within Argentina while you're there!

At least in Latin America there are quite a few countries open. I've been pretty antsy to travel as well so am planning 3 months in Brazil in December.

Here's a list of tourism status for all LatAm countries:

LatAm Tourism

No idea how BA is only listed 14 on Nomadlist. With the inflation there it should be no.1 all the time imo - unless they think it's a safety issue or they can't give accurate cost profiles due to the currency issue.

rent prices seem cheap AF atm I don't think Argentina will the under the radar for long with digital nomads.

I think it's a problem with the methodology used by Nomadlist. For example, CDMX gets max points for cost of living, but it's at least 2x as expensive as BA right now, and that's a massive difference.

BA seems like hands down the #1 spot to be now for a digital nomad. If I were still single I'd be on the first plane there after covid to live 6-12 months+. As is, I'll still probably do some pleading with the girlfriend to spend a while there.

I mean yeah, we are paying under 200$ monthly for a 2 bedroom/2 washroom/2 living room vast apartment (looks like 2 duplex in North American terms/comparisons), that is a fully furnished building with an indoor pool, jacuzzi, outdoors pool on the terrance, a big gym, parking, restaurant, shops (the latter still to be constructed). This is the place in question :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWKDx-GN1ug

Sounds ridiculously good. My one gripe with BA and Argentina in general is safety. Is it as bad as people make out or just petty pick-pocket crime? Also, what's the weather like?