We have spent about one-third of our Argentina trip in Buenos Aires. It is a huge and wonderful city and we have enjoyed it. Primarily because of that size, but also because it is a wealthier city than any other in the country, Buenos Aires has a substantially different look and feel.
High-rise buildings spring up in its various neighborhoods, all of which are full of parks, boulevards, monuments and statues. In general, it is a very clean city. You see workers constantly maintaining the streets, the parks and other public areas.
Buenos Aires claims to be the birthplace of tango. It is proud of its tango history and that shows in the many tango theaters and even the street tango which can be found throughout the city, but especially in the centro histórico. We attended an incredible show called Tango Porteño in the center of Buenos Aires. It was amazing. Some photos and videos from the performance are included at the end of this post.
Here are some of our observations about Argentina in general after almost 90 days here. We don't mean to stereotype but we did encounter some interesting, noticeable and repetitive aspects.
1. Argentinians eat very late. Many restaurants do not open until 8:00 PM and it is not unusual to have families arrive for dinner at 10:00 PM. This was our observation throughout the country, from top to bottom.
2. Many people of all ages smoke. Although we did not conduct a scientific study, it felt to us that more people smoked in this country than any other Latin American country we have visited.
3. Okay, this might ruffle some feathers, but except for Buenos Aires, we did not find people particularly friendly, engaging or happy. Certainly, residents are less open and engaging than other countries in which we have lived (Costa Rica) or visited (Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico). In fact, they often looked sullen, unhappy and even downtrodden. At first, we thought maybe it was toward me as a "gringo", but Isabel experienced it as well. In Costa Rica, it would be considered rude to pass someone on the street without giving a nod or a greeting. In Argentina, it was unusual to encounter either.
We did a little digging to try to find out why. We did not have to dig very deeply. Here is our analysis:
a. History. One only needs to go back a few decades to discover that Argentina has a rather tainted history. The Dirty War (from about 1975-1983) is the period in which the military junta either exerted substantial influence or outright controlled the country. This began near the end of the presidency of Isabel Perón. It is also one of the darkest periods in the history of Argentina in which thousands of people, mostly very young and even newborns, were either killed or "disappeared". The country still grapples with it today. A former high-ranking military official during this period is facing trial in Italy for war atrocities. Argentina also recently sought extradition from Italy of a former priest who purportedly colluded with the military junta and the death squads. Numerous museums and centers bring focus to the period and studies continue to connect children removed from their parents back to their families.
b. Battle for Las Malvinas (Argentina)/The Falkland Islands (U.K.). In 1982, the then head of the military junta attacked las Malvinas in an effort to reclaim them for Argentina. This resulted in a bitter and embarrassing defeat for Argentina with a considerable loss of life. That also still hangs heavily on the shoulders of Argentinians although they do make every public effort to honor those who fought for and died in that skirmish. The only good thing coming out of the war was that the public turned against the military and in the following year control of the government returned to civilian authorities.
c. The economy. Argentinians have lived under the yoke of a difficult and mostly upside-down-economy for the last five decades but even more dramatically in the last 10-20 years. (See more below).
d. Political situation. All of the previous components have without a doubt lead to a political distaste in the country. The party in power was recently pushed out when the new rightwing libertarian president, Javier Milei, was elected. Milei is unpredictable. While he won by a decent majority, there is still a large bloc opposing his reactionary policies and changes.
In our opinion, all of these aspects contribute to the demeanor of Argentinians. Initially, we thought this reaction was simply to us as foreigners, but after researching and questioning we came to the foregoing conclusion.
4. More on the economy. To put it bluntly, the economy in the country is in shambles with no easy resolution in sight. Inflation in the last few years has been extreme - in 2023 approaching 200%. Even in the few months we have been here, we have seen the value of the Argentinian peso drop significantly again the U.S. dollar. Good for us but bad for Argentinians. Here are some observations regarding the impact of the wild economy.
a. Pesos. Currently, the highest denomination of pesos is 1,000. Presently, it costs about U.S $.85 for 1,000 pesos. Because of inflation combined with devaluation of the peso, pesos do not buy much. Consequently, you see people carrying HUGE wads of cash to pay for everything. No place is this more evident than the grocery store. The lines are long because the person paying at checkout may have to count out 50 bills of 1,000 pesos and then the cashier will have to recount. That takes some time.
b. ATMs. Generally, you cannot withdraw more than 30,000 pesos (right now less than US $30) from an ATM and the cost from the local bank might exceed 25% of that amount. Luckily Schwab reimburses for ATM fees, but it still feels uncomfortable.
c. Travelers from Brazil and Colombia. Most of the travelers we encountered throughout the country were from Brazil. We figured it was because there was a very favorable exchange rate for Brazilians. The next largest non-Argentinian group was from Colombia. We encountered very few people from the United States or Canada and, understandable, none from the U.K.
On the other end of the spectrum, there is very little evidence of an indigenous presence in Argentina. In the 2010 census, less than 2.5% of the population identify as indigenous. This contrasts sharply with the 60% of the population in Bolivia which identifies as indigenous. One of the largest indigenous groups in the 19th century, the Mapuche, was mostly "incorporated" into the expanding Spanish and European cultures in both Argentina and Chile.
d. Infrastructure. In next post, we will talk about our experience renting a car for 30 days and driving around a good portion of the country. Here, I want to mention it because it relates to the economy. The quality of roads outside of the major cities was not great. Ruta 40 is a major road on the western side of the country as it is an extension of the Pan-American Highway. We drove on one stretch of that road that was unpaved for at least 150 kilometers (90+miles). It was not an easy drive.
In most areas, once you are just a short distance outside of a major city, no cell signals are available. On our drive from near the Chilean border to the Atlantic coast, we had no signal for roughly seven hours. We just hoped we were going in the right direction.
5. Religion. Most Latin American countries, at least on the surface as evidenced by ornate churches, cathedrals and basilicas, are immersed in the Catholic religion. Even though the current pope is from Argentina, we did not find that to be the case at all in Argentina.
6. Different Spanish words in different Spanish-speaking countries. As with the U.S., U.K and Australia where each country often uses its own expressions and/or different words or different phrases to mean the same thing, that concept is true throughout Latin American. In no country was that more obvious than Argentina. Beginning with the identification of the language or the culture, in Argentina the term "español" is generally replaced by "castellano". Some other interesting examples:
a. Ché - In English "dude/In Mexico "güey/In Costa Rica "mae"
b. Dale - Okay
c. Chicos - Just a friendly greeting
d. Boludo - You're crazy
e. Viste? - You know what I mean?
f. Capaz - Just in case
g. Carta - "Menú" in most Latin American countries
h. Bárbaro! - Like "pura vida" in Costa Rica - generally a positive expression like "cool".
g. Miércoles - The funniest one for us was a taxi driver who when he thought something was special, cool or impressive, he said "miércoles" which actually means Wednesday in Spanish.
Photos and videos from the Tango Porteño performance
Great post, Ed. All sorts of interesting information and observations. And that series of tango videos sets my foot to tapping. Surely would be fun to have done that dance. I need to see you and Isabell cutting the tango rug!
Enjoyed the commentary, Ed. Provides a good general introduction to the country. Look forward to the next posts.