Expat Argentina

Anuva Vinos in the News

2009-01-19T03:13:00.004-02:00

I just have to share how exciting it is to have wrapped up our successful 2008 U.S. tasting tour with our first pieces of press! The Oregonian, Oregon’s major daily paper, called Anuva a “tremendous bang for the buck.” The wine professionals at Stoller Vineyards and Winery, one of Oregon’s famed Pinot Noir producers, concurred with The Oregonian saying that they too were “impressed not only by the wines… but also with the value.” We certainly agree with that and are excited to bring you more great values in 2009.

Owning up to this promise, we recently added 12 new wines from nine different wineries to the club collections that illustrate everything from the classic Argentine varietals that Anuva specializes in—Malbec and Torrontés—to exotic wines like Tannat, Bonarda and even a Tannat/Malbec blend aptly title “Pozo del Diablo”. With only 1500 bottles produced, this one won’t last long.

On the agenda to start off the new year is a visit to Mendoza and Salta, two of Argentina’s most exciting viticultural regions. We’ll be there to taste new wines, meet with winemakers, and tour new wineries so that we can find and assemble the next exclusive collection to export to our Anuva Vinos members the U.S. Along the way we hope to document our experiences with the wines and winemakers on film so that we can share them with you!

The Gay Community in Buenos Aires

2009-01-08T02:21:00.001-02:00

In response to the prior post on attitudes toward gays in Argentina, I would say that certainly Buenos Aires is a gay friendly destination. Besides having one of the only two "gay hotels" in the world (the Axel--which jokingly calls itself "hetero-friendly"), there are many gay clubs, gay and lesbian activities and events, not to mention the fact that Argentina hosted the Gay World Cup (of soccer) in 2008. There is even a gay wine store in Buenos Aires with its own Gay Wine label. Obviously many gay friendly activities, organizations and businesses exist here. Negative attitudes toward gays and derrogatory language, however, are quite common as well. Calling someone a "puto" or "maricon" can be heard at any sporting event, just like in the US. I would say that the two cultures are very similar in this respect. In the provinces also, much like in rural America, attitudes are much more oppresive. This is probably what leads many gays to flock to bigger, more gay friendly cities in general around the world. With a larger community that is socially more liberal and accepting, life is easier.

10 Questions for Geoff W. in Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz

2008-11-29T22:27:00.003-02:00

EDITORS NOTE: This is another post in our series of Expat Interviews. Let us know if you know someone who would be a good person to interview and we will try to do it. Geoff is from Alabama (US) and currently lives as an exchange student full time in Santa Cruz province with an Argentine host family, he is a full time student.

1. Where were you born, where else have you lived, and where are you living now? I was born in Huntsville, AL, I have lived in Seoul, Korea, Washington D.C., and Portland, Oregon. I now live in Rio Gallegos, the Capital of the Provincia de Santa Cruz in Southern Patagonia.

2. Who did you move to Argentina with? When? I moved to Argentina by myself as a university exchange student. I have been here since the beginning of August.

3. What made you pick Argentina? I had studied Spanish in High School for 4 years and wanted to take the leap towards fluency. I had the option of studying and living with a host family in either Panama or Argentina. I chose Argentina for its geographic and cultural diversity.

4. What is the best part about living in Argentina? The worst? The best two parts of living in Argentina are the people and the food. The people are very warm and open and asado is delicious. The worst part of living in Argentina is the unreliability of absolutely everything. Although I've learned to not take hot water for granted, I sometimes find it difficult to get things done with so many strikes.

5. How do you make your living? I am a student so I am not currently earning a living.

6. What is a typical day like for you? A typical day usually goes like this: 10 AM: Wake up, eat breakfast, 11 AM: Head to the gym, 1 PM: Eat lunch, 2 PM: Begin working on homework, 5 PM: Drink Mate with my host family, 8 PM: Go to class, 11 PM: Eat dinner, 12 AM: Go out with friends if it's Friday!

7. How has living in Argentina changed your life? Living with an Argentine family has taught me to be more patient and accepting of others. Also, I had never really realized how fortunate I was to have had been born into the life that I was born into. I guess that fits into not taking things for granted but there have been a few moments when I've thought "wow this person works just as hard as me for half of the reward, and they're still grateful for what they have."

8. How does living in Argentina differ most from living in your home country? At an orientation I attended before heading down here we discussed the iceberg cultural model where the tip of the iceberg represents the cultural differences that are immediately apparent (e.g. food, clothing, architecture). Once you get beyond the tip you start to notice true cultural values. In regards to these big differences I would have to say the biggest is the pace of life. Everything is sped up in the United States. We buy pre-prepared meals, check e-mail on our phones while we are traveling, and we speed through the grocery store line rapidly. In Argentina more time is spent with family and friends and multi-tasking is driving down the road and drinking maté at the same time. Argentines are also much louder and much more expressive than Americans (it's got to be the Italian roots).

9. What are your future plans in Argentina? When are you planning on leaving? I'll be finishing the school year up at the end November. In December my family from the United States will join me to visit El Calafate and Buenos Aires. After that I plan on spending January and February traveling with my host family through Argentina and perhaps to Santiago de Chile. I'll resume school in March and head back to the U.S. in July or August.

10. What one tip would you pass on to a future expat moving to Argentina? The best tip I can give to an expat headed down south is to come informed, yet without expectations of what your life will be like. If you come with expectations of what life will be like down here and then it doesn't turn out to be true you're bound to be disappointed. I always have a mental picture of what a place will be like before I travel there. It's never correct. However, it doesn't hurt to talk to someone that has traveled or, better yet, has lived here.

Are Gays Welcome in Argentina? Is it OK to be Openly Gay in Buenos Aires?

2008-11-29T21:52:00.004-02:00

We get many emails into this blog asking us about Argentina, and Buenos Aires in particular. People in the US & Europe have been increasingly asking us about whether or not Argentina is a Gay friendly destination... I will put out my guess below, from my experience as a non gay US citizen with lots of Argentina experience, but I wanted to start a discussion here with some expats, travelers, and Argentines on this topic.

What do you think? Are Gays welcome in Argentina? Would they be looked at in a hostile way, or welcomed? Is Buenos Aires more cosmopolitan, and more welcoming than the provinces, or are just certain parts of BA very gay friendly?

I think BA is pretty open to gays, I know several openly gay men and see others frequently, I think here it's like New York, it's not a big deal. I have not heard about how Gays are taken in the provinces though, my guess is that it would be similar to rural US locales, some places would be more curious, and others may range from indifferent to maybe not tolerable. As you can see in this CNN article below, Argentina as a government has Gay friendly policies that are better than the US affords it's Gay citizens, and the IHT article claims Gay tourism is booming in BA. Let us know if you have any unique perspective in the comments below.

Anuva in NYC

2008-11-18T20:17:00.002-02:00

Since many of you dear readers ended up responding to my last post about our launch tour, I thought I would give an update. The response has been so strong in our first 3 weeks in NYC and SF that we are going back to NYC to do more private wine tastings. Our available dates in New York City are:

December 8 (8pm only)
December 9, 13, 14

We also have some dates in Portland, OR between 12/18 and 1/05 The cost is still 175 dollars per GROUP of 6-12 and includes:

6 bottles of our limited production wines
set-up and clean-up
the presentation
pairing suggestions

Please call or email to book a date:

310-601-8279
daniel@anuvawines.com

Thanks!

Anuva Vinos Lauch Tour in the U.S.

2008-10-01T19:01:00.003-03:00

Dearest Readers, I thought I would take this opportunity to announce that I am bringing some Argentine culture to the U.S. As some of you know, my fiancée Lourdes and I recently started an exclusive wine club called Anuva that sources limited production wines from Argentina for its members. We will be doing private wine tastings to launch the club in select US cities on the following dates:

New York City: October 27-November 9
Los Angeles: November 9-November 27
Portland, OR: November 27-January 6, 2009

Tastings will be led by Daniel and will be for groups of 6-10 people, 12 max. Each group tasting includes:

6 different wines guaranteed to please. All limited production and exclusive.
The glassware
Set-up/clean-up
The witty banter (he does a very good presentation I would say)

A host would need to invite the people, provide the space, and could contribute optional food items. Daniel will consult for this upon request (without charge of course). Larger groups can be accommodated, but please contact Daniel to discuss the particulars or if you have any questions:

Daniel Karlin Founder, Anuva Vinos

daniel@anuvavinos.com 310-601-8279 (call this US number to reach the office in Buenos Aires) Thanks!

Another Incredible Monedas Story

2008-09-21T12:29:00.002-03:00

The train in Buenos Aires is a very common way to travel. Tickets cost 65-75 centavos depending on how far you are going. Yesterday I was headed out to provincia on the train, and the guy in front of me was buying a ticket with a 2 peso bill. The woman asked him if he had a larger bill or exact change. He said no. She let him pass without paying. The incredible thing is that SHE HAD CHANGE!!! Because then I stepped up to buy my ticket with a 2 and she said the same thing to me. So I pulled out a 5 and she gave me 2, 2 peso bills and 35 cents in coins as change. Clearly, she had been instructed to not give more than a certain amount of coins as change. Amazing.

The Problem with Monedas (Change/Coins)

2008-09-15T11:34:00.002-03:00

This is really really annoying. To the point that I have to actually ask the question: is a single peso coin worth more than a two peso note? The answer is quite clearly yes! Several situations, the most recently of which just happened right now, as I sit here in this fair coffee shop, have popped up in the last week. Ok, so everyone knows that change is hard to come by in Argentina, that breaking 100 peso notes is hard, and that the buses only take coins, but it seems as if no one really understands the gravity of this problem. Here are a few situations: 1. Cab driver gives me a two peso note as change when I paid with a 20 for a fare that was 19.12. He would rather give the two peso note and LOSE MONEY than give up his coins. 2. Coffee shop last friday. Bill is 9 pesos. I pay with a 10 peso note. No change is given. I asked for the coin. Then they asked me for a coin so they could give me a two peso note. Why should I even have to ask for my change? I said I would leave an extra two peso note as tip if they gave me the coin. They said NO!!! (and they even laughed about it) 3. Coffee shop just now. Bill is 14. I pay with a 5 and 10. 1 peso change is due. No change is offered. Same situation as 2 (but a different location). 4. (And here is the kicker...) I go to the bank to get change. I walk to the front of the line to change a 5 into 5 coins. They say that they will only give 3. That their policy has changed. 5 is too much now. Oh, and also, I have to wait in the line of 40 people to do a transaction that will take all of 30 seconds. So the bank is putting up barriers (lowering/taking away incentives) to actually have correct change. Don't people realize that they are paralyzing their own economy when they do this? That when the people at the supermarket, or kiosk, or corner store refuse to make sales because they do not want to lose coins that there are dead weight losses? Everywhere down here there are signs posted (subway, train, stores, etc) that say "No hay monedas" or "Colaboren con monedas", and this does not help the problem. People are so afraid of giving away coins that they hoard them. I have seen many many kiosks that refuse to sell me a 10 centavo item for a 2 peso note because they know that I just want the change. So then I offer to buy something worth 1 peso, so I can still get the 1 peso moneda, and ride the bus--and they still refuse! This amounts to economic insanity. When the value of a one peso coin clearly outweighs the value of 2 pesos printed on paper, something is drastically wrong with the system. There are only 2 things that I see as possibilities: 1. People need the coins to take the bus. This is really the only thing in the whole of Argentina that operates only on coins. The bus system is also extremely extensive and is probably the main mode of transportation (although I don't have exact figures and the subway could be more) and as such, requires a huge influx of coins to operate. So the only logical explanation is that this huge influx of coins is not balanced by an equal outflow (i.e. the bus companies don't go to the bank and deposit these coins in their accounts thus giving the banks enough coins to give unlimited quantities as they do in the U.S. and other developed countries). But why would the bus companies do this? The only explanation I can come up with here is that they don't trust the banks and therefore hoard coins. Yikes. Anyone else have a thought on this? 2. There actually aren't enough coins in circulation. Supply and demand. Under supply and high demand. Again, the only place where there is a real high demand and no counterbalance is the bus system. Would it be possible to solve both problems (because they are not mutually exclusive) with a card system? As in people buy 10 peso or 20 peso bus cards that can be punched or scanned and avoid this change issue. I think that's wishful thinking.

Malbec in Argentina and Buenos Aires: Fad or Forever

2008-09-02T14:51:00.003-03:00

Malbec has been long known as the signature grape of Argentina, but only recently has it achieved the fame and notoriety it deserves. My business Anuva Vinos, deals directly with this fine product of Argentina, and many of the tourists and expats who know a lot, or know very little, of its existence. As far as I know, though (and I do quite a bit of research on the subject), Anuva is the only company that provides wine tastings for tourists who are visiting Buenos Aires. This seems very ironic since the wine is becoming so popular in the U.S. and other countries. Why would it be so hard to find a good wine tasting in Buenos Aires? First of all, only since 2004 has the Malbec "boom" been taking place. It was then that critics like Robert Parker and wine experts like Michel Rolland declared Malbec, and Argentine wines in general to be worthy of world-class wine status. As many of you know, things in Argentina happen slowly, and thus, the creation of venues for tourists to taste these fine wines has gone by the wayside. Second, it is very hard in Argentina to sell wine tastings to the Argentine public. The tourist market does demand and increasingly demands fine Argentine wines, access to local wines and wine tourism, but the locals do not. Argentines themselves tend to consume a lot more table wine than fine wine, as a) very few of them can afford it and b) their culture is more one of mixing wine with soda water or coke than drinking nice wine from a crystal glass. Third, and mainly and extension of point 2, the Argentine wineries that produce the higher quality wines are looking outward for expansion. First to the U.S., then the U.K., Europe, Canada, Brazil and now China and Russia as well for growth. Per capita consumption of wine in Argentina is down from its all time high in the 1960s (when they consumed and ungodly 80 liters per capita!) and people are moving more toward beers and liquors for their spirited beverage choices. But Malbec and Argentine wine in the U.S. and elsewhere outside Argentina is booming. Exports are up 300% since 2004 and there is no end in sight. But more importantly than that, Argentine wines and Malbec especially have several things working in their favor: 1. Their price/quality relationship is unbeatable. With the lowest land costs and labor costs out of all the major wine making regions in the world, Argentina simply cannot be beat in this arena. 2. Malbec can take on many forms. From the ever popular fruit forward and smooth varietals without oak that fall in the less than 20 USD category, to the ultra-premium grand reserve Malbecs, this grape is very versital. That means something for everyone at many different price points. I highly doubt that this phenomenon will go away anytime soon, and insider information tells me that certain wine bars will be popping up in certain cities that may rhyme with the words "Cainos Haires" quite soon.

Coverage of the Olympics in Argentina II

2008-08-16T02:26:00.002-03:00

A laconic summary of the title would be "IT SUCKS!!" So TyC Sports, the Fox and ESPN rival down here, has exclusive coverage along with Canal 7 of the Olympics. They, I just learned, had a very large hand in banning all YouTube feeds to Argentina with up to date Olympic highlights. WTF?!!? As if that weren't enough, tonight, TyC had been promoting their coverage of swimming starting at 10pm. So I, wanting to witness the historic Phelps run at 7 golds, tuned in like a schmuck. I actually believed that they were going to follow through with what they said they were going to do. At 10pm, all there was to see was fútbol. It was the beginning of the second half of some meaningless, non-historic, insignificant game in the Primera league. Same shit they have on every Friday. Except this Friday happened to be the Friday where Phelps could tie Mark Spitz record of 7/7/7. 7 gold medals and 7 world records in 7 events. Spitz did that in 1972. An athlete like this comes along once a generation. And in swimming its even more important because the world only cares about swimming and lets swimmers compete on the world stage once every 4 years. They get NO glory, NO press, and until recently (and only for the top 3 or 4 in the world) NO money. Sure Jordan was great, Bonds (epa!), Ruth, Aaron, Montana, Gretzky, Howe, Bird, Magic, etc. But all the greatest team sports players at one point had to rely on their teammates to make plays. Paxson hits a 3 to win Jordan's first 3-peat. Bonds relied on who knows what kind of "training". Montana and Rice; Bird and McHale and Parish; Magic and Careem and Worthy; etc. Phelps has Phelps. And that's it. Well, maybe his Mom in the stands. But I digress... The point here is that TyC metió la pata big time. Because when I then flipped back to TyC at around 10:20 there was nothing. 10:30, nothing 10:40... there is Phelps, celebrating, out of breath, having just won. AND THEN IMMEDIATELY THEY CUT BACK TO FÚTBOL!!! La remil puta que lo parió! At least my company Anuva deals with wine and I keep a large stock around for tastings. Time for some serious malbec.

Coverage of the Olympics in Argentina

2008-08-11T18:09:00.004-03:00

It is quite possible that the Olympics represents the most progress humanity has made to date thus far. Pure competition within the leisure (by that I mean sports and not business) realm between nearly all of the people on Earth. Having been a former swimmer myself and competed on the national and international level for the University of Southern California, I am glued to the television for 2 weeks straight every 4 years. I thought it a crime, however, when TyC and Canal 7 both cut off their coverage abruptly at about 11pm last night--during swimming of course!! What they neglected to show (and which, I admit, they might have shown during the wee hours later last night/Monday morning) was quite possibly the greatest swimming race EVER. I kid you not. EVER. Please watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYnlW-CzIx4 I know that the race itself has nothing to do with Argentina or expats, but I figured that the lesson here is on the expectations of media within Argentina.

Living in Argentina vs. China

2008-07-28T14:06:00.005-03:00

It's interesting that I found so many similarities between China and Argentina. I'm sure many nationals from both countries would be appalled by my saying that. But it's true. Both Argentina and China have very homogeneous populations. I'm not sure the percentages in China vs. Argentina but walking down the street in China you see--guess what--Chinese people!! And in Argentina, pretty much everyone looks Southern European (unless we are talking about the Northwest near Bolivia). Cost of living is very similar. In the big cities in China you can get great dinners with multiple dishes for less that 5 US per person--same in Argentina. Wages are about 5000 RMB per month for a middle income person which is about 850 dollars. That will pay your 300-400 dollar rent per month plus food and transportation. Now transportation is interesting. I have been to MANY cities all over the world and never found one cheaper than Buenos Aires for public transportation. Rio, Santiago, Lima, La Paz, Beijing, Shanghai are all at least double the cost for subways and buses. One of the drawbacks to China, though, and one of the dissimilarities is the westernization/Americanization of the big cities in China. Many districts exist in both Shanghai and Beijing where all you can find is brand name American clothing, accessories and luxury goods. This exists in Argentina too, but in my estimate, the majority of the country's retail is mom and pop shops. Of course, in China you have the infamous fake markets where you can get a "Gucci" bag for 10% of what it retails for in the US. Everyone kept saying "you want LV? LV? LV?", and me being rather label ignorant, I kept thinking: "What is El V?" Yikes.

More on Currencies

2008-07-13T12:55:00.004-03:00

After a recent trip to China, the topic of currencies and exchange remains present in my mind. I thought I was living in the country where you get the best bang for your buck (Argentina). But it turns out that your dollars and euros will go MUCH farther in China than in Argentina. There are of course lifestyle tradeoffs (like no good Argentine wine) but that is another topic... The peso to dollar rate has dropped to 3.02 to 1 today according to yahoo finance. Accordingly, the Yuan (or Riminbi) to the dollar is at about 6.8 to 1. So what can you buy in each place? In China: Chinese food for 4 people at a neighborhood restaurant for 10 dollars TOTAL, knock-off brand name clothing and accessories for 10% of what they cost in the US, subway rides for 60 US cents. In Argentina: Great steak dinner with wine at a neighborhood restaurant for 12-15 dollars per person, leather goods for 50% of what they cost in the US, subway rides for 30 US cents. There are other tradeoffs of course like ridiculous pollution, information censorship and the hardest language in the world to learn. But things in China have changed immensely from when I was there the last time in 1994. Back then it was a 3rd world country with very few stop lights, animals in streets and extreme disorganization. Now it rivals the US in its modernity. And compared to Argentina, its like night and day. Suffice it to say, I would have a very hard time living in China even if I spoke the language. A wonderful place to shop and see history, though.

The Almighty Argentine Peso

2008-06-03T14:32:00.002-03:00

Some of you may find the title to this blog amusing, but every currency has its importance, especially the currencies where you keep your money and spend your money. My company, Anuva Vinos, charges its clients in US dollars and our counterparts in Argentina have to do a lot of spending in Pesos. One would think that this would be a very favorable situation. Since I have been living in Argentina (November of 2004), the dollar has gone from being worth about 2.9 to about 3.2 pesos. But in the last month alone that rate dropped to 3.07. Why? Typical cultural practices in Argentine. I was both surprised and not at all surprised when my fiancée came home one night and said, "I have news for you." Imagining various horrific scenarios, too graphic and personal to describe here, when she said that there might be a run on the banks and that her Mom had heard this from a very trustworthy source, I was actually a bit relieved. But then I had to sit there and analyze what I was going to do about the situation. Do we take all of our money out of the bank, in cash, and sit on it at home? Do I not believe the hype and do nothing? Is there an in between solution? More on this to come...

Race(ism) in Argentina

2008-05-01T00:07:00.000-03:00

Che, Negro

One of the first people to come visit me in Argentina was my friend Paul. Paul is about 6 foot 4 (193cm), 240 pounds (110kg), has Nigerian black skin and at that time sported an afro. Now I am the one who is used to getting all the attention when I walk around because I am 197cm with curly blond hair and I too sport an afro at times. But when I took Paul to calle Florida to people watch, they ended up watching him. I have never seen so many heads turn and stare. Thankfully, Paul is very easy going and has a great sense of humor. We discussed it afterward.

The conclusion we arrived at, was that there was not the slightest hint of racism or prejudice conveyed by the Argentines. What we witnessed, was novelty. Paul said, “It’s like the first time you go to the zoo and see a giraffe—you stare—not because you hate the giraffe, not because you wish it ill will or think it’s going to steal from you but because it’s very different than any other animal you have ever seen before.” And Paul is right, with less than 4% of the population of African ancestry, and most of those living toward the north of the country, it is not surprising that this country of mostly Italian and Spanish immigrants is surprised when they see an African face.

I took Paul to several parties where mainly locals were gathered at people’s homes, drinking, playing cards, etc. He was welcomed and kissed just like any other person and nobody gave it much thought. There were some comments made, like “Che, ese negro es un negro de verdad, “ and the like, but these were simply observations/ jokes/comments that meant nothing more than calling the guy with the big nose “pipa” (like pipe) or calling me “grandote” (giant). It is a real assessment of the physical nature of the person and says nothing about stereotype, prejudice or bigotry. This tends to be the way of things in Argentina in general. Here, they call a spade a spade.

Interestingly, the word “negro” in Argentina can often be used like we use the word “dude” in English. Often, the person in a group who has the darkest features will be called “El Negro.” But the interesting thing is that I find that Americans in particular, myself included, will be ultra sensitive to race issues as we have been conditioned to think this way. Many Americans, even though we are not racist or bigoted in the slightest, will look at a Black person or Hispanic (in the U.S.) and think (within a split second) “Oh, there is a (person of color) and I shouldn’t stare. But I also shouldn’t look like I’m trying not to stare so I won’t look away too quickly. And I’m not supposed to assume that they are going to rob me, because they aren’t, they are just normal people. Why would I assume something about a person (of color) I don’t know? Oh, shit I’ve thought about this too long, maybe I am a racist. I’m such a horrible person for even thinking that it would be ok to not stare at a person of color. I’m still thinking about it….” An Argentine would never over-think, let alone even think about this type of situation in that fashion. When it comes to physical appearance, they are direct: a fat guy they call “el gordo” and that is how he is designated in place of his name, a skinny guy is “el flaco”, a redhead “el Colorado”, a bald guy, “el pelado,” etc. This is not out of malice, this is the way things are. Es así.

2008 Update to 'Blacks in Buenos Aires' Post

2008-04-21T19:54:00.000-03:00

We wanted to let everyone know about a great discussion that is going on in the comments of a 2005 blog post about Blacks in Buenos Aires. Initially the comments were focused on Black History in Argentina, but lately the comments have been a discussion on how receptive Argentina is to a Black person today.

People from all over the world, including several African Americans, have added great comments lately and I wanted to share some of those with the group. After that I want to ask some questions to the readers of this blog, especially the Argentine nationals. Let's keep the discussion going, this topic is important for some people who are thinking about either visiting or relocating in Argentina.

An Anonymous Reader contributed the following which seems to sum up many of the comments on the Black experience in Argentina.

"...I'm a black woman from London. I have desires to visit lots of countries in the world where it is perceived black people aren't welcomed. This didn't stop me because I have a right to travel, educate myself to people's customs, and let them see a very proud black woman. Even better if they get to speak to me and find out that their stereotypes don't exist in me. Anyway, the fact is since being here two days, I am the walking attraction and haven't had anyone say anything to me negative or positive."

Blacks in Argentina seem to notice that they are being noticed quite a bit more than normal. But most report that they feel they are curious glances, and not loaded with bad intent.

Another reader cited this National Geographic article, Skin Deep, by Elliot Neal Hester in the comments. I read this article and think it's great, and exactly on point with the issues raised in our blog post and comments so worth sharing with anyone interested in the topic. Hester's experience in BA included lots of being noticed. But when he had a rare interaction with one of the Argentines staring at him, it turned out sweet and innocent.

Argentina is such a great place to see that I hope no one feels so unwelcome that they cannot experience it for themselves. I think the comments in our earlier blog post and Hester's article generally support the notion that Argentina is a welcome place for Black skinned people, but also very inexperienced with seeing Black people which explains why many Argentines will stare.

For those of you who are expats in Argentina, or those who are Argentine nationals, what do you think about this? Do you think Argentina welcomes Black tourists, Students, and Expats? Do you agree the stares that many Blacks report getting in Argentina are based in curiosity of something rare, and not based on negative stereotypes?

Smoke on the Horizon in Buenos Aires

2008-04-20T22:48:00.000-03:00

Buenos Aires Ahumado

As I’m sure many of you faithful readers already know, Buenos Aires has been enshrouded in smoke for the last week making breathing easy over the weekend all but a fantasy. Visibility just yesterday was about 200 meters from my balcony and we did everything we could do to keep the smoke out and avoid going outside. We even avoided doing laundry as long as possible as we knew that hanging the clothes out to dry would only make them absorb more smoke—great if you want some salmon ahumado or panceta ahumada (smoked salmon and smoked bacon), but not if you want to breathe. Yesterday, I was even suffering preliminary respiratory symptoms caused by smoke inhalation and exposure like burning eyes, nose and throat, congestion and coughing.

I had heard a lot on the news about how the farmers to the north of Buenos Aires had decided to burn their fields all at the same time (as opposed to their normal sequential burnings) as a sign of protest to the government’s proposed hike on beef exports. Then I heard the fires were out of control and that the firefighting teams had been prevented from doing their jobs by some sort of government bureaucracy. Then I heard that the government was simply outlawing field burning and that the farmers wanted to get in under the wire so that they could avoid buying expensive (cough, cough) land tillers to keep their soil healthy. Then I heard that the government may turn to criminal prosecution of these farmers. Then I heard some fellow expats talking about their disgust with the BBC’s Argentine correspondent for having gotten the story wrong….

So who knows the reality of the why… All I know is that I have never actually been in a city where I could imagine a scenario for massive rioting in the street. Today looks clear, and I don’t imagine we will get to that point. But only last night, a few blocks from my house, I could see massive explosions and fireworks being launched in protest. I have never looked out the window of my home to see what I had only before ever seen as footage of the abominable pollution of Beijing or some sort of post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie. It was disgusting, appalling, stomach-churning. Even INSIDE my own apartment, looking at my fiancée, sitting there at her desk, only about 5 meters from where I was standing, the haze was apparent.

So what are we supposed to make of all this? With no clear sign as to who is taking what action for what reason me pongo nervioso (I get uneasy). And I do not get uneasy very easily. I have been imagining airports overrun with people trying to flee the country. Am I crazy? Quite possibly. In my defense, however, all the bus terminals and most of the major roads in and out of Buenos Aires were shut down because people were dying in traffic accidents due to the low visibility. What is next if this is to continue?

Gifts for Weddings in Argentina

2008-04-14T15:30:00.001-03:00

Cash is King

It seemed odd to me, that for the several weddings I have been to in Argentina people asked for cash as their wedding gift. I have always been taught that cash—while extremely useful and certainly an appropriate gift from an uncle or grandparent—constitutes a quite tacky gift between peers. Yet every couple whose wedding I have attended in Argentina has asked for money. So this led to several heated discussions between my girlfriend and I over whether money is an appropriate wedding gift to ASK FOR.…

Times are changing, Lourdes (my girlfriend) would argue. People don’t get married then go to live together, they go to live together and then they get married. Thus the old adage of newlyweds “building a house” together doesn’t really apply, because most newlyweds will have already done most of that. So blenders and dishes and furniture are no longer gifts of preference because many couples already have that. This I understand.

What I have trouble wrapping my brain around, though, is the idea that the wedding costs a lot of money and that therefore I should, in essence, make a donation to the cause. This has been an argument used to justify cash gifts. The problem, though, is that I didn’t decide to put on the wedding in the first place. Many couples elope and decide to do things on their own or with small groups of more intimate friends and family at a very low cost. Cost, therefore, is all up to the people putting on the wedding and if they cannot afford it, they shouldn’t do it (although many a politician might disagree with that). Also, I didn’t decide what to spend the money on for the wedding. I don’t even know if I’m going to like the food (which I didn’t at any of them save one) let alone the ceremony. So what I feel basically is that I’m being asked to attend a ceremony by a friend (or acquaintance) of mine, that will be catered to their tastes and that I should give them money to use for their honeymoon or bill paying or for the wedding and reception itself.

I have thrown many a party in my life and I have never asked for people to pay to come in the door. There might have been a couple of parties I attended in college where some drunken guy with a baseball hat on backwards was asking for 5 bucks for a plastic cup at the keg but besides that I have not heard of asking for cash as a wedding gift. But maybe I’m in the dark. Maybe this phenomenon is all too common and I just haven’t paid enough attention. I wonder, though, is it common in both the US and Argentina? What about other countries in the world?

I await your feedback…

Fashion Emergency! What is the Dress Code for Women in Argentina?

2008-03-31T17:45:00.005-03:00

A fellow reader needs your help! Post your reply in the comments of this post to help her out. Local Argentines and expats are both encouraged to reply, here is her comment.

Hi all,

I've been looking through this site because I will be in Rosario, Argentina for a few months. I'm in my 20's.

My question is what is considered appropriate or the norms for women's clothing:

1. In beaches or pools
2. length of skirt
3. business clothing
4. to wear outside on the street
5. for "going out" [at night with friends/a date]

I don't want to look sloppy but at the same time I dont want unwanted attention either or want to stand out too much.

The Irony of the Argentinean Job Market

2008-03-24T16:07:00.001-03:00

Employees in Argentina

It has been remarked to me by many a businessman/entrepreneur/executive, that employing good workers is both one of the biggest keys to the success of a business and one of the hardest things to achieve. Obviously, some unique conditions exist in Argentina that make employing people here different than in the U.S. and in general, harder. The difficulties in having employees come from costly benefits and retirement, disloyalty, and greater degree of mis/distrust in Argentina as compared to the U.S.

Two basic types of employment exist in Argentina: “en blanco” or “in the white (legal)” and “en negro” or “in the black (not so legal)”. The difference between these two lies in the benefits paid to the employee which can break the bank of even a well backed business. To be in full compliance with the law, employers must pay around 45% above and beyond an employee’s salary for benefits, retirement and tax. This means that if you want to pay an employee 2000 pesos per month (a decent but not high salary here), then you must add 900 additional pesos to this that will be put into this employee’s retirement and benefits. Of course, this is an outrageous number. So outrageous, that somewhere between 30% and 60% of all persons employed in Argentina are employed en negro. This means that the employer pays no benefits whatsoever to the employee. The reason that so much “trabajo en negro” exists is that unemployment is high, jobs are scarce, and the government does not enforce labor law (until after the fact), so companies can get away with not paying benefits. But at the same time, whoever creates these policies should seriously take a look at the incentive that employers have to pay their employees so far above and beyond their actual salaries. Economics tells us that we must find the balance between lowering the cost to the employer and the number of employers who would be willing to pay this extra cost of having employees to find the greatest number of employers willing to pay a certain level of benefits. As the percentage paid toward benefits goes down, the incentive for employers to pay those benefits should go up, driving up the number of employees enjoying benefits. But this type of thinking seems to fall outside of the realm of what is possible here…

The irony of all of this, is that most Argentine employees, because they have worked en negro, will sue their former employers for having employed them as such… and win! Nearly all former employees employed en negro either win their lawsuit against their former employer or settle out of court before going to trial (the statistics are quite meaningless because of the latter number). So be warned all foreigners who wish to pay their employees this way: it may cost you in the long run.

Another costly part of employees in Argentina is the disloyalty, and general lack of motivation coupled with a high degree of mis/distrust. One would think that because of the scarcity of jobs here that people would be quite loyal to their employer and show a lot of incentive to do right by their company so that they do not get fired. In reality, most employers are afraid to fire their employees because of the aforementioned law suits that can come from termination. The incentive for employees to work hard to keep their jobs is very low because they know that their employer is afraid to fire them. Moreover, owners and employers, being afraid to fire their employees and thus knowing that they will probably be stuck with poor workplace relationships and unmotivated workers, will not be inclined to give bonuses, raises, commissions, or other types of compensation based on incentive. I have been called “completamente loco” for having suggested the idea of very high commissions for sales based employees. It only seems logical to me that if an employee can be motivated through cash incentives tied to work done that a win-win situation will be created. The lack, however, of such incentives in the workplace in Argentina create many disloyal employees. If they don’t see a way to gain from working hard for their company, and they see no long term benefits being paid toward their retirement, what incentive do they have to stay with a particular job?

In addition to these problems and as discussed in the previous blog, a very common practice, especially for family run businesses (which make up the vast majority here), is to put only family members in positions of management and money handling to prevent theft, fraud, and laziness. This quite often takes the form of a single person who manages the cash register at an ice cream shop or bar or clothing shop where that person will be responsible for all the money handling and all other employees take care of operations. This in and of itself does not represent a direct problem with employment but it does limit the choices as to who business owners select to run their tills. The limit that they place on who they trust (the famed “gente de confianza”) will by default limit the number of choices that they have to run a key aspect of their business.

Trust in Argentina

2008-02-13T16:51:00.003-02:00

Business and Trust in the Argentinean Community

One of the things I have learned about running a business in Argentina is the necessity of community involvement and building trust. For myself, an expat entrepreneur who exports wine from Argentina, I must involve myself with local media and businesses, tourism, and the expat community on a regular basis to build relationships. Unfortunately, Argentina is an extremely distrustful society and because of this, more attention must has to be paid to forming relationships.

My company, Anuva Vinos, makes continuous contact with wine shops, wineries, customs brokers and publicity agencies in order to outreach directly to the local business community. We obviously buy wine from the wineries, help the wine shops send wine to foreigners, use customs brokers to get those wines out of the country, and do interviews, attend events and generally promote the wine club and tastings that we do here in Buenos Aires with publicity and the media. It struck me about a month ago, that ramping up the frequency of these activities can only help. But one must know how to speak about one’s product to these different entities. For wineries I am a customer. For wine shops, I am a partner. For the media, I am a source of information and news, and they are a source of publicity for me.

It almost always comes down to hand-shakes and smiles. These two things build trust. Trust, in Argentina is hard to come by. I was first exposed to “gente de confianza” (trustworthy people) when I started my first business here in student exchange. Argentineans were and are obsessed with this phrase, mostly because no one here trusts one another. Ice cream shops make you pay first, hold your receipt, turn in your receipt to the ice cream server and get it stamped to prove the sale was made and the ice cream served. Bars routinely have one line where people pay for drinks and receive a ticket which they then turn in for their beverage. This is because no one trusts one another with money. Thus meeting people in person is very important here.

I practice this belief with the tourism industry. I routinely visit, in person, 15-20 hotels per week where I speak with the concierges and managers about the wine tastings that Anuva Vinos offers. They would never have thought to call me if I had just sent and email or made a phone call. On the contrary, in the U.S., our dealings have been virtually 100% phone and email based. I only met my logistics and website people for the first time 9 months after we set up. There was an unspoken trust between us that does not exist in Argentina. This type of trust is quite evident among the expat community here in Argentina.

Going to events sponsored by Expat-Connection and other expat groups is really good for networking. Many Europeans, Americans, Canadians and Australians come to these gatherings to socialize, learn about procedures in Argentina (like buying property and bringing in money), and experience Argentine culture with other foreigners living here (like polo). Many of these people have a wide range of experiences in business, living abroad and language which makes them great resources and many of them have great connections that they willingly will share because of the trust among this group. This trust comes from an almost instantaneous bond between one another because they are all English speaking foreigners who decided to leave their home countries for a new country where they find themselves in the minority. I have found great connections by going to these types of events and doing these types of activities and I will continue to do so with more frequency as the power of an abundance of trustworthy relationships cannot be underestimated.

Origins of Anuva: Starting a Business in Argentina II

2008-01-25T10:24:00.000-02:00

Would You Like An-Uva? (“Uva”=Grape)

The idea for my wine club and wine tasting service spawned about 2 years ago when I took my Dad to Mendoza. My father is a man who has never like alcohol in any form—no beer, no wine, no spirits. Not for any health reason, mind you, but simply because he didn’t like the taste. But after my own awakening to the joy of Argentine wine, I figured he might like a drink at the foot of the Andes. So when I witnessed him purchase 2 cases of a young Malbec at an out of the way bodega (winery), I thought I could make something happen from this.

I knew there was a company that was already doing similar work to what I envisioned so my first thought was to pitch them the idea to see if they were interested. With little response after a few months I stopped trying and began to gather info, money and people on my own. When my cousin became interested in the project, we decided to form a partnership and start a business. If we only knew what we were in for….

Coming up with the name alone proved to be a chore. We were almost the following: Club Argenwine, Nice Legs Wine Club, and the Argentina Wine Experience. Yuck! So we were musing about Spanish words having to do with wine that we could play with and when we happened upon “an” plus “uva” it stuck.

Anuva as it turns out also has meanings as a girl’s name in both Indian and Russian. In the former it means “knowledge” and in the latter “a new beginning.” Normally I tell a little story about the name Anuva at tastings so when we had a Russian man at one of our tastings and he confirmed for me meaning of Anuva in Russian I was beaming. Please see the following link for where I got the info: http://www.yeahbaby.com/meaning-name-etymology.php?name=Anuva. Thrilled with the multiple meanings of Anuva, we set to work executing our plan.

Starting a business in a foreign country can be more complicated than starting a business in your home country for obvious reasons, but also has advantages. The most obvious difficulty is the linguistic and cultural barrier. Many a time, mal-interpretación (misunderstandings) happened to myself and my business partner, but you learn and you move forward. The most important thing is to know what you want and to know exactly how far you are willing to go in any given deal or negotiation. Gray area makes for victimization. Especially in Argentina, where people like to do business more verbally and in person than written and over the phone, misunderstandings can arise. You may say, “that’s odd, I would think that over the phone and in writing one could misunderstand more.” Well, it’s not so much that one can understand any more or less through the different media of communication, its that writing things down, especially, gives a record of data. This is especially important when negotiating prices.

Also important when negotiating prices and running your business is know the tax structure. Are you going to be a local business in Argentina (I do not recommend this unless you want a “lifestyle” business like a restaurant or bar where you will have to be physically present constantly)? Are you going to export? Import? Have a business in another country that makes its money outside the country but deals with many other Argentina companies? This is all important not just to figure out how to move your money (from customer to merchant account) but also how your money will be taxed, what tax laws you can avoid by using different set ups, and what commissions you will have to pay to intermediaries. IVA (vat tax) is 21% in Argentina!! That means that everything that is bought or sold domestically will have this tax applied! But this is not the case for exports. No IVA on FOB prices. But beware of bank commissions as well…

Transferring money in and out of Argentina can be like trying to take off a pair of skin tight jeans that are soaking wet after a huge meal. Banks, like other massive bureaucratic institutions, love their rules, have their flunkies that do not ever attempt to think outside those rules (and in some cases do not even know them), and in general are no fun to deal with. But they are a necessary evil. So if you have to bring a lot of money into Argentina to start up your business, take the time to talk to the casas de cambio, banks, and a lawyer or escribano (literally “notary” but more like a high level contract lawyer) to make sure you know that you can transfer the money into the country AND AND AND get it out of the bank. Your money is no good unless you can use it. I speak from experience. FYI a person to person wire transfer will only allow you to withdraw 1000 USD per month from a common account here. No importa if you are Argentine or American. You can use Moneygram or Western Union but they charge a lot and have limits of around 2500 USD per person per month. So get your game plan working and hope for the best but plan for the worst.

Suerte!

Starting a business in Argentina

2007-12-04T18:03:00.000-03:00

EDITORS NOTE: Here is another post from our new friend Daniel K in Buenos Aires, the owner of Anuva Vinos. Having just started a business in Argentina, Daniel knows what he is talking about. This is the first post by Daniel on the subject of starting your own business in Argentina, more to come!

I believe that starting a business in Argentina, or any country really, begins when a great idea meets the inspiration to execute the legwork involved in taking the idea from concept to reality. After doing tremendous amounts of research, planning and strategizing, the business (if the initial idea was good enough) simply requires DOING the work involved. Much easier said than done.

But what would the difference be in starting a business in Argentina vs. starting a business in the U.S. or some other country?
1.Knowing the culture and language: which then effects your…
2.Business Plan.
3.Sales, Marketing, Operations, Management, Accounting, Finance, Legal.
4.Execution.

Going in order, knowing the culture and language of the place where you want to do business is absolutely crucial. This part of starting a business feeds into the rest of the aspects I have outlined above as well, and may even be the inspiration for your idea. If you really understand the culture of where you reside—for example Argentina—and can make accurate comparisons to other cultures of perhaps where you come from, you can see the opportunities in the market.

Argentina, for example, tends to be a less organized, more laid back, “traditional” culture, where Spanish is by far the predominant language. If you expect things to run the way they do in your home country, forget it. You will drown. You must be able to adapt to their way of doing things because, as previously referenced, “Es así” (that’s the way it is). So if you go into the DGEP or INV or AFIP (various governing bodies—secondary school, viticulture, and taxes, respectively) and expect that they will know how to get the appropriate forms in order for a student exchange, wine analysis or registration of a monotributista (like a sole-proprietor) be patient, because you will have to go to several different floors, offices, stand in different lines, etc. in order to get your questions answered. Also, in this instance, the importance of knowing the language on a fluent level cannot be underestimated, as government officials tend to not know English. If you have access to a large amount of capital, however, you may pay bilingual lawyers and accountants to do these tramites (paperwork) for you. But they will certainly charge you for it.

The Argentine government is also only barely arriving to the digital age. In fact, all of the government offices that I have been to still require in-person signatures and sellos (stamps or seals). Only recently have online forms and downloads become available. Expect to have to go in person, expect to have it take twice as long as you think it will, and expect to have to go back at least once because the person who attended you actually gave you the wrong information. Not out of malice, but simply a very narrow view of what they do. I find it to be tremendously similar to any other bureaucracy.

Remember also that many operations require a DNI (Documento Nacional de Identificación) which can be obtained in several ways. The easiest is to marry an Argentine, although many would argue to the contrary about the relative “ease” of this method. The Visa por Rentista can also be obtained fairly easily, but does require a lot of paperwork and patience. The basic requirement for it is proof of solvency. Many of the other forms of obtaining a long-term visa, most of which include the right to obtain a DNI, can be found at the following link, which of course, is only in Spanish—clear evidence of the need to understand the culture and speak the language. Argentina Ministry of Interior - Immigration Information

US Democrats in Argentina to Organize

2007-11-20T18:39:00.000-03:00

Here is a note we got this week from a fellow Expat in Argentina, Yanqui Mike, its an invitation to be part of Expat history in Argentina! If you are a Democrat in Argentina, you will not want to miss this event.

'Democrats Abroad' are planning to establish a chapter in Argentina for the first time in their 40 year history.

We are throwing a big shebang Wednesday the 21st at 8:00pm at Thames 2334 in Palermo Viejo with free beer and good fellowship for all.

Every eligible US citizen there will become a founding member.

Folks can find out more about this really terrific organization and the good work it has done for US citizens living abroad by going to www.democratsabroad.org and can RSVP via a link at yanquimike.com.ar.

It's a chance to make a little history and leave something lasting behind here in Argentina when we leave.

Unorthodox Rebound for Argentina's Economy

2007-11-08T14:19:00.000-03:00

USA TODAY'S David Lynch writes in todays edition about Argentina'a economy, and its recovery from the 2002 financial collapse, check it out if you are interested in Argentina's financial condition. What do you think about the governments plans to continue growth even at the high costs of inflation, or do you think they should consider slowing growth to limit inflation? You are welcome to comment through the 'post comment' link below.

Argentina's snub of conventional wisdom pays off

By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY

"The economy purrs at a growth rate of better than 8%."

"Over the past four years, Argentina has recovered its hope," says Mercedes Marco del Pont, a member of Congress.

"The biggest significance of this recovery is they just rejected the orthodox economic advice … and they've been the fastest-growing economy in the Western Hemisphere over the last five years," says Mark Weisbrot, a left-of-center economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.

"As the grumbling grows in Argentina's financial community, some in the government insist that the country shouldn't be judged by the same criteria as fully developed economies such as the United States or European Union. Interest rates, for example, are less important here in determining economic growth because 90% of transactions are conducted in cash."

The Argentina Asado Experience

2007-11-05T15:15:00.000-03:00

Editor's Note: This post is a guest post of our new friend Daniel K, a North American living in Buenos Aires. This is an awesome article on the meat eating spectacle you will find at an Argentine Asado. Daniel does a great job of translating many of the cuts of beef here too, which will help any English speaking traveler in Argentina since even a translated English menu in Buenos Aires will still usually just say "Bife de Lomo" and not filet mignon. We welcome you to write on this blog too if you are ever interested in contributing! If you are an Expat living in Argentina, or if you are in the planning stages of your move, and you want to write about your experience, then send me an email or post a comment to the blog, be sure to include your contact info!

Diplomacy Through Beef Consumption

If you look up the translation of the word ASADO to English, you get barbeque. But anyone who is multilingual will tell you that translations are almost never perfect. Yes, asado is the Argentine version of a barbeque, but seldom will you find a hotdog or hamburger on the grill. Instead you will find the most amazingly flavorful and different (from America, at least) cuts of meat ever.

These cuts will normally include:

Asado, which in addition to meaning “grill” or “barbeque,” indicates the rib meat cut across the bones to make a long string of 2-inch cut ribs hooked together.
Vacio, which is flank steak, but you’ve never tasted anything like it.
Bife de chorizo, the same as a porterhouse cut, but it’s Argentine beef.
Bife de lomo, filet mignon.
Colita de cuadril, literally “calf-tail, ” another cut from the rear of a young cow.
And many others that would take me pages to list.

And this is just the more common cow meat! They will also grill lamb, pork (costilla de cerdo, which are pork ribs… amazing!), goat (cavro or cavrito), chicken and my favorite, achuras.
Achuras are the parts of the animals that Americans do not eat (at least not normally). They consist of chorizo, morcilla, chinchulines, molleja, riñon, and tripa gorda. These would be, in order:

Sausage, pork or beef—you have to ask to figure out which—that is always very tasty.
Blood sausage, also black pudding or blood pudding, which is better cold in my opinion.
Intestine, um… did they clean out the inside of this cow’s gut before cooking it?
Thymus or pancreas gland, sweetbreads—wondrous if cooked right!
Kidney, which I never got used to eating.
Tripe, yikes. (What is tripe? Usually the first of the 3 stomach chambers of the cow.)

Besides the food at the asado, the process itself is half the fun. One can easily spend 12 hours on the whole process by going to a country (same word, but pronounced with an Argentine accent—flip the “r”) or quinta, both of which refer to a house outside of the city where one would typically find expansive, flat green land lined with beautiful trees and perhaps a swimming pool. This day could consist of the following: up at 10am; shopping for food/drink until 11; figuring out rides and transportation until noon; arrival; glass of wine (Argentine wine is spectacular, check out www.anuvavinos.com) or Fernet with Coke; start the fire around 2, the asador (grillman) minds the fire and cooks while everyone chills out in the pool, kicks the soccer ball or chit-chats. At around 4, depending on the size of the group, the meat should be done. Starting with the achuras first, you begin your feast and attempt to pace yourself, which almost never works. With the salad and potatoes that the women prepared, (yes, it is a traditional, Latin, and somewhat chauvinistic culture) you will find yourself full after the first course. The asador will then bring out different cuts of meat on a wooden cutting board, which you cannot resist. If you are the foreigner in the mix, everyone will be asking you, “Probaste la carne Argentina? Te gusta la carne?” And if you want to be funny and cause a ruckus you could say that you had the best asado of your life in Uruguay the week before. Argentines will surely love this commentary.

The meal will end around 5 or so, after which the drinking really begins. Wine and Fernet are usually the favorites, but it depends on the group and the temperature as beer (usually Quilmes) is also a favorite. As is common in other parts of the world, the party will last for a few hours or until the supplies run out. Be sure not to play Truco (traditional Argentine card game based on deception and lying—very typically Argentine) for money under these conditions. You are sure to lose.

Later in the night, as people start to crave something sweet, the delivery ice cream service will be called. Yes, that’s right: DELIVERY ICE CREAM. I purposefully discard the telephone numbers (is this true???—asks my cousin after reading this blog) for these places from my home as frequent visits from one, Angie O’Plasty, would certainly follow my constant ordering of ice cream. In fact, the true secret of Argentina, besides the wine, is the ice cream. You can order kilos of extremely high quality ice cream in all sorts of flavors for delivery. After eating the ice cream, you will find it hard to function because of the abuse you just put on your digestive system. People will not start leaving until 10pm or so and, of course, there are asados that start later and end later, until the wee hours of the morning depending on the crowd. Just be sure that for any asado you attend, after everyone has sat down, started to eat the meat—the key is that they must have tried the meat—and begins to yell “Aplausa para el asador,” you clap loudly because this is to show your appreciation for the work that the grillman has done for you.

Diplomacy through beef consumption!

10 Questions for Daniel K. in Buenos Aires

2007-10-25T14:40:00.000-03:00

EDITORS NOTE: This is another post in our series of Expat Interviews. Let us know if you know someone who would be a good person to interview and we will try to do it. Daniel is from California (US) and currently lives full time in Buenos Aires with his Argentine fiance, he is an entrepreneur.

1. Where were you born, where else have you lived, and where are you living now? Born in Sacramento, California and grew up in Portland, OR. Lived in Los Angeles for 7 years from 1997-2004. Since then have lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2. Who did you move to Argentina with? When? I moved to Argentina by myself on an exploratory level in 2004 and permanently in 2005.

3. What made you pick Argentina? I already spoke Spanish and I wanted to experience Latin America having already traveled through all of Europe and most of Asia. I also wanted to go far away from the US so that left basically 2 options: Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires. I did a bunch of research and everything said that Buenos Aires was the most fun, had the best food, had the most beautiful women (I met my fiancée here) and had a European sensibility. So I picked here and it turned out to be the right decision.

4. What is the best part about living in Argentina? The worst? The best part is the financial freedom for people coming from countries that operate in dollars or euros. You simply cannot start your own business in the US or Europe with very litte money. Here you can. The worst part is the cultural attitude here which is very defeatist. After many terrible governments the people of Argentina have lost faith in their own system and turned quite pessimistic. Coming from a country where the prevailing ideology is "if I work hard, I can do it" it is hard to get used to the frequent comment "es así" in Argentina which means "that's just how it is."

5. How do you make your living? I started a wine club called Anuva Vinos that exports high quality, undiscovered Argentine wine to the US and Europe.

6. What is a typical day like for you? Up at 830, commute 5 meters to my living room to start work. Much emails and phone calling to bodegas (wineries), vendors and logistics suppliers, research on new marketing channels like restaurants and tourism agencies, meetings with those same agencies, tasting wines to see if we should put them in the club. Weekends include lots of asados (Argentine bbq) time with friends, movies and leisure.

7. How has living in Argentina changed your life? Living in the US is like living in a gated community, you never are exposed to how most of the rest of the world lives. I never thought I would pay so much attention to exchange rates, the price of oil, the GDP of Argentina, the housing market in the US, etc. I feel much more attached to the rest of the world out of necessity because I know that it will directly affect my life. I also have a new appreciation for what it means to be patient, appreciate slow cooked beef, well made wine, and great coffee in very small cups.

8. How does living in Argentina differ most from living in your home country? Many little things: subway strikes, massive lines at the movie theater on weekends, not having to use a car EVER (which is great), higher quality dairy and meat, the price of the tomato (read the news in Argentina 2-4 weeks ago for this), and having no direct flight to the west coast of the US.

9. What are your future plans in Argentina? When are you planning on leaving? We are planning on living here for the immediate future and have no plans of leaving anytime soon.

10. What one tip would you pass on to a future expat moving to Argentina? Besides the obvious one which is learn Spanish, be ready to deal with many different ways of doing things that take much longer and are more cumbersome.

Cost of Living in Argentina for a Family

2007-09-11T14:05:00.000-03:00

As many of you know, my wife and daughter and I are getting close to our move down to Mendoza, Argentina. We are excited about it and planning constantly. One of the things we are planning is an estimated monthly budget for our family in Mendoza. The following is our estimated budget. I am posting it here as a reference for folks not aware of the cost of living in Argentina, and also so the experienced expats out there can help us out. Of course everyone is accustomed to their own standards, like eating out a lot (or not), having a maid (or not), having your own car (or just taking taxis), etc. You can see from our budget we are planning for private school for our daughter, to own a mid size 4 passenger car, to have some budget for local travel every month, and to have a full time live in helper taking care of our cooking and cleaning.

Estimated Monthly Family Budget in Mendoza (USD)

Rent (2 or 3 BR + Depend.)	$800.00
Electric / Water / Vonage	$100.00
Cable / Internet	$60.00
Cell Phones	$40.00
Child School & Activities	$200.00
FT Domestic worker	$450.00
Groceries	$150.00
Family Entertainment	$200.00
Pocket Money / Discretionary	$200.00
Local Travel / Major Expenses	$300.00
Savings	$0.00
Car – Gas / Insurance	$150.00
Health & life Insurance	$200.00
Other – in the USA expenses	$200.00

MINIMUM Mo. Budget	$3,050.00

So, what do you think? Doable or not...too conservative...or are we missing something important? Please help me vet out these numbers, not only will we appreciate it, but your fellow readers will appreciate it too, cost of living in Argentina is one of the more popular topics for this blog (in terms of the questions people send in).

New Domestic Flights in Argentina Coming Soon...

2007-09-10T13:41:00.000-03:00

Those travelling Argentina's skies will soon have more choices. AirPampas is a new airline started by the former leader of Aerolineas Argentinas, Antonio Mata. AirPampas is expected to take a part of Aerolineas' 85% share of the domestic air travel market in Argentina. I expect it will be good to have a little more competition in this area.

When we were visiting Argentina last summer, we flew on Aerolineas Argentinas four times. Each time we had a pretty good experience. However, I've read on some message boards that many people have had numerous bad experiences with the airline. Can anyone share their experiences? I can't help but think that more competition will spur Aerolineas to make some changes in order to remain a major player in Argentina's domestic air travel market.

By the way, I found this article on the Welcome to Mendoza site. It's an english-language guide to those living in, doing business in and relocating to Mendoza. It's an invaluable source of information, and we refer to it often.

Time to Cry for Argentina... Starbucks is Coming!

2007-08-12T16:41:00.000-03:00

Not to worry, Buenos Aires will be safe. Although Starbucks is coming to Argentina it should be mentioned to people who have not yet seen BA that US brands are not as ubiquitous in Argentina as in Europe for example. Unless Starbucks is willing to sell coffee for less than 1 USD per cup they can only grow so much, domestic competition should keep them honest and with a small footprint in the country. You can guess where the stores will be... major US hotels, large office buildings, airports, Recoleta, and other places where large amounts of gringos congregate.

We can only hope that young people in Argentina will stay away from the scourge we call Starbucks. *kidding* It seems every conversation I ever hear about saving for retirement that is directed to thirty-somethings always includes the obligatory advice to lay off $4 drinks everyday and invest that in a mutual fund. If only it were so easy!

Have you heard of the Escape Artist website?

2007-08-12T16:25:00.000-03:00

Escape Artist is a really cool site about living or traveling around the world. They have newsletters or magazines that are free to subscribe to, the June 2007 issue included this great article on Buenos Aires by Virgina Brumby.

Although the article makes the familiar and unoriginal comparison that Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America, it does cover several interesting topics too. Brumby starts out with an interesting history of Buenos Aires before telling us about her time in San Telmo, Palermo's parks, and Palermo.

How is the Expat Experience in Argentina for Children?

2007-08-12T16:06:00.000-03:00

One of the most important things we took into consideration when making the decision to move to Argentina was “How is this going to affect our daughter?” We know that there will be challenges to face and adjustments to make once we've relocated, but in the end, we want this experience to be a positive one for every member of our family. We are fortunate enough to have family members who either moved their children overseas, or who spent part of their childhood in another country. We took their experiences into account. There were challenges to be sure, but overall, each child's life was made richer by their expat experience. Seeing their successes as adults was also very encouraging to us, and was right in line with what we want for our daughter. We want her to learn that the world doesn't end at the city limits. We want her to learn about other cultures, other perspectives, other ways of living. We want her to be an open-minded, well-rounded adult. We believe that this move will be a rich experience for her.

Knowing what we know about other children's expat experiences, we were able to go through with the decision to move to Argentina. However, Jammer and I know that it is prudent to continue to gather as much information as we can from people who have been there & done it already. With that being said, we'd like to direct the following questions to those of you who have relocated to Argentina (or other foreign countries) with your children. We know we can benefit from your experience and we welcome you to click the comment link below to add a comment to this discussion.

1.How long did your child(ren) take to learn the language?

2.What do you think are/were the biggest challenges for your child(ren)?

3.In your opinion, what is/was the best part of the experience for your child(ren)?

4.What tips do you have for future expats to help their children manage the transition to Argentina and assimilation into its culture?

Related link: raising bilingual children

10 Questions for Ellen in Mendoza

2007-06-29T13:36:00.000-03:00

EDITORS NOTE: This is a first in our series of Expat Interviews that we will frequently post. Let us know if you know someone who would be a good person to interview and we will try. Ellen is from the US and currently lives part of the year in her home in WV and part of the year in her Inn/B&B in Mendoza.

1. Where were you born, where else have you lived, and where are you living now? Born in NY, grew up in Minneapolis, lived many yrs in Wash., DC, lived in Spain, based in a town in West Virginia now, within communting distance of DC

2. Who did you move to Argentina with? When? My partner RIccardo Accurso, bought our house in Mendoza three years ago. We are not full-time.

3. What made you pick Argentina? Friendly people, terrific climate, high quality of life, comfort with Spanish languge and Latin culture. For several years we'd been looking for a place outside of the US. Having lived in Spain and been fluent in Spanish helped us recognize Mendoza as a great place for us.

4. What is the best part about living in Argentina? The worst? The people are the best. Bureaucracy is the worst thing.

5. How do you make your living? I am a free-lance writer in the US and we operate a small business, Amazing Mendoza Tours, from our US base. Riccardo is a jewelry maker and designer, with a gallery in the US.

6. What is a typical day like for you? Shopping for excellent produce from neighborhood vendors, reading La Nacio'n and Los Andes newspapers every day, eating many meals outside on our terrace, with a view of the garden, taking in terrific new and classic movies for 5 pesos at the University Theater, joining friends for late supper at a sidewalk cafe, taking tour groups to bodegas, restaurants, the Andes, art studios, etc. and trying out new places for future tours.

7. How has living in Argentina changed your life? We have just opened a new 5-room inn, Posada De Rosas so now we will be hosting guests.

8. How does living in Argentina differ most from living in your home country? Everything moves more slowly.

9. What are your future plans in Argentina? When are you planning on leaving? We go back and forth as businesses here permit and as needed there. We have no specific schedule now and can't predict one for the future at this point.

10. What one tip would you pass on to a future expat moving to Argentina? Learn as much Spanish as you can before you arrive, and take tutoring as soon as you get there. Your ability to function and your personal relationships will benefit immensely.

Current Events: Winter Weather Closes Pass Between Mendoza and Santiago

2007-06-19T15:28:00.000-03:00

Current event posts like this are mostly for our readers outside of Argentina. Our readers in Argentina all must know about the snowy weather that has closed the pass that connects Mendoza (Argentina) and Santiago (Chile) a few days ago. If it makes our news up here in the US, then it's safe to say everyone knows about it in Argentina. In any event, this current event is a fun bit of news that lets us mention a route often taken by tourists and expats alike: the road from Mendoza to Santiago.

This New York Times article about the storm mentions the fact that there are only 16 passes along the 2,500 mile border between Argentina and Chile. Of these 16 passes, it says only a few are paved. The main overland route from Chile to Argentina is through the Christ The Redeemer Pass. This heavily traveled route moves huge amounts of freight from Valparaiso, on the Pacific coast of Chile, on its way to places all around Chile and Argentina. The road goes from the port town of Valparaiso straight through to Santiago, then through the Andes mountains and the Christ the Redeemer tunnel (pass) to Mendoza 8 hours away (by bus), and then continues on to Buenos Aires. The pass is a crucial link for imports and exports for both countries, and it also makes a great sight seeing trip.

Many tourists and Expats will take the trip across the Andes on a luxury bus although flights to Santiago are readily available from both Mendoza and Buenos Aires. People take the 8 hour trip from Mendoza to Santiago during the day so they can enjoy the views along the way. Here are some photographs I found of the trip from Mendoza to Santiago. The road passes by Aconcagua, which is the largest mountain peak in all of the Americas (the next biggest mountain is in the Himalayas.) Looks like a fun trip to take, of course doing it in the Austral Summer (Dec-Feb) would limit the closed road problem that the 6,100 truckers up there are currently dealing with.

Getting Our Ducks In A Row

2007-06-16T23:22:00.000-03:00

This last post about Shedding Possessions gives you a good idea of where we are in our journey of getting ready to leave our home country. We used to own a home, which we decided to sell as the first real step on our path to move to Argentina. By selling the home it forced us to shed possessions, and it got us into an apartment which can only be temporary, just a place to stay where we can save some extra money every month on our way out of the country.

We now own a fraction of the stuff we used to own, and when we move out of the apartment on the way to Mendoza we will sell off almost everything else. We are close to our goal, with regards to personal property, which is to be able to put all the possessions we will keep in the US into a mere 100 square feet of a self storage warehouse.

There are so many things one needs to do in order to move to another country, so many ducks to line up in a row to make the move as smooth as it can be. We are not getting sent to Argentina with a company on an 'expat package' where someone else is handling the immigration and housing issues for us. We are moving on our own, like El Expatriado did, as a self employed person who will be responsible for everything. Many of the tasks we will do on this journey cannot be done, let alone contemplated, until we are actually there. But there are many things which must be done before we leave. I see these as the major steps for us to make before the move.

1.Shed possessions so we can leave with minimal expenses in the US (to store items we are keeping while we are gone).

2.Increase our virtual business revenue, earn more USD in our small businesses that operate over the phone and on the Internet. We can operate our virtual businesses from anywhere in the world with high speed Internet access, and if we can increase our income a bit here then we will have total freedom to live almost anywhere.

3.Deal with the bureaucratic items we must deal with to legally move; our own immigration paperwork (family of three), and the paperwork we need to bring our cat & dog.

We are mostly done with the shedding possessions stage, and are making progress on growing our virtual business revenue. We have done quite a bit of the research on the bureaucratic items we need to deal with to be able to get visas and entry paperwork for the people and pets in the family, but we have not pulled the trigger on hiring help to start this yet since we are more than 6 months away from moving. Our biggest task that we are currently focusing on is growing our businesses. The income from these small businesses will be the core of our monthly income when we are in Mendoza, earned in USD, and spent mostly in Argentine Pesos. Once these businesses grow a bit more we will be ready to set a move date a few months out (at a break point in our daughter's school schedule), and then get moving on the paperwork and the visas which we are going to start at least 3 months before we move.

We have a long way to go until all of our ducks are in a row, and we are ready to transition into our new life in Argentina. But we alone control our future and we are having a good time enjoying the journey.

Now Hiring Expats in BA!

2007-06-08T17:03:00.000-03:00

Hello everyone! There are open positions for native English speakers at my company in Buenos Aires. I thought I'd share the news with everyone here just in case you're in BA and you're looking for work:

About Us

GeoDesign is an Internet and technology consultancy headquartered in the USA with offices in Buenos Aires. Candidates are needed for a new English-language contact center which will be operated for one of our US-based clients in the financial services industry.

All successful candidates will receive extensive training and no prior experience in the financial services industry is needed. We are looking for native English speakers for this position. GeoDesign is an equal opportunity employer.

Primary Responsibilities

Answering mortgage-seekers telephone inquiries regarding their mortgage application.
Completing mortgage applications over the phone with mortgage-seekers.
Contacting mortgage-seekers to correct incorrect/missing information from their mortgage applications.

Requirements

Native English speaker
High school diploma
PC proficiency
Excellent comprehension, listening, negotiating and basic mathematical abilities
Excellent verbal and written communication skills

We Offer

Competitive salary & benefits
Visa assistance for expats
Comfortable low-stress working environment

Please send your resume/CV to jobs@geo-design.com along with your contact information. This position is located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Only candidates currently living in Buenos Aires will be considered.

Shedding Posessions

2007-06-08T00:55:00.000-03:00

Once we decided to relocate to Mendoza, one of the first questions we asked ourselves was "What are we going to do with our stuff?" We've heard this is a major issue that a lot of expats face. Dealing with a household full of furniture is such a daunting task. There are a few options: packing up and moving everything (see this previous article Shipping Quote Post about various companies that specialize in doing so), storing everything, or selling most everything and starting fresh in your new country. When it came time for us to decide, we chose to combine the second and third options. We would sell most of our things, and store those things that we just couldn't part with. Our goal is to move to Argentina with our clothes, some small electronic items like laptops and cameras, our 2 pets, and not much else. We want to carry everything with us, and get 3 people, 2 pets, and all we are taking with us in a regular minivan taxi!

Several months ago when we put our house on the market, we started a major "de-cluttering" project. We sorted everything into "garage sale", "put into storage", "give to charity" and "keep" piles. We also went room to room and decided which furniture we would keep for our interim apartment, and which we would sell.

As soon as we got a contract for our house, we had a HUGE garage sale. All in all, we sold about 50% of our belongings, gave about 20% away to charity, and kept about 30%. Of the things we kept, most of it will be sold when we make our final move out of our short-term apartment and into Argentina. Our antiques and family heirlooms will be placed in a 100 sq foot storage space.

At first, I thought that getting rid of so much of our stuff would be a very difficult practice. But, in fact, it turned out to be a very freeing, cleansing experience. It was amazing how many things we had accumulated over the years, and it felt very good to shed the weight of it all! Knowing we never had to move those things again was also a bonus!

Phases of the Expat Experience

2007-06-02T12:44:00.000-03:00

This blog is about the expat experience as it relates to Argentina. That includes both what it takes to become an Expat in Argentina, and what it takes to live in Argentina as an expat. For purposes of categorizing the content on this blog, I saw the opportunity to label the articles according to how they fit into the different stages of life as an expat. Here are the three phases of life as an expat that we will use on this site to categorize posts in the future (along with other keywords). Posts and articles will be searchable by these keyword labels through new links that will be posted soon in the left navigation bar.

Three Phases of the Expat Experience
1. Pre-Move Preparations (in home country, before you move),
2. Transition Phase, moving to and setting up your new household in Argentina,
3. Living in Argentina as an expat.

It's really two major phases, Pre-Move Preparations and Living in Argentina as an expat. The Transition Phase is really a sub-set of Living in Argentina, but it focuses on the first few months of the expat experience which is quite distinct in many ways. There are so many issues to deal with in the Transition phase that it is worth taking these issues on in a more detailed way. That is why I think it's worth defining this Transition phase as a separate part of the expat experience. Many of these issues will be done once or just a couple times during your whole stay as an expat in Argentina. Chores like leasing an apartment, dealing with garantia issues, buying real estate, getting your all your government IDs and numbers, getting your residency paperwork approved on arrival, getting a bank account opened, getting utilities on in your new place, importing possessions through customs, etc. Whereas the items discussed in the third phase, Living in Argentina as an expat would include things like the issues of living abroad for years at a time, travel tips, restaurant guides, child-care recommendations, communication advice, things to do, places to see, expat interviews, etc.

Over the next few weeks we will be introducing some new blog contributors, and welcoming their posts. A big reason why we will introduce more new contributors on this site will be to bring you more fresh content across all three of the different phases of an expat's experience.

Have a Question or an Idea for a Post? Send us your questions and ideas for posts as comments. We will do our best to answer questions that we can, and when we can't, we will call upon our panel of expats on the ground in Argentina who can help out the Expat Argentina Community. Send us a post if you can help out in that regard, by answering an emailed question every now and then. We are eager to hear from people in the interior of the country in addition to the B.A. residents. We welcome your help in making suggestions for blog posts that will improve the site. You can submit your questions or ideas as a comment by clicking the comment link below any post.

Leaving the United States for an Expat Experience

2007-05-31T02:11:00.000-03:00

The Decision-Making Process
Deciding to move out of the United States actually came pretty easy for us. We knew that it would be an adventure. My husband had lived in Venezuela for a few months during college, and had the wonderful experience of learning about a new culture and making life-long friends in the process. Several of our friends and family have lived for varying periods of time in many different countries. So, we knew it was doable, and we knew what an adventure it could be. We're in a place where we're ready for a change of scenery, a change of pace, and we're ready for the personal growth that comes with moving out of our comfort zone.

Why Argentina?
Argentina stole our hearts the first time we visited. Not only is it a beautiful country, its people posses a passion for life that is unique and inspiring. Buenos Aires is like a combination of Paris and New York City: beautiful and bustling. We also visited Iguazu Falls, and were able to see the raw power of nature. Seeing the water change from placid pool to a deafeningly loud waterfall in as little as 6 feet was a life-altering experience for me. The particular fall I am speaking of is called the "Garganta del Diablo", or "Throat of The Devil", but for me it was more like the voice of God. It was amazing and I will never forget it.

Why Mendoza?
We were also fortunate to visit the town of Mendoza and its surrounding countryside. Mendoza City has a slow-paced feel, the people are friendly and down-to-earth and it is surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. There are plentiful vineyards, where thousands of bodegas produce some of the finest wine. The tallest peak in the Western Hemisphere, Aconcagua, is close by. We decided that this would be the place where we would move as a family and embark on an exciting adventure. We can't wait to share it with you!

A Note from Jammer and Mendoza Expatriada

2007-05-29T21:02:00.000-03:00

Hello! We are looking forward to sharing our experience with you as we make the move from Texas to Mendoza, Argentina. There are many things that this move will entail, and we hope that our experience moving a family (with pets) will help anyone else who may be thinking about moving to Argentina. We also hope it will make interesting reading!

We welcome your questions and continued comments, some of the most lively discussions on this blog have been in the comments of a post when readers were actively participating. Please let us know what you would like to read about, and what topics you would like covered. We will also do our best to answer any questions you send in to us. If we don't know the answer, we'll find somebody who does.

We look forward to keeping the Expat Argentina blog buzzing with new posts and discussions. This blog will continue to be the best resource online for anyone considering moving to Argentina, or for anyone living in Argentina as an expatriate.

New Contributors

2007-05-29T20:49:00.000-03:00

I would like to introduce two new contributors to the Expat Argentina blog: Jammer, and Mendoza Expatriada. They are currently living in Texas, with plans of moving down to Mendoza, Argentina within the next year. They are married and have a daughter, and two pets that will come along to Argentina. They also plan on starting a business in Argentina after they settle in. Jammer and Mendoza Expatriada will begin posting on their experiences in preparation of their move to Mendoza.

I will continue to make frequent posts to the blog, but Jammer and Mendoza Expatriada are both going to act as new co-editors for the blog. In an effort to get more posts on the blog, and to get posts on a wider range of topics, they will be inviting other contributors to post on the site. They will also be seeking ideas and questions from the community of readers out there to help come up with ideas for future posts and discussions on the site.

I think this is going to give the blog a great new point of view from a married couple who will be living in a city other than Buenos Aires. This is Expat ARGENTINA after all and not Expat BUENOS AIRES. So, let's all give them a warm welcome and I, for one, am looking forward to hearing about their experiences.

Free Wi-Fi in Buenos Aires

2007-02-28T11:27:00.000-03:00

One reader was asking about where to find places that had Wi-Fi, so perhaps we can all name a few places we know to help her out.

Reader's Question

I am here in Buenos Aires finalmente! I am curious if you know of any good places/cafes that offer free wireless internet? In San Francisco they are everywhere, but I haven't found one here yet. Thanks so much!

LA NACION Master List

Check this link for a PDF file you can print out. This is a list put together by LA NACION that has a few Wi-Fi locations. Of course, nothing compares to San Francisco, so just forget about that. You've been spoiled by all the free Wi-Fi they have there in San Francisco, so its time to come back to reality for a minute. Besides, if you're in need of an internet fix, there are locutorios everywhere.

Expat Argentina Featured In Clarin

2007-02-06T16:00:00.000-03:00

I just wanted to point out to everyone here that on February 28th (a little more than a week ago), my little blog was featured in a Clarin article about bloggers in Argentina. If anyone has the link to that article for the online version of Clarin, I'd appreciate it if they could post it here.

Do Argentines Hate Us?

2007-01-18T20:59:00.000-03:00

Here's a rather negative post made last month by an expat who was pretty disgruntled and upset with Argentina.

Reader's Comment

I love reading these superficial posts where Americans write about pretty women, cheap prices and good food. I'm another American who has lived on and off in BA since before the economic crash, often for 2 years at a time. Here's what I think... Argentines don't generally like us much. They blame America for their econonomic woes. Sure, the women are nice looking and the place is cheap but one cannot go there and think he or she will be accepted into the culture or date any of these fine girls. You are a foreigner and a foreigner you will stay!

Yes, You Can Be Accepted

I would consider myself pretty integrated at this point. People tell me I speak good Spanish. I make an effort to understand things from an Argentine point of view. I have Argentine friends and I ask only that they accept me for who I am, which has nothing to do with the politics of my country. I don't get mad at my Argentine friends when I get poor service from the bureaucrats here, so I don't expect them to generalize about how I am based on my government.

And although this person said one cannot expect to be "accepted", I should comment that I do happen to be dating one of those girls that people talk about. I have lots of Argentine friends who have accepted me and like me for who I am. I imagine there are plenty of other expats with similar stories. It isn't impossible to go to a new country and be accepted into the society. However, if you go there with a chip on your shoulder and get upset the minute someone makes a bad comment about your country of birth, you might have a hard time fitting in.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't really feel the need to defend the United States when people make some comment or express an opinion. Now, obviously, if they say something totally ridiculous (i.e. the CIA blew up the World Trade Center, and yes I've heard this opinion expressed), I try to explain the facts to that person in a respectful manner, but I wouldn't get upset with anyone who's just putting their opinion out there.

I think expats will find that although Argentines might not have a favorable view towards the United States or Americans, that opinion is formed without them actually knowing you personally. Once people get to know you and see you're not the cartoonish money-grubbing yanqui capitalist who's come to steal the country's resources, you'll find you can get along with people here and be accepted into society just fine.

Getting Out of the City: Tandil

2006-12-04T12:18:00.000-03:00

With the December 8 three day weekend coming up, I thought I'd offer an idea for anyone looking to get out of the city. I went to Tandil with my girlfriend a few months ago -- during the last 3 day weekend -- and it was a nice getaway. Its about three hours from Buenos Aires by car. There's also a long distance bus (these busses are much more comfortable than the city busses that are in Buenos Aires) that leaves in the evening if you don't have a car.

Where to Stay

My girlfriend and I stayed at the Posada de los Pájaros, a spa and hotel a few kilometers from the city center. In addition to all the things you'd expect from a spa, the hotel has its own small farm and a few hiking trails nearby. It is a very small hotel, with only 16 rooms. If you're looking to relax, it is a very tranquil environment.

The hotel has a very cabin-like feel to it. My girlfriend and I were the only guests under thirty as well. The hotel definitely caters to an older crowd. Nevertheless, we had a great time and took advantage of the cheap spa treatments (which are priced in pesos and are an excellent value).

What to Do

I was very impressed by Mount Calvario, which has 14 different sculptures that represent the different stages of the crucifixion. During Easter, Tandil is home to thousands of pilgrims who visit Mount Calvario and then make a procession to the main church.

Tandil is also home to Fort Independence, a Moorish castle that was built to celebrate Tandil's centennial.

Tandil is also famous for the 300 ton "moving rock", which balanced quite impressively on a hill until it fell and broke into three pieces in 1912. Not content to lose this tourist attraction, the city built a replica which has the same exact dimensions as the original.

Its worthwhile to visit because there's a chair-lift that operates near the rock that takes visitors to the top of a nearby mountain. At the top is a lookout of the nearby valley along with a pastry shop. Once you finish your pastries, there's hiking trails nearby to burn off those calories. Make sure you take good hiking shoes because some of the trails are pretty rocky and not completely stable.

That's all for now! Hope you enjoyed the trip report and feel free to contribute your own.

Thanksgiving in Buenos Aires

2006-11-30T19:42:00.000-03:00

Last Thursday I celebrated my first Thanksgiving in Buenos Aires with my Argentine friends and with 1 reader of this blog. It was an interesting experience to share a piece of Americana with Argentines and explain to them the significance of Thanksgiving. I also found that it was a good opportunity to give thanks to all my friends here who've made me feel so welcome and helped me integrate into the society.

Get Your Turkey Early

After celebrating my first Thanksgiving here, I can offer some advice to others... a few lessons learned. First off, its not so easy to find a turkey unless you go EARLY. I remember seeing two huge tubs filled with frozen turkeys at the Jumbo supermarket in Palermo. There were probably 100 turkeys total. What I didn't know is that after they sold those 100 turkeys, there were no more! I returned to Jumbo two days before Thanksgiving and low and behold, nada.

I had just invited 10 people to celebrate Thanksgiving with me and there I was... the Tuesday before with no turkey. I felt pretty rotten at this point. One of my friends in particular told me he was very excited about coming because it would be the first time in his life that he ate turkey. So, it wouldn't go over too well if I switched out the turkey for a chicken or something.

I didn't give up, though. I proceeded to start calling all the Jumbos in Buenos Aires. The Abasto Jumbo had 9 turkeys left and after I bought the biggest 10 pounder, they were down to 8. I doubt anyone who waited until the day before was able to find one. So, make sure you get your turkeys ahead of time.

Buenos Aires - Now Smoke Free!

2006-11-02T15:32:00.000-03:00

Buenos Aires just earned another point in my book and simultaneously rid itself of one of the biggest complaints I've heard from US expats and tourists -- the smoke filled restaurants and bars. Those expats who are here from Europe, of course, may not be so thrilled, but if you're among the 80% of US expats who don't smoke, you're probably feeling a little less congested after walking out of a restaurant in Buenos Aires.

This weekend I remember leaving AcaBar, a restaurant / bar in Palermo, with some friends and I realized how much different the experience was from just 5 months ago when I went there with this same group of friends. The last time, the place was so smoke-filled that you could hardly see across from one end to the other. I remembered that after I got home, I had to strip off all my clothes and take a shower just to get the smell of smoke out of my hair.

Since the bar provides free table games for everyone to play, in the past it was full with groups of people chatting away and smoking up enough cigarettes to supply an army. Now its possible to enjoy a board game with friends there without having to take an antihistamine and an aspirin beforehand.

Kudos to Buenos Aires! If I could vote, I'd reelect whoever decided to do a little something to improve public health. Now all they need to do is start fining the dog owners who let their dogs crap everywhere and pick up the garbage more frequently and the city would earn another 2 points.

Argentines Rally in Support of Dictator?

2006-10-31T12:20:00.000-03:00

I received an interesting question from a reader who read an Associated Press article about Argentines rallying "to support dictatorship." Having seen the local coverage of this rally as well, I wanted to clarify for the international readers out there what is actually going on.

Reader's Question

I just saw this AP article about a rally in support the 76-83 regime. I'm totally confused by it so I thought I'd get your opinion as a current resident of Bs. As. First of all, would you agree that this is a rather small group of people compared to those "counterpart" protesters that the article mentions (they didn't mention how many people were in that group)? Since you live there, have you noticed whether there is some kind of renewed pro-military movement or something?

There was some discussion on your page previously in which there was pretty much a consensus that Argentines were generally against all aspects of dictatorship and the "milicos." I'm also confused as to why the AP would even put this weirdly short and one-sided article up on their cover page. I thought these people might just be family members of those parties involved who may finally have to pay for their crimes (and if so, why would this be a headline).

Political Situation

As part of the leftist opposition during the days of the dictatorship, President Kirchner is making the prosecution of former military men and elements of the old regime one of his key domestic policies. In addition to the prosecution of top generals and military officers, prosecutors have opened cases on police officers and even civilians who served in the government at the time -- the most famous of which is José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, who served as the junta's economy minister from 1976 to 1981.

Many members of the former regime received pardons from former President Carlos Menem, which have now been overturned by the courts. In addition, two laws that prevented the prosecution of former regime members were overturned by the Supreme Court early this year, setting the stage for further prosecutions.

Opposition to Kirchner

The largest opposition to Kirchner's actions comes from the family members of the former regime elements, many of whom feel they are being scapegoated for Kirchner's political gain. They say Kirchner is rewriting history by only telling one side of the story -- the abuses of power by the government. They claim the government is failing to prosecute the former left-wing terrorists, who also committed abuses. Before they were essentially wiped out by the military regime, these left-wing terrorists were setting off bombs in Buenos Aires, killing government officials, kidnapping businessmen, and causing chaos and havoc in the country. Some say Kirchner would prefer to glaze over that part of the story and just focus on abuses by the military government.

Most of the Argentines I know are part of the middle class -- people who work hard, have families, and play by the rules -- and they don't subscribe to the version of history that Kirchner is putting out. They say there was an undeclared civil war and that there were abuses on both sides. They certainly don't support what the military government did, but think the government now is revisionist and one-sided with history. It is no secret that Kirchner was part of the leftist opposition to the military regime and now, they say, he's using his presidency to punish is former foes.

My Take on Things

To be fair, I'm not sure I can intelligently take a side on this issue. I know what it means to fear terrorism and it can never be condoned. At the same time, the disappearance of people without a trial is not something that can be excused in the name of fighting terrorism. Perhaps the military started out with the execution of terrorists, but they finished by going after political opponents, students, and left-wing sympathizers who had nothing to do with terrorism.

I do think the climate has gone too far, however. Just a few months back, left-wing students protested to stop the vote for rector of the University of Buenos Aires. One of the candidates had been a civil servant during the military government and the students felt he should not be given the opportunity to be on the ballot. Blocking the exercise of democracy through popular protest by a vocal and militant minority should not be condoned, but it is increasingly accepted here when it is the far-left who are doing the protesting. Kirchner has failed on multiple occasions to use police force to stop left-wing protests from becoming violent. He even allowed left-wingers to occupy the French Embassy, which, to me, shows a complete disrespect of law and order.

Incidents like these, as well as the failure to stop urban crime, have led to the Blumberg anti-crime movement. Personally, I feel the pendulum has swung too far. There must be a happy medium between government repression and total anarchy. Asking the police to enforce laws and bring order to the society does not mean a return to repression. However, there are many who feel otherwise and would prefer to see the leftists set loose to do what they will.

Ultimately, the Argentine people will have to decide how they wish to proceed. They will either reelect Kirchner and the trials will continue along with the tacit approval of left-wing activists, or they will choose center-right candidates who want to provide law and order to the country and take a harder line on issues like crime. Next year's presidential elections will determine what path Argentina takes.

Working in Argentina

2006-10-05T18:14:00.000-03:00

Regular readers of this blog will recall that I usually advise people against working in Argentina. However, I'm going to take a stab at this question anyway. I'll also give my cautionary warning, as always.

Reader's Question

I came across your blog and loved it. My question to you is: how did you find a job over there? Did you go through a recruiter? My expertise is in the healthcare arena and I thought you may know how to connect with people.

I am planning another visit in Jan hoping to visit some companies. I will just continue to read your blog from the beginning hoping to gain some insight.

Working & The Middle Class

The main reason I usually advise expats against coming to Argentina and trying to find a job on their own is that they're going to be paid a normal middle class salary here. Middle class in Argentina is very different than middle class in the United States or in Europe. The fact is, your earning power is going to take a significant hit if you give up your job in the US or Europe and take a job here, with a few notable exceptions.

If you're sent here by an international company, you're probably going to continue to earn the same kind of wage you earned back home. In that case, you should jump on the opportunity to move here. You'll be earning a high wage, but your costs of living will drop drastically -- a recipe for savings.

If you are a successful businessperson, you should consider Argentina as well. You can start a business here with less capital than you can elsewhere. Labor is widely available and not too expensive. There are opportunities everywhere.

If Money Isn't Important

If you just don't care about the fact that you'll lose earning power by working for a local firm, I can still share some recommendations. First and foremost, you'll need to speak Spanish fluently. Unless you're going to be working with English-speakers all day long (there are only a few jobs like this and they don't pay well, such as teaching English), a complete domination of the Spanish language will be necessary. Your employer is not going to provide you a translator.

How would you go about finding the job? The reader mentioned recruiters, which do exist. However, the recruiters work for the companies, not the worker. You'll find that many recruiters will advertise for their positions in the Clarin or La Nacion (there's a section with help wanted ads for professionals).

The Big Obstacle: The Work Permit

The big problem is that most foreigners don't have authorization to work. They don't have DNIs and CUILs and that means that to the local labor market, they don't exist. Any employer who wants to hire you will have to retain a visa lawyer to do your foreign employee visa, which is going to cost them time and money. They could just hire an Argentine worker and not bother with all of that.

If you are really serious about getting a job here in Argentina, one thing you might consider is getting yourself a rentista visa and just coming down here and starting your job search. Contact ARCA and they'll get your visa taken care of. Once you get a visa, DNI and CUIL, you can then enter the job market on equal footing with any other Argentine. Companies won't have to spend any money or waste any time with the government when they go to hire you.

One Last Warning

Let me just warn again that if you are going to take a job in the local market here -- without being sent by a international company for some specific expertise that you have -- you're going to take a serious hit in your wages. Here you might just earn between 20-35% of what you earned in the USA or Europe. In addition to that, you won't be building up credits in your home country's pension system, so you might jeopardize your chances for a comfortable retirement if you work here for the long term.

If you just want to try it out for a few years as a change of scenery, make sure you have plenty of savings and realize that you might have to make serious compromises in your lifestyle in order to make things work. Good luck!

Learning the Language

2006-09-07T15:25:00.000-03:00

Its been more than a year since I've been living in Argentina and I wanted to respond to this question about how long it takes to learn the language and what my experience has been.

Reader's Question

I'm thinking about moving to Argentina, but my Spanish isn't that great. I read some of your early articles and saw that you, too, moved there without being fluent in Spanish. How easy/difficult has it been? Do you enjoy it? Do most Argentines know English? How long did it take until you could have meaningful conversations with people?

Having Fun Learning Spanish

For a lot of us, this is a very relevant question. Moving overseas is stressful enough, but learning a foreign language can be a scary prospect. I can tell you that from my experience, it hasn't been easy. However, it can be really fun as long as you surround yourself with people who don't mind giving you a helping hand.

Over the last year, I've laughed a lot with my friends over the mistakes I've made and they've been more than willing to correct me and teach me things. People who are used to hearing you speak in English also find it really funny when you start using some of the local slang with them. All this makes learning the language more fun.

Speaking in English

Although many Argentines do speak English, I've found that, at least in a social setting, you'll have a hard time getting them to speak it. Most are very embarrassed about their level of English. They have this idea that if they are going to speak a foreign language, they should speak it perfectly or else not at all. Two crazy examples...

I've been dating a girl for 2 months now and the entire time she's said perhaps 10 sentences to me in English. It isn't due to a lack of ability either. She can watch a movie in English without subtitles, read an English book, and even go to an English-language theater. During the day she occasionally speaks to English speakers in her job. However, outside of a work context, she just won't speak it.

In fact, when we starting dating, she went and enrolled in an English class. It sounds crazy, you have the opportunity to learn and improve your English for free, but instead you go and enroll in a class and pay someone to talk with them. Yet, that's the attitude you'll find here.

Another example happened at a party about a month ago. I met a girl there who worked as an English teacher. She was Argentine. However, with all her friends there, she wouldn't speak English with me. My guess is that she thought I would critique her English in front of her friends or something. Due to these experiences, I think expats shouldn't hold out much hope for people to speak English with them outside of a business setting.

Making The Effort

Since the beginning, I never lived with a host family here (always had my own apartment) and I spend most of my day working in an office where everyone speaks English. In addition, there's an English-language newspaper here, there are movies and TV in English, and even expat bars. Once you get yourself a secretary who can take care of all the daily chores like paying bills, translate when needed, etc., it actually is possible to live in Buenos Aires without learning Spanish.

For my first 6 months or so, I was like many of the Argentines I described above -- I was embarrassed about my level of Spanish and didn't like using it. I felt like everyone would think I was an idiot for speaking incorrectly. I wasted a lot of time by not practicing when I had the opportunity to do so. I told myself I wasn't doing anything wrong, since I kept up with my Spanish classes. However, I could have been doing a lot more to immerse myself.

No Light-bulb Moment

I used to think that one day, after x-number of Spanish classes or after speaking for so long, that I'd wake up and suddenly be able to start understanding things. Well, learning a language is not like that. It is a very gradual process and sometimes you won't even realize that you're actually learning.

There's no magic moment where you just understand everything. Each day you pick up a few more words, improve your accent a little, improve your grammar, get more confident speaking, etc. In fact, the only time I realized how much I'd advanced is when I started speaking to people I hadn't seen in a few months. They would be the ones who would tell me that my Spanish skills improved quite a bit.

Opening Up New Possibilities

Once of the greatest things about learning the language is that you open up a lot of new possibilities. I have friends now who don't speak English. I'm able to communicate directly with business partners, whereas before I needed a translator. I only recently realized just how funny some people are.

However, perhaps the best benefit is that I'm able to date much more successfully. People say that love is a universal language and men and women from anywhere can communicate without words -- bull! If you can't talk to the person sitting across from you, unless you're Brad Pitt, you have about a 0% chance of anything happening.

So, I wish all you language learners out there plenty of good luck and keep practicing! It'll make your time in Argentina a whole lot more enjoyable.

My First Argentina Protest

2006-09-01T18:27:00.000-03:00

Yesterday I went to Plaza de Mayo to listen to Juan Carlos Blumberg speak about crime and security in Argentina. It was my first time at a protest here and, for me, it was a very interesting experience. According to media outlets and unofficial police estimates, there were between 40 and 60 thousand people in attendance.

Blumberg has called for Argentina to toughen its laws against criminals. The government, however, has refused to do so, harking back to the tough approach to crime and punishment that was used during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, in which thousands of people were made to disappear. In fact, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have denounced Blumberg and compared him, quite unjustifiably in my opinion, with the military dictators that ruled the country back in the 70s and 80s.

If you don't know the story of Blumberg, a little background is in order. Blumberg was a textile engineer whose son was killed by kidnappers. Although Blumberg paid the ransom in the designated drop-off point, a corrupt cop with knowledge of the operation informed a different criminal gang, who stole the money. When the kidnappers were not paid, they killed Blumberg's son. Since his son's death in 2004, Blumberg has been an anti-crime crusader.

The government dislikes Blumberg so much that they staged a pathetic counter-protest at the obelisk, which gathered only about 5,000 people. In fact, there would have been more people at the Blumberg march, but many people were scared away by the rantings of the leader of the counter-protest, Luis D'Elía, who spoke of marching his counter-protest to the Plaza de Mayo to cause trouble.

Unlike most protests, which are filled with the unemployed, the Blumberg march was filled with middle-class taxpaying families, who were asking their government to fulfill one of its most basic duties - the protection of its citizens. While the piqueteros, the poor, and the leftists here are protesting every other day, it isn't easy to get a middle-class person who has a good job and a family to go and join a protest march. Usually middle-class people are content. Whenever a government starts to see its middle-class rise up and protest, they should pay attention.

The newspapers today were filled with articles at how the government had made a major miscalculation by staging a counter-protest and dismissing Blumberg as an extremist or a right-wing politician. In fact, he made no political statements at the march last night (some expected him to launch a candidacy for governor of Buenos Aires province) - he only called on the present government to improve the security situation.

Unless Kirchner is content to lose middle-class votes, I expect him to address Blumberg's concerns or he just may turn Blumberg into a political foe. We'll see what happens in the coming months.

How Much Money Do You Need To Live in Argentina?

2006-07-27T13:19:00.000-03:00

I often get the question, "How much money do I need to live in Argentina?" The answer is, and always will be, "it depends." There's no correct answer because different people need different amounts to live on.

Reader's Question

I have lived and loved Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois, but I’m ready for the smells and foods and the extended family I left in BA fifty years ago. My social security and pension stink. I spent a couple of my smaller pensions on medical issues about six years ago, so I doubt that I’ll have more than $800 – 900 monthly to live on if I retire now. I frankly don’t want to wait much longer. I’d have to wait to age 66 to receive any more from Social Security. Can a person live on that amount renting an apartment in a safe and secure area? It’s not a question I can ask my extended family. I have tried several different ways but I can never get a straight answer. Their lifestyle and mine are fairly different, and I would expect to find some kind of work at least part-time.

A Look At The Stats

The fact is, according to the per capita GDP figures, the average person in this country is living on $3800 USD per year. This is obviously a huge improvement over the $2500 USD figure in 2002, but way behind the $9000 USD figure during the times of 1:1 convertibility.

This figure, per capita GDP, doesn't tell the whole story. It only tells you how much money, in dollars, the average citizen is generating. What that means is that if a country's exchange rate changes against the dollar, the per capita GDP is likly to change as well. This doesn't take into account the fact that things might be cheaper in the country. You might have Argentines who are making $3800 USD per year, but the things they are buying are much cheaper than in other more developed nations. Therefore, their purchasing power is actually higher than $3800 USD. There's a stat we can use to find out how much purchasing power an Argentine might have if he or she was able to transfer his or her purchasing power to the United States, for example.

Purchasing Power Parity

The per capita PPP of a nation takes into account the average income of someone living in that nation and the average expenses that person will have for the basic goods and services that all people buy. Let's have a look:

#3. United States: $39,319.40
#46. Argentina: $12,301.23

The United States ranks #3, and Argentina #46. Measured in per capita PPP, Argentina ranks above all other countries in Latin America -- offering its citizens the best standard of living of any other South or Central American economy. In fact, it ranks ahead of several European countries, including Croatia, Latvia, Turkey, and Romania. That's pretty good.

So, what does this all mean? It means that the average person in the U.S. doing an average job is making and living on about $40,000. If you took that same person and put them in Argentina to do the same job, they'd be making and living on $12,000. If you're making $40,000 in the U.S., think about what your standard of living would be like if you were making just $12,000 per year. That's how you'd live if you were working here in Argentina. That's why most people here can't afford a car or other luxuries that the American middle class can easily afford. However, this isn't the case of our reader. In her case, she's going to be transfering a U.S. dollar income here. So, let's continue with the analysis.

Correlation With The Exchange Rate

You'll notice something else pretty interesting about these stats. The per capita PPP is about three times greater than the per capita GDP. That's indicating that your expenses here are going to be pretty much 1/3 the cost of what they would be in the U.S. Add to that the fact that 3:1 also happens to be the current exchange rate and a pretty clear picture is emerging.

Estimating Your Costs

Some other expats could chime in on this, but I think a pretty good way of estimating your standard of living here would be to take your U.S. Dollar income, multiply it by three, and then imagine living in New York, Chicago, or some other major American city with that income. I think that's a mental exercise that most of us could do. Of course, if you plan on living somewhere else than Buenos Aires, you'll certainly have cheaper housing.

Just for kicks, I took the rent I was paying in pesos and looked for an apartment online in New York (except I multiplied my rent by 3) to see what kind of quality I could get. The place I have here is much better in quality than what I could get in New York even at 3 times the price.

So, our reader above ought to take her $900 pension, multiply by 3 to get $2700 and then think whether or not she could live in a big U.S. city on that amount and be comfortable. For me, the answer would be no. With $2700 a month, I'd much prefer to live in a small town. But there are people who do it.

One thing that would help a lot is if you could buy a property here. It would certainly be a lot easier if you didn't have to pay rent -- if you could put together $50,000 to buy an apartment of your own you'd be set. Of course, that's not possible for everyone, but it would certainly make living here on $2700 pesos easier.

Last I checked, the government required that retirees moving here on a pensioner visa have an income of $2500 pesos or so (for a couple), so they seem to believe that it is certainly possible to live here on that amount and would approve your entrance to the country. Whether you'd be comfortable or not would depend on you and your lifestyle.

Privacy in Argentina

2006-06-30T15:01:00.000-03:00

Today I received a question about privacy in Argentina, specifically about the banking system. With the revelation that the US Treasury and the CIA have been spying on international wire transfers recently, I suppose banking privacy is on people's minds.

Reader's Question

I saw your blog about expatriating to Argentina, and really liked it and found it very helpful. It is no secret that many US Citzens are wanting away from a country where the President simply does what is in his best financial and personal interests no matter what the cost to Americans. I am hoping to move outside the US to a more politically acceptable country, where I feel safer, not from terrorists, but from my own government. Is banking heavily controlled, or are there any good privacy laws regarding banking?

Banking Privacy

My belief is that banks here are much less private than the United States. I have a few anecdotical examples, and of course I don't know for sure, but I'll relay what I do know. First off, just to open an account you have to provide a mountain of paperwork. It is next to impossible for foreigners without DNIs to open accounts here.

Second, at the end of the year, every citizen is required to submit a report that includes their bank balances to the government in order to pay the annual asset tax. I don't know whether this information is gathered from the banks and then cross-referenced with the annual tax filing, but I paid my first asset tax this year and I had to submit my bank balances to the government.

Third, to receive or send an international wire transfer, the transaction always must go through the central bank and you must declare the origin of the funds. I have the rentista visa, which obligates me to bring about $1000 USD per month into the country by wire transfer. I have to sign two papers every month just to receive the transfer that declare the origin of the funds to the central bank. In the U.S., none of this is necessary.

National Identity Documents

Argentina also has a national identity card called a "DNI". This document is issued by the "Registro Nacional de las Personas" or the National Registry of Persons. The United States has been debating whether or not to create a national identity card for some time, but nothing has ever been done. In Argentina it has existed for some time and I imagine it doesn't help much for those who are looking for privacy from their government.

Buying Property

In Argentina, foreigners cannot own property without first registering a CDI number with the national government. This, too, cuts down on someone's personal privacy. In the United States an foreign person can buy property without a social security number or tax identification number.

Culture of Privacy

I would say the culture of privacy that some libertarian and civil libertarian types have in the United States definitely does not exist here in Argentina. If it does exist, I certainly haven't been put in touch with people who value their personal privacy. The government in general seems to be more authoritarian here.

There's even an approved list of children's names here. If you want to name your child with a name that's not on the approved list, you have the possibility of a judge denying it. As bad as the United States has become under Bush, if you intend to move to Argentina, you shouldn't expect that the government here is some wonderful improvement. People live here in spite of the government, not because of it. Move here because you like the culture, the people, or even the low cost of living. But don't expect a better government because you won't get it.

The World Cup Effect

2006-06-24T09:09:00.000-03:00

After more than a month, the blog continues with another post on the World Cup. If you're in Argentina right now, you already know about this, but if not, you may be a little surprised about just how intense the effect of the World Cup is on this country.

If you wanted to plan a bank robbery here in Buenos Aires, the best time to do it would certainly be during a World Cup match. When you left the bank, your getaway car would be easily able to speed away because the streets are totally empty. During a World Cup match, the entire country is indoors next to whatever television they can find. You could literally run naked down the streets during the World Cup and nobody would notice or care.

Work comes to a halt as well. This goes for people in my office as well. Everyone made it clear to me that they would be watching the World Cup rather than working. During the latest match between Argentina and Holland, everyone gathered around our office TV and work stopped for 90 minutes while we all watched the game.

I was even told by a friend yesterday that women's clothing stores are offering a 20-30% discount on clothes purchased during Argentina's World Cup matches. She explained to me that if the stores didn't offer those discounts, their sales would be dead during that period.

Today, Argentina goes up against Mexico. It isn't a work day, but the city will stop nevertheless. ¡Buena suerte Argentina!

The Mundial Is Coming and Argentina Gets Ready

2006-05-21T19:50:00.000-03:00

You can feel the anticipation. Everyone's talking about the Copa Mundial (or just "mundial), which is known to the English-speaking world as the World Cup. Mundial-fever is definitely something new for me. In the United States, I lived 25 years without noticing or caring about the World Cup. Advertisers are giving away tickets and trips as promotions -- it seems like everywhere I go, I've been entered into a contest to win a trip just by buying a soda, making a phone call, etc.

Not only are big businesses getting ready with promotions, but so are small ones. I noticed the corner café that I usually eat my lunch in has just installed a new 42-inch plasma screen. Apparently restaurants that do not show the game will be facing a severe loss of business during June. It wasn't just my local café, either. All over the city, new plasmas are going in.

The fever isn't just restricted to Argentina either. Last week in Brazil, the rioting prisoners of Sao Paulo demanded two things -- conjugal visits from their wives and girlfriends and plasma TVs to watch the World Cup. That just goes to show you how Latin Americans view the World Cup in terms of importance -- its right up there with sex.

In addition, I've been informed by people in my office that I should not expect anyone to be working should Argentina be playing during office hours. Since I'm American, apparently they felt the need to explain this to me explicitly, just so there's no confusion. I don't know how it works in other companies, but I expect that on the days Argentina is playing, there won't be too much work going on either.

So, get ready. Just 18 days until the start of the World Cup. If you're here in Argentina, its going to be the event for June/July.

The Undervalued Peso

2006-05-09T20:15:00.000-03:00

I received a question today about the rumors of the peso being undervalued. Although I've addressed this issue in other posts, I wanted to make a very detailed explanation so that expats can understand what the issues are. The currency issue is an important one for every expat that's living here on a U.S. dollar-based income or pension.

Reader's Question

I keep hearing that the peso is undervalued and that the government is deliberately keeping the exchange rate with the dollar low. Is this true? And if so, how and why are they doing it? I thought now that the 1:1 fixed rate days were over the market is free.

The Peso Market

The days of 1:1 are over and now we're living in the days of 3:1. However, the market is by no means a free one. It is still tightly controlled by the government. The central bank controls all wire transfers going in and out of the country. Anyone wiring money in or out must show the government what they're doing and why.

Like the government of China, the government here allows the peso to float within a certain range with the dollar. Over the last few years that range has been between 2.8 and 3.1. However, many people here believe the true market rate of the peso is between 1.8 and 2.4. So, how does the government keep the peso down, why are they doing it, and can it continue?

Why The Peso Wants To Rise

There are several reasons the peso should be higher these days. First is due to the fact that there's more exports now than imports. When you have everyone selling abroad, the exporters get paid in U.S. dollars. However, they pay their bills in pesos, so they must turn in their dollars for pesos. If you repeat this process thousands of times you'll eventually have more people who want pesos than dollars and this causes the value of the peso to increase.

In addition, there's a lot of people with dollars who are coming here. All these expatriates, foreign investors, and tourists have dollars and they need to exchange them out for pesos to pay for things here. That puts more pressure on the peso. With such a demand for the peso and only a limited supply of pesos out there in the market, the price of the peso should go up.

Market Manipulation

The government, however, is preventing the rise of the peso. It wants to protect the exporters and the national industry. It does this by buying up all the dollars on the market and printing new pesos. By buying up all these dollars and supplying pesos to everyone who wants them, the government can keep the peso from increasing in value.

This strategy does cause some problems, however. Namely, inflation. By flooding the market with all those pesos, the peso's buying power would be reduced -- too much money chasing too few goods. The government knows, this, so they are countering this by borrowing back all the pesos they've just printed. So, the number of pesos in the marketplace remains more or less the same.

Nevertheless, this strategy is not sustainable over the long term. Although the government earns some interest on the U.S. dollars it is storing up, the amount it earns is less than what it has to pay out to borrow all those pesos. Eventually the interest payments on the pesos will blow a hole in the budget and the government will be forced to let the peso rise in value.

Impact for Expatriates

What this means for you is that you can't expect to have a cheap peso forever. While I fully expect that Kirchner will keep the current exchange rate policy when he's reelected next year, if he can't get the inflation problem under control, he may be forced to let the peso rise. Inflation has been the undoing of so many other Argentine presidents, I would expect that Kirchner is more obsessed with keeping inflation low than he is keeping the exchange rate fixed at 3:1. So, just keep an eye out.

The "Nice Areas" Of Buenos Aires

2006-05-01T13:58:00.000-03:00

There was an interesting comment from a reader, responding to another comment about how rents are going up in the "nice areas" of Buenos Aires. I thought I'd respond and hopefully get a discussion going about some of the different neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.

Reader's Comments

All this talk about "nice areas", what makes an area nice exactly? Selfserving opinions? Or has the citycouncil perhaps rated the Buenos Aires neighborhoods and put them into the five catagories "Very nice" "Nice" "Okay" "Not nice" and "Not nice at all" ???

Fact of the matter is that different people like different things and what one person thinks is nice the next person may rate as inadequate.

As far as I am concerned saying that Buenos Aires has three nice neighborhoods and that those neighborhoos are Palermo, Recoleta and Belgrano is just spreading disinformation and misleading readers.

I aint seen all of this city but pretty much everything I have seen has been pretty and I encourage those who are coming to Buenos Aires to see the following neighborhoods for themselfs Flores, Villa Crespo, Villa Urquiza, San Telmo, Caballito and Parque Chacabuco.

Living and Working in Buenos Aires' Neighborhoods

Over the last 3+ years, I've either lived in or had offices in the following neighborhoods: Villa Crespo, Caballito, Balvanera (Congreso), Recoleta, and Palermo. When you consider that Buenos Aires has 48 different barrios, you realize just how large this city is and how it is impossible to really know it all. In fact, there are entire sections of the city that I've never seen. For example, I almost never find myself going south of Rivadavia Avenue. It seems like everywhere I want to go is north of Rivadavia. I've asked friends about this and they tell me the same -- they hardly ever find themselves that far south.

Villa Crespo

When I made my first hire more than 3 years ago in 2003, the country was still recovering from the economic crisis, unemployment was at 20%+, and I rented an office in Villa Crespo for less than $50 USD per month. It was in an ugly Soviet-style building filled with small offices with metal doors. Many people in the building were textile workers. When you walked in, cell phones immediately stopped working. It felt like a bunker. It was really a terrible place. I have two employees who are working with me today who worked back when we had that office. Today we make jokes about how awful that place was.

You'll find similar places all throughout Villa Crespo. Back in the late 1800s, Villa Crespo was host to a large shoe factory. Today it still has lots textile workers and you'll find lots of auto parts shops, etc. You won't find many parks, squares, or green spaces in Villa Crespo. It really could use more.

I wouldn't recommend Villa Crespo for anyone, foreigner or local. Although Villa Crespo is a middle-class neighborhood (or perhaps lower middle-class), there are other nicer middle-class places for people to live and work. In fact, once my employees saw that our Buenos Aires office was profitable, they immediately approached me and asked for permission to move our office to Caballito. The rent was higher, but not much higher. The neighborhood and the office was much better, however.

Villa Crespo served its purpose. It was the first office I was opening 100% on my own, without money from a partner or financial backer, so it allowed me to operate on a shoestring budget and get a foothold in Argentina. Once we started making some money, however, we were out of there.

Caballito

Caballito is a centrally-located middle-class neighborhood with plenty of shopping, residential, and commercial locations. It has parks, squares, green spaces, libraries, museums, and culture centers. Now, it has nowhere near as many as you'd find in places like Palermo or Recoleta, but it does have them.

Caballito has good and bad areas as well. I could take you in a taxi, drop you off in specific areas and you'd say Caballito was dirty, noisy, ugly and you'd have a very bad impression of it. I could also take you to an area that would make you think you were in a nice part of Palermo, with small residential streets that are quiet and clean.

We kept our office in Caballito for two years and everyone liked it. At that time, most of our employees lived in Caballito and it was easy to get to via bus or subway. Caballito also has easy access to downtown via the A-line subway that goes down Rivadavia Avenue. I have good memories of Caballito. It was a comfortable place to work, a very normal place.

Balvanera

Balvanera is more commonly referred to by its three zones: Congreso, Once, and Abasto. In fact, I've never heard anyone say that they live or work in Balvanera. They would always say either Congreso, Once, or Abasto. Our office is currently located in Congreso (just a few blocks from Congress) and is an ideal location that is close to downtown without actually being in downtown. For me, that's important, since traffic is always a nightmare downtown. The traffic in Congreso is much, much better.

Balvanera has several important sites, such as Plaza Miserere, the National Congress, the Abasto shopping mall, and the University of Buenos Aires. Balvanera is also a little infamous because near the Once train station, many of the old warehouses have been converted into offices, dance halls, or residential lofts. In late 2004, República Cromagnon, one of those dance halls, went up in flames and 194 people were killed.

Balvanera is a better neighborhood for working rather than living. Most of the zoning is commercial, in fact, and the residential spaces that do exist almost always have a shop or business on the first floor. If you need to be downtown often, but not too often, Congreso is a good place to have your office. In fact, when I used to live in Recoleta, I would walk the 10 blocks from my apartment in Recoleta to my office in Congreso each morning.

Recoleta

Recoleta is probably Buenos Aires' best-known neighborhood and most of the tourists who come here end up staying either in Recoleta or nearby. I lived in Recoleta for more or less 9 months when I moved to Buenos Aires. It is the neighborhood I'm most familiar with. There are plenty of things to like about Recoleta: Nice squares, parks, plenty of museums and culture, french-style buildings with impressive facades, lots of restaurants and shopping, and one of the safest spots in Buenos Aires, even at night.

I own an apartment in Recoleta that I'm currently renting out as a tourist rental and, for tourists and newcomers to Buenos Aires, it is a great and very comfortable place to be. My two favorite things in Recoleta are The Village, which houses the best movie theater in Buenos Aires (I'm a nut for the cinema) and the Recoleta Cultural Center, which is a constantly-changing exhibition of art from both established and new artists. I like to hit the Cultural Center at least bimonthly.

Palermo (Hollywood, SOHO, Chico, Viejo, etc)

Palermo is the largest barrio of Buenos Aires and is subdivided further into various smaller Palermo neighborhoods. This is where I live now and, if you're under 40 and single (or married and still like to go out), Palermo is the place to be. Block after block of restaurants, bars, and clubs line the streets.

Palermo is lower density than Recoleta and Caballito and this means that many times you'll walk more living in Palermo than other neighborhoods that have things closer. In Palermo you'll find lots of 1-3 story buildings. There are residential buildings which are called "PH", which are long horizontal buildings that have a long hallway entrance leading to the various apartments. Most of the times there's no doorman or security with these buildings, so living in Palermo is somewhat less safe than Recoleta.

Palermo is also home to an enormous amount of green and open spaces (the most inside the capital) -- the parks on Libertador, the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden, the Buenos Aires Zoo, etc. You'll also find the race track, polo fields, and La Rural (an outdoors exhibition and convention area).

My own opinion is that Palermo is also home to the best and most varied restaurants in the city, especially if you like ethnic food. You can find food from France, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia, Asia, North & Central America, etc. You could go out for a month and just eat at restaurants in Palermo and not miss out on anything.

Now that I'm here, I really couldn't see myself living anywhere else.

"Nice Areas"

Now, back to the reader's comment. You are right that while I may consider some areas "nice" and other areas "not nice", we are all entitled to our own opinions. In fact, although this reader was responding to a comment made by another reader and not to me, I generally agree with what was said. I don't think it is self-serving to recommend to people to live in Recoleta, Palermo or Belgrano. It is just one person giving advice to another.

The fact is, Recoleta, Palermo, and Belgrano are some of the most expensive areas of the city and if you are a foreigner and you're coming here with dollars to spend, you can probably afford to stay there. But by no means should you avoid the other neighborhoods of the city. You might find something you like much better. The best thing is to rent a place for a month in each of the different neighborhoods you think you might want to try out. Pretty soon you'll figure out what you like and what you don't.

Keeping Argentina a Secret

2006-04-27T16:01:00.000-03:00

There was a comment just posted to my previous post about the Washington Post article. I wanted to repost it here and then comment.

Reader's Comment

Interesting article. Part of me doesn't like seeing this stuff, but I suppose it's good for BA at the end of the day, which is good. The average person attracted to BA by reading this story in the Washington Post has got to be preferable to the avergae person attracted there by reading the recent story in New York Magazine.

Buenos Aires Is No Longer A Secret

Over the last three years (but especially over the last 6 months) there have been so many stories about Buenos Aires and how it is really making a comeback -- and becoming an expat paradise. The fact is, the secret is out. I suppose you could consider me and everyone else blogging about Buenos Aires as part of "the problem", since there are hundreds of people reading this blog everyday, figuring out what a great place Buenos Aires is.

I don't think it really makes sense to try and keep it a secret though. If you look around the world at the type of people who usually emigrate, the vast majority are economically distressed people at the bottom of the society's social ladder. The well-off are not usually anxious to leave a country that's allowed them to do well. This is why you'll see countries with reactionary anti-immigrant politics as they attempt to keep out the "foreign hordes" of uneducated people who flock to a country in search of better opportunity.

Why We're Coming

What's happening here in Buenos Aires is a different animal, however. You have a lot of unskilled immigrants coming here, sure, but you also have a lot of successful and well-off people who are coming here. They're doing this not because they want to be paid more (because that won't happen), but because they like the lifestyle and the culture. I really disagree a lot with what the Argentine in the Washington Post article said about how people are coming here just for the cheap living. That is certainly a part of the equation, but by no means the main reason. If we all wanted cheap living, we could all just move to Bombay. The reason people are here is because of the culture, not in spite of it.

Argentines have nothing to fear from the expats who are coming here. Although perhaps this will be obvious to most readers of this blog, I will point out that immigration and emigration flows have long been used by historians and economists as a barometer of a country's performance and success. When a country has large inflows of people, it means it is doing something right. When there are large outflows of people, you know that things have gotten so bad that people have to leave. The fact that there are so many people from the U.S. and Europe who are flocking here is something that Argentines can be proud of.

Washington Post: Expats Migrating South For Low Stress and Cheap Food

2006-04-27T12:44:00.000-03:00

The Washington Post just published a recent article called Expatriate Games, about the flood of expatriates from the U.S. and elsewhere who are heading to Buenos Aires for the low-stress lifestyle and the cheap food.

Low Stress?

Usually one wouldn't think of moving to a city with 10 million people as a way to escape a high stress lifestyle. I would think about moving to a beach somewhere. I think what happens after moving here, however, is that people discover there is more of a work/life balance here than in places like New York. The only people I hear about working 16 hour days are other American expatriates who moved here.

Getting a Work Visa

2006-04-26T16:46:00.000-03:00

Today's question comes from an Irish reader who moved to Argentina on a work contract and is now in the process of getting his DNI and CUIL. He seemed very confused, so I thought I'd shed some light on his situation.

Reader's Question

I moved here 3 months ago with a company (permanent contract) and they got me a 12 month visa and are applying for my DNI (and CUIL I think) right now. It was all done through lawyers (and broken Spanish and English but thats what I gather). I have asked a few times can I apply for residency when I have my DNI, but I never get a straight answer. Do I need to renew this visa after 12 months? Is it tied to my current position? When I have the DNI, am I home free?

If You Have a Work Visa, You Have Residency

You already have residency. If you have a visa, you have residency. What you have is called "temporary residency". In fact, we both have the same visas -- temporary residency visas. The difference is that your visa is sponsored by a firm and mine is based on the "rentista" concept of an individual who can support himself within the country.

Once you get your DNI, nothing will change. The DNI is just an identity document that allows you to show people that you are a legal resident of the country. In fact, after you get your DNI, you'll note that it will have an expiration date -- it will expire on the same day your visa expires. The simple fact of obtaining a DNI does not give you carte blanche to stay in the country as long as you wish. You'll need to continue to renew your visa each year or you won't have legal status.

Restrictions with Your Working Visa

I didn't know whether or not the work visa was tied to a company, so I asked the people over at ARCA to clarify this. The answer is, yes, the visa is tied to your company. In fact, the permit is actually given to the company, giving them permission to bring a worker in from outside the country. If you leave your job or are fired, you're obligated to leave the country. If you want to change jobs, you'll need to leave the country and your new company will need to start the process all over again.

When you get a work visa, the company is actually taking on the responsibility that you will not become an indigent person and become a burden for the government. That's why the working visa is a petition submitted by the company you're working for. Even though you already had your working visa approved, the problem is that it will expire in 9 months. At this point, you will need to renew your visa. Your firm should do this for you if they want to keep you on as a worker.

Getting a Permanent Visa

There is one glimmer of hope, however. When you go to make the third renewal, your visa lawyer can petition for a permanent visa to be granted instead of a working visa and then you'll avoid the whole visa rigamarole from then on out. Its the equivalent of a "green card" that gives you the right to come and go as you please and live in the country indefinitely. I'm in the middle of doing my second renewal this month and I'll be doing my third renewal around this time next year, so I'll let everyone know how the process works a year from now.

The Most Popular Leader of the Americas: Nestor Kirchner

2006-04-05T17:36:00.000-03:00

Mexican polling firm Mitofsky puts Kirchner's approval rating at 87%, the highest approval rating of any leader in all of the Americas, north or south. I think it is safe to say that, barring a very major scandal, Kirchner is going to be re-elected in a landslide.

Expats can expect the 1:3 dollar-peso exchange rate to continue for at least the next half decade while the government attempts to re-industrialize the country. The low peso exchange rate not only favors an export-driven economy, but it also stimulates tourism, and makes it harder for importers to undercut local producers.

What's The World's Most Valuable Passport?

2006-03-17T11:38:00.000-03:00

According to a study by Henley & Partners, citizens of Finland, Denmark, and the United States have the world's most valuable passports. They can travel to 130 countries without a visa. The worst passport you can have is from Afghanistan, whose citizens can travel to just 12 countries without obtaining a visa. Wow!

Argentina ranks fairly high on the list, with an Argentine passport giving you the ability to travel to 101 countries visa-free. Argentina beats out most of Latin America, such as Brazil, Uruguay, and Mexico as well as much of Eastern Europe, such as the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia. Only Western European passports and a few OECD countries such as Australia and Canada allow visa-free travel to more countries than Argentina.

This is another reason why I'm going to apply for my Argentine citizenship after I've lived here for 5 years. An Argentine passport actually lets you go to a few places visa-free that you can't go to as a U.S. citizen, such as Brazil. With the number of enemies that the U.S. is making in the world, I wouldn't be surprised if a few more countries decided to retaliate by making U.S. citizens apply for a visa. With only a few exceptions, Argentina has pretty good relationships with the rest of the world. I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself being able to travel to some places as an Argentine citizen easier than as an American citizen.

New Home Buyers Beware

2006-03-14T17:49:00.000-03:00

This post is just a warning for all expats out there that are buying new apartments in Buenos Aires... your experience will be dramatically different than what you're used to back in the U.S. Unlike U.S. builders, the Argentine builders don't even hook-up the electricity before they finish. You have to hire an electrician to come out yourself. The light fixtures are not installed either and your closets won't be installed. The apartment is generally left in an unlivable state without additional work.

At first I thought this just happened to me, but from what I've heard from other buyers, it happens the same with everyone. The builders don't exactly finish the job.

Getting Your Residency Visa

2006-03-10T14:24:00.000-03:00

This reader was originally trying to get a visa as an investor. As he states, the government does not allow people to get visas anymore simply by showing a purchase of property. Instead, investors must show a plan to start a business, employ workers, etc.

Reader's Question

The resident's visa "with buying property" door has been closed - you are now required to show a 3 year business plan which has to be approved! And it could be turned down at any time.

Help me! I need a solution. Can you still operate in Argentina if you have a "Rentista" Visa?

Getting Your Visa

When I first contacted ARCA, they told me that I would be very foolish to apply for the investor visa for exactly the reasons you just pointed out. The visa calls for someone to invest $100,000 pesos of capital in a business here in Argentina. Immediately most people think about buying an apartment and just putting it under a corporate name. Wrong! They've caught on to that. Even if you plan on buying a property as an investment, they still won't consider that a productive business and will deny your application.

Despite the fact that I was starting a real IT business here and would be employing workers, I was still recommended not to apply for this visa. Quite simply, it is an arbitrary process. The authorities can deny you for any reason. If they don't like your business for some reason, they can just say no. This is why I was recommended to apply for the rentista vias.

Unlike the investor visa, the rentista visa has very simple rules. If you can bring in $2500 pesos per month into the country by means of an investment abroad, you get the visa. The investment could be anything -- a business, a stock, a bond, real estate, it doesn't matter. If you can show you have income that's not tied to a salary, you get the visa.

The only downside is that a rentista visa is a temporary visa that has to be renewed. However, on the third renewal, you get your permanent residency. The investor visa lets you get permanent residency right away. Then again, it is a LOT more expensive to apply for. You'll have to pay two lawyers here in Argentina -- ARCA for preparing your visa, and a corporate lawyer to handle all the paperwork for your company. You'll also have to prepare your complete business plan in Spanish, make sure it conforms to the way the government wants it, blah blah blah. At the end of all this, they can still deny you. That's why its just a lot more trouble than its worth to go with this visa. Just get your rentista visa, make sure you renew it, and in three years, it'll be permanent.

Teaching English is NOT a Viable Way For Expats to Earn a Living

2006-03-08T16:12:00.000-03:00

I just read a post on another expat blog that I wanted to point out to all the readers here. It talks about the author's experience trying to earn an income by teaching English here. I was shocked at the low salaries they are paying. The fact is, the best English schools were paying $15 pesos per hour (less than U.S. minimum wage!). It would be very difficult to live on that here.

This just goes to highlight the advice given by ApartmentsBA from about a week ago... have a plan before moving here or expect trouble. The author of this blog is now looking to start a business here (a much better idea).

Social Faux-Pas in Argentina

2006-03-08T14:46:00.000-03:00

A reader wrote-in asking for some advice with social customs. I won't be able to provide a complete overview, but I will try to point out a few things.

Reader's Question

Thank you for providing your blog site. I think it will be very valuable to me as I consider an exploring trip to Argentina. My general question is, could you provide an overview of social customs in Argentina? Specifically, what social faux-pas might a North American make when traveling the country. For example, I read somewhere that wearing camo clothing is a major social faux-pas in Argentina...

Things Not To Do

You are right about camouflage clothing. You should NEVER wear something like that here. The fact is, people will assume you are a veteran from the Malvinas War and they'll think you're nuts. The veterans here are committing suicide all the time and if people saw you wearing camo, they'd think something was wrong with you.

While we're on the topic of clothes, try to dress better than you do in the States... especially for you people who live out west. People dress sharp here. Living in a small city in the southwest, people used to comment to me about how I dressed well. Here, I'm usually underdressed compared to most people. I still haven't got around to buying new clothes here yet, but when I do, I'll be buying nicer things than I own now. In fact, this rule applies to Americans whenever they travel. Americans have a reputation for dressing like scrubs when they travel, so try to pack some nice things so that you can fit in and not standout so much.

Men and women greet each other by giving one kiss on the right cheek. Men who don't know each other well greet each other with a handshake. Men who know each other well will greet each other with a kiss on the cheek as well. (I still haven't gotten used to this, but when in Rome...) When you're meeting someone for business for the first time, make sure you have a card to give them.

When you say goodbye, say "ciao" (pronounced "chow"), instead of "adios", which isn't used here.

Don't start talking with people you don't know about the military dictatorship, disappeared people, or the Malvinas war. Talk about fútbol instead. Nobody wants to hear a tourist's opinion about these things. Argentines are proud of their country and many of them understand English, so don't be talking negatively about their country or any of these sensitive issues within earshot either. I lived real close to Recoleta for 5 months or so and several times, when I was out at dinner, I heard some stupid remark made by a loud tourist about the Malvinas or something. The Argentines who understood English just shook their heads, disgusted.

Don't wear a lot of jewelry, brag about how much money you have, or talk like you're superior. Argentines appreciate modesty much more than Americans do.

Anyone else out there... feel free to add whatever you can think of.

With The Recent Election, Italy Becomes The Most Expat-Friendly Country

2006-03-08T11:37:00.000-03:00

Allow me to give a big pat on the back to Italy, which, with its recently-introduced election rules for expatriates, is becoming the most expat-friendly country on the planet.

Italy's next election will include the 3.5 million Italians living abroad. However, this is nothing new. Lots of countries, including the United States, allow their expatriates to vote. However, Italy is going much further and creating 18 seats in congress specifically for expatriates. So, instead of lumping the expatriates in with their previous home districts, expats will be divided into new geographical regions such as "Europe" or "South America" and will be electing representatives who will serve their region.

WOW! This is a fantastic idea! Big kudos go out to Italy for finally devising a system to include expatriate Italians in the political process. We just had a post on how some U.S. expatriates are feeling disconnected from their home country and don't follow what's going on there. I think that would change significantly if there were U.S. congressional districts & 2 senators that represented the interests of U.S. citizens living abroad.

The fact is, it makes no sense whatsoever to lump expats in with their previous districts. The local decisions being made there do not effect us at all. However, having our own representatives that serve the expatriate community would be a great way for expats to feel represented by our government. We'd have someone on our side when we get poor service by our embassy abroad, when the congress tries to change the tax rules for expats, or when our government is going on international adventures in the countries that we live in. Right now we have no real representation because we're split across 400+ districts. But if you could put us all together, we'd have someone who could look out for us. For the sake of all expats, everywhere, let's hope Italy's idea catches on.

Getting A DNI Without A Visa

2006-03-08T08:36:00.000-03:00

A reader wanted to know whether it was possible to obtain a DNI without a visa. I'll answer that question today.

Reader's Question

I am an USA citizen purchasing a condo in Buenos Aires in April. I hope to visit once a year for 1 or 2 months. I see the benefit in having a DNI but don't think I qualify for any of the temporary residency visas. I would be visiting with a tourist visa. I have my CDI for the purchase of the condo.

My question is can one get a DNI without the residency?

Getting Your DNI

You cannot get a DNI without getting your residency. The fact is, the DNI is the identity document that is given to all Argentines. If you don't have a residency visa, you don't have the legal right to live in the country. So, you won't be able to get a DNI.

However, just about everyone can qualify for a residency visa in Argentina. If you don't think you qualify for any of the visas, you're probably not thinking hard enough. Most people can reorganize their situation somewhat so that they can qualify for a residency visa. It may take a few months to do so, but it can be done.

In your situation, it would make good sense to get a residency visa and I'll tell you why. If you're going to be in Argentina each year for a few months, what you can do is renew your visa/DNI each time you are here in Argentina. After three years, you'll be given a permanent visa (the Argentine equivalent of a green card) and then, for the rest of your life, you'll be able to come and go as you please here in Argentina without the need to bother with visas, etc. So, your idea to get a DNI is a good one. You just need to reorganize your situation to qualify for one of the visas.

Staying Connected or Letting Go?

2006-03-07T16:27:00.000-03:00

There was a really interesting comment made a few days ago about "letting go" and just forgetting about the politics in one's previous country. It was a very interesting take on things and I wanted to take the opposing position.

Reader's Comment

One of my majors in college (I had 2) was Political Science. I use to be really interested in government, the inter workings of it all... Now, I really don't care what happens in the USA with politics. I don't follow it, I don't watch the news about it and you know what? I really don't care. Actually it's refreshing not to know or really care what is going on with the politics in the USA.

Expat Participation in Politics

One of the things I plan to do before the next presidential election is to register at the U.S. Embassy here in Buenos Aires to vote. I do still follow politics in the USA and even though I'm not living there, I still feel a strong connection with the country. Now, granted, I haven't been living here in Argentina as long as the reader who made this post, but I don't think my views will change.

I still find myself reading the New York Times online to keep updated about what's going on in the USA. I'm probably better informed about what's happening in the USA than most of the people living there. I'm curious as to what makes an expat lose interest in his country of birth. Living in the southwest United States, I spoke many times with Mexican professionals who were living in the U.S. and most of them still voted and kept abreast of politics in Mexico.

Crossing the Threshold

The reader has mentioned to me in the past that he probably will never return to the United States. I haven't yet crossed that mental threshold. I'm happy with Argentina for now (and for the immediate future, as I just signed a 2-year lease), but I haven't made the decision never to return to the USA. Who knows, someday in the future I may go back. I wonder whether there is a difference between expats who have made the decision to stay for good versus expats who maybe just want to spend a few years abroad.

Right now, I'm not sure which category I fit into yet. However, I do still feel a strong connection with the USA and I like to be informed about what's going on there. I still get very upset when bad things happen in the U.S. and during Katrina, back in late August, I had CNN running the entire time I was at work. I felt a lot of trauma by what was going on there... the same thing I felt on September 11th.

It was a different kind of trauma than what you feel when a disaster happens in another country. You feel more connected, more hurt by it. I haven't reached the point yet where I can see a disaster happen in the USA and feel the same thing for a disaster that happens in Pakistan. The U.S. still feels "close" to me and I'm still concerned about what happens there, much more so than some other random country.

I wonder how other expats feel about this issue. Do you still feel a closeness with your country of birth or do you feel you're able to ignore it to some extent?

Top Ten Reasons I Love Living in Buenos Aires

2006-03-07T14:52:00.000-03:00

I got a question today from a reader asking why I like Buenos Aires so much. Long-time readers of this blog will, of course, know a few of my reasons already, but I'll go ahead and summarize them here in one easy-to-read post.

Reader's Question

What do you like about living in Buenos Aires? What does the city and culture offer you that you could not find in [the United States]? I’d love to read your comments.

Top Ten Reasons I Love Argentina & Buenos Aires

Well, here is my list, in no particular order:

The (low) cost of living.
I have a job that allows me to live anywhere on this planet. Give me a laptop and an internet connection and I can work from anywhere. Given that my income doesn't change no matter where I'm living, it only makes sense to live in a place where things cost less. Argentina is one of those places.
The opportunity to go carless.
Going without a car just isn't possible in the western United States. Here in Buenos Aires, taxis are cheap, busses are everywhere, and the subway isn't half bad. You don't need to own a car if you don't want to. I always hated driving, rush hour, and the expense that goes hand-in-hand with car ownership.
The big city lifestyle.
Now this one is purely subjective. Living out west, I knew a lot of people who moved there to escape the big city, so it can go both ways. I love the fact that I can go downstairs and find a grocery store, movie rental place, electronics store, shopping mall, 20+ restaurants, plus a whole host of other services within a 5 block radius of my apartment. Where I grew up, everything was always at least a 5-15 minute drive away. Forget about walking anywhere. Now everything is a 5 minute walk away.
The superior gene pool.
As a newly-single guy, I have to confess that all these beautiful porteña women are certainly easy on the eyes. Everywhere you go there are 9s and 10s running around.
Learning a new language.
While everyone back in the U.S. (and especially the southwest, where I lived) is screaming and hollering about English-only schools and how they shouldn't be forced to learn a new language, I say humbug! ¡Viva español! Since moving here, I've improved my Spanish quite a bit -- to the point I can speak with someone 1-on-1 now about pretty much anything, so long as they have some patience and are willing to explain unknown words to me. I'd call it pre-conversational. No way would I be learning this fast if I was back stateside.
The nightlife.
Now, I'm not a huge party animal, but Buenos Aires is the place to be if you are. The fact is, if you want to go out and do something at night, places will be open all night long -- until the sun rises. You can't really run out of things to do here.
The business opportunities.
Any business-savvy person who comes here will recognize there are business opportunities everywhere. It seems like everywhere I go, I'm always thinking to myself how I could do a lot better than that person or provide a much better service than that guy. The problem isn't with a lack of opportunities here, its with the fact that there are too many. You have to convince yourself to slow down and not try to do everything. Everywhere I turn there are independent American businesspeople starting successful companies here -- real estate, internet, language schools, import/export, and the list goes on and on.
The people.
In general, I like the people I've met here. Most people are interesting, have a good attitude about life, and can carry a conversation about almost anything. Even the Americans you meet here are more interesting. It seems everyone has their own story to tell and I like to hear them.
The country's natural beauty.
I've been to much of the southern party of the country plus Igauzu falls in the extreme north. There's no denying that Argentina is a beautiful place. With affordable domestic airfares for residents, you can hop a plane and get out of the city whenever you need a touch of nature.
The food.
I've traveled to quite a few places, including some places with truly strange food. The fact is, Argentine food is very easy for the American palate because it is very similar to what we eat. If I had to live in China, India, or any of these other far-east countries, I'd probably die of starvation. You can handle their food for a week or two, but after that it just gets old. There is no shortage of great restaurants of Buenos Aires and there's always something good on the menu.

Well, there's the list. The fact is, I limited myself to 10 things because otherwise this post would literally go on forever. There's quite a few things I'm leaving out, but what you read above was a good summary. I'd love to hear from other readers as well. What do you love about Buenos Aires?

New York Times: Working Abroad Helps Your Career

2006-02-27T20:12:00.000-03:00

The New York Times had a great article on Saturday about how many young people are now working abroad after graduating before starting their careers back home. Last May I found myself in the same exact situation. I didn't feel like going to work for one of the many corporations that were recruiting at my university. So, I set off to Argentina. Apparently, and according to this article, this sentiment is shared by 35,000 other young Americans.

Interestingly enough, this doesn't seem to have any negative effect on one's career. On the contrary, the article mentions that many companies are looking for people who've traveled, lived, and worked abroad. In fact, "Foreign experience demonstrates entrepreneurship, resourcefulness and independence, according to recruiters." Of course, I'd have to agree with them. Living abroad gives you a perspective on the world that you wouldn't have otherwise.

So, I'm going to contradict my post from yesterday -- just do it! Of course, it is a lot easier for someone who's college-aged to pack-up and leave the world behind than someone who has a family to support and an on-going career. Just make sure you have enough money for a plane ticket back home and parents who can bail you out if things don't work out.

And if you're the parent, then you better be reading my post from yesterday about planning well before moving. Because there's no safety net for you folks. My own parents have quite the libertarian streak, so I made sure to plan well before coming here. I'd give them a 50% chance of telling me to go and collect cartón until I could afford my own plane ticket back. If you have parents like me, then maybe its not such a good idea unless you already have work lined up.

Shame on U.S. Democrats

2006-02-27T17:47:00.000-03:00

Allow me to stand-up on my soapbox for a minute and wag my finger at U.S. Congressional Democrats for threatening to block the Dubai Ports World deal. I get sick to my stomach at this blatant and obvious xenophobia coming from my own country. What makes it worse is that they know there will be no security implications by this deal whatsoever -- it is a cheap trick designed to stir up racial hatred and score cheap political points.

Expatriates living in Argentina see it happen here all the time when the politicians go ranting and raving about the IMF or the World Bank or foreign-owned utilities, about how foreigners are all evil and out to destroy the country, blah, blah, blah. The fact is, it is a cheap political trick that appeals to the very worst in our nature.

I'm ashamed at this behavior coming from the party I typically vote for. I have to say that I'm glad Bush is willing to stand-up to this kind of xenophobia, even though it is costing him points politically. This is probably one of the only times you'll ever see me saying Bush is doing the right thing, but I'm not such a partisan that I won't call bullshit when I see it.

I think that, as expatriates, we all have the obligation to try and discourage xenophobia, especially when we see it coming from our own country.

Plan Before You Make Your Move

2006-02-26T21:05:00.000-03:00

I've gotten a few comments lately from readers who, after a vacation to Buenos Aires, are anxious to come and live here, but quite frequently they fail to plan adequately. The owner of ApartmentsBA made a very good comment about this that I'd like to share and then discuss.

Reader's Comment

Keep reality in focus. It can be 'romantic' or exciting to just walk away from life but have a solid gameplan. I can't emphasize this enough. I see so many foreigners (especially Americans) moving to BA to live out some fantasy. Most of them live here just a few months and reality sets in. They have no prospects for a job or making money and have to move back home.

Unemployment rates have drastically fallen from their highs but keep in mind that salaries are extremely low here and cost of living is going up. There are many bilingual, educated, English-speaking college graduates here. They aren't making a lot of money, so why would someone pay you more? You have to look at things in terms of that. Most Americans I talk to that want to live here can't speak any Spanish (let alone decent Spanish) yet they still think somehow they will find this great paying job and live their dream life.

The reality is that you have to plan well. Honestly, look around and you will see that most foreigners fail here. In fact, El Expatriado is one of the only ones that I know that has succeeded and it's because he had a solid foundation and good business plan and planned things out.

The Reality of Argentina

Most of us are not independently wealthy. We need income to survive. Right now Argentina is cheap enough that, if you bought a place to live, you could live well on $1000-1500 USD per month. Could you live on less? Sure, but you'd need to be frugal and watch your budget closely. Lots of things we have in the United States and take for granted are luxuries here. If you want to try and replicate the lifestyle you had in the United States, you'll need more money.

All the Americans (and Argentines) I know here that are doing well financially are either selling their products / services abroad or working in the tourism / hospitality industry here, earning their money in dollars. If you get a job here, expect to be paid between $400-1000 USD monthly, depending on your skills. And that's only if you can find a job that is somehow working with foreigners where your skills would be needed.

The Buenos Aires Labor Market

The point ApartmentsBA makes about having to compete against locals is a good one. I could potentially hire an American here to work customer service for my U.S. clients, but the Argentine that I hired speaks English, Spanish, and French. His English accent is very good, so it doesn't bother my U.S. customers much. Since he's a local, he can also help me with whatever I need done locally as well - odds & ends. I also wouldn't be paying anywhere near $1000 USD per month for that position.

The only way I'm paying someone $1000 USD per month here is if they're brining in business or they're such an effective manager that they can run the business for me and I don't have to even think about it anymore. The point is, you'd only pay a salary like that to a very special person. So, it is unrealistic for an American to think they're going to come here and earn that.

The Importance of Good Planning

I had a software development center here in Buenos Aires a full year before I even gave one thought to moving here. It was only through my repeated trips to Buenos Aires that I realized how much I liked it here. Since I do most of my selling over the internet and through word of month, I rarely met my clients in person. So, for me, it didn't really matter where I lived. That's not a normal situation for most people.

Don't think it'll be easy to just come here and start a business either. I've had an office here for 2 years and today my Argentina sales add up to about 3% of my business. Don't expect anyone here to pay you in dollars for your services. Also, the reason I have Argentine partners is that they need my help to sell to people from the U.S., not the other way around. People are going to be much more receptive to entering into a partnership with you if you can drive sales to people in your country, not the other way around. Don't expect to find someone who will magically help you sell your products and services here. Your Argentine partners will expect you to be working the magic.

So, it isn't impossible to come here and live well. It does take good planning, however. Think things through. Your best bet may be just to stay in the U.S. a little longer and work on that nest egg. If you really save and be very frugal, you can work up the savings required to live here. Remember, with just $1500 USD in income per month and owning a property you'll be well off. If invested properly, that doesn't require such a huge amount of savings.

Good luck, and I hope to see you all soon in Buenos Aires. Just be smart about it!

What are you running away from?

2006-02-23T18:37:00.000-03:00

Check out this recent AP article, titled Run away to South America. The author mentions that most of the single expatriates she met in a Chile language school "came here to escape something." Doing a Google search on the phrase "move to South America" brings up the website called Escape Artist, which provides "resources for Americans fleeing America."

What I Was Escaping From...

I wasn't running from any one thing in particular, but rather an idea of what my life would become if I stayed in the United States. My life was quickly headed towards the bland and uninteresting existence that awaits most college gradates. I had just finished college and reached a turning point - I could focus 100% on my small business and try to seriously grow it, or take a job at one of the many large corporations recruiting out of the university. I watched as all my peers took jobs at Fortune 500s, moving to various places around the country that all seemed boring to me doing jobs that all seemed boring as well.

I decided I would focus on my own business and give it my all. That would require coming to Argentina, as my office, employees, and business partners were all here. More than that, though, it would be something challenging. I would be a fish out of water, forced to adapt to a new language, culture, and way of doing things.

I think I had just seen the movie About Schmidt and, despite being just 25 at the time, I had the very real fear of waking up in another 35 years at some corporate office having wasted my life and never done anything exciting. So, I made the decision to come here. Perhaps it wasn't the safe or conservative thing to do, but it felt right.

The Results

In the end, it ended up costing me a lot, and I don't just mean monetarily. In addition to selling everything I owned, I lost a 5-year relationship, the opportunity to easily visit with friends & family, and certainly all my built-in understanding about how society and things work. Things that I took for granted back in the U.S. have to be learned all over again here.

Still, I'm glad I did it. While I'm still adjusting here (hasn't even been a full year yet), I'm doing much better than when I first arrived. I'm learning about how things work and starting to understand the culture better. I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. In fact, I just signed a two year lease on an apartment.

I'd very much like to hear from the rest of the readers out there. Why did you or are you planning to come to Argentina? Are you running from something?

Attending Rock Concerts in Buenos Aires

2006-02-23T15:48:00.000-03:00

On Tuesday the scene outside the River stadium was complete chaos as ticket holders rushed to enter the stadium. At 9:45 PM, when the Rolling Stones started playing, the line to enter the stadium was still 10 blocks long. Many of the people waiting to get in were foreigners who had bought their tickets from scalpers, on Mercadolibre, etc.

The news showed despondent Chileans, who traveled all the way from Chile (since the Rolling Stones will not make a stop in Santiago) to hear the Stones perform in Buenos Aires, who said they'd paid $500 USD for their tickets and now had no way to enter the stadium. Most Argentines had shown up to the stadium at 5:00 or 6:00 PM, aware that they would need several hours just to get inside and find their seat.

The concert promoter decided not to hire the River stadium security apparatus and instead chose a private security firm to handle things. Clearly they couldn't handle the sold-out show.

Message to expat concert-goers: Just because you can walk-in to a concert 30 minutes before the show in your own country, don't assume anything in Argentina will be conducted with that level of efficiency. Argentina is the queue capital of the world and they will find a way to make you wait.

Living 'DNI'-less

2006-02-13T08:38:00.000-03:00

Life can be tricky in Argentina without a DNI. I've said it over and over again on many different posts. When you're here without a DNI, people just assume there's something wrong with you. Everything becomes a hassle and an explanation. Everyone wants to know why you don't have a DNI. The fact is, if you don't have a DNI, Argentines assume you don't have the right to be here. Now, one particular reader has tried to contradict me on this issue, so I want to share that comment as well as another comment I just got today.

First Reader's Comment

I know Expatriado is a big fan of the DNI, however,we did rent a house, buy a car, open a bank account and get health insurance without a DNI. We did get them as we intended to stay here awhile, but the only real tangible advantage is the discount for travel in Argentina.

Second Reader's Comment

I've been here almost 2 years now, and EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID ABOUT LIVING HERE WITHOUT A DNI IS TRUE TO THE LETTER. The problem is, I found this out the hard way (actually living it and now trying to go through the process of obtaining one after the fact, so to speak).

I'm here legally now for 2 years. When I started the [residency] process, I assumed it also involved my getting DNI, but when I finished, and asked about the DNI, I was informed that that was a TOTALLY DIFFERENT PROCESS THAT I HAD TO GO THROUGH WHICH WOULD NOT BE MADE ANY EASIER JUST BECAUSE I HAVE MY TEMPORARY RESIDENCY NOW.

What You Can Do

Your best bet is to contact ARCA and ask them to intervene on your behalf. They can check on your status with Migrations and then request the DNI for you if your visa is valid. However, if you have a temporary residency permit, check that it isn't expired. You never mentioned whether you made sure to renew it each year. The expiration date is printed there in your visa page on your passport. The temporary residencies are for one year and need to be renewed every year until you file a petition for permanent residency.

If you haven't renewed your residency, you may be overstaying your visa and might not have legal status. This is something you should look into right away. Countries don't like it when people overstay their visas and they can use that as a reason to deny you a renewal. So, you should check on your DNI and visa situation right away.

You are right about the DNI situation -- it is totally different than your residency. I recommend ARCA a lot on this blog and some readers give me a hard time about it since they charge more than other visa lawyers out there. But the fact is -- if the other lawyers don't get your DNI, don't get your CUIL, and don't renew your visa for you each year, you're not getting good service.

Every year, a month or two before my visa is up, I get a friendly phone call from ARCA asking me to stop by their office and drop off my passport. A week later they have my new visa for me. It's like clockwork. I'm convinced that the one thing every long-term expat needs is a good visa / immigration attorney to keep you legal and keep you on the government's good side. Remember, we are all guests in Argentina and they can ask us to leave at any time. So, it is important that we make sure to have our immigration situation squared away.

U.S. Immigration Crackdown Targets Argentine Model

2006-02-12T21:54:00.000-03:00

President Bush made it clear in his State of the Union speech that immigration enforcement would be a new priority for the year 2006. Since his approval ratings are down and the public has rejected his 2005 agenda for Social Security, it appears he's latched onto that tried and true method of whipping up popular support -- BLAME THE IMMIGRANTS!

Setting the Right Priorities

And who is the government targeting for deportation? Murders, sex offenders, welfare recipients, muslim radicals? You'd think they'd all be fair game for deportation.

Nope, INS has decided in its infinite wisdom to deport Argentine model and former Playboy Playmate Dora Noemi Kerchen, who has lived in Miami for the last 5 years. In fact, she already had her visa application in the system and was awaiting approval. Let me add to the chorus by asking, what the hell were they thinking? Why don't they start with the undesirables before deporting self-sufficient models who are obviously no drain on the government. Talk about stupid.

As expected, a number of companies that she works with have already filed the paperwork for her visa petition to bring her back to the United States. So the net result of all this will be to seriously disrupt the life of someone who was clearly no threat to the country and not a drain on government resources. In the end she'll be back in Miami after the paperwork goes through. In the meantime, they wasted time deporting her instead of some criminal. Such a waste.

Renting an Apartment Can Be Difficult For Expats

2006-02-11T19:41:00.000-03:00

Now that my own apartment will be used as a vacation rental (it can be seen here) I have to move out. This means trying to find and rent an apartment here in the city. Unfortunately for me, this has not been as easy as you might think. After going through this process, I can see why the furnished apartments offered by ApartmentsBA and many other rental agencies are so popular here with foreigners. Rental agencies just don't make it easy for expats to rent a place.

What You Need to Rent

Just like back in the U.S., to rent an apartment, the owners will require you to show proof of income, evidence of employment, etc. They'll also want something known as a "guarantee". A guarantee is someone who owns a property who is willing to use their property to vouch for you. Usually this is a family member. If you don't pay your rent, the landlord can begin proceedings against the guarantor.

This puts expats in a particularly tricky position. Since they don't have family here, it is very difficult to find someone to give you a guarantee. You'll have to know someone really well, and they will have to trust you completely, because they are literally putting their property on the line for you. When I rented my office for the first time, my local business partner, who I knew for 2 years, was my guarantor.

Now, if you work for an international company, usually the company acts as your guarantor. However, if you are moving here as an individual, you won't have a Fortune 500 company standing behind you. That means finding your own guarantor. In my case, I figured it would be simple. I own property in Buenos Aires, so I can guarantee myself.

Wrong! Apparently you can't serve as your own guarantor. This makes things a bit more complicated. So, I'm back in the same boat as all the other expats here who don't own property -- searching for someone to provide me with a guarantee. Luckily, I do have someone who can do this, so that problem is solved.

So, assuming everything goes OK and there's no paperwork issues, I'll be able to rent the place. What a hassle, though. The first place I was going to rent turned me down flat out. I even offered to pay them a year's rent up front and they still wouldn't rent it to me. It seems some owners just don't want to deal with foreigners at all -- even if they do have all their paperwork in order.

If you're here without a DNI, it'll probably be next to impossible for you to rent a place. And if you don't have someone to be your guarantor, you're probably out of luck as well. After going through this experience, it is obvious why so many foreigners just rent the short term apartments. It's a whole lot easier than having to go through all this rigamarole trying to rent long-term.

Note to readers: I think someone could make a good business here providing guarantees to foreigners renting here. If you're someone who has a background in evaluating someone's credit risk, it could be a good opportunity.

Use Those Greenbacks: Picking Up a New Skill

2006-02-06T20:37:00.000-03:00

For this post, I just wanted to make an observation. One of the things all expatriates should be doing while here in Argentina is taking advantage of the overvalued dollars they're holding on to. The key with Argentina is that you need to learn to buy locally.

Buying the Right Things

What do I mean by buying locally? Simple, buy stuff that's made here and that doesn't have an international price. If you walk into an electronics store, you're going to get overcharged no matter what you buy. All the stuff is imported. That means you're paying the international price, plus 21% VAT, plus an import tariff. The final price ends up being at least 50% higher than what you'd pay at home (and sometimes even more).

In general, food and household products are cheaper here, but not if you buy the imported brands. The same goes with furnishings for your house. If you buy imported, you'll pay a lot more. Even the locally made stuff is not incredibly cheaper.

The one market that is 100% local is services. That's the very best buy that you're going to make here. If you've ever wanted to learn an instrument, pick up golf, tennis, or some other sport, or take a class, this is where you should be doing it! The fact is, a golf instructor in Buenos Aires can't sell his services to Europe. He has to sell them to residents here. Its a local market.

I just recently started using a personal trainer at the gym -- something I did once or twice back in the states, but would never consider using on an on-going basis due to the expense. Well, here in Argentina it is possible because the fee you're paying is literally one-fifth of what you'd pay in the U.S.

Next up will be working on my tennis and/or golf game -- I've always wanted to improve. I've also been considering classes for photography, dancing, flying, and sailing. I'd be interested to hear what kind of classes and skills the rest of you are picking up, if you'd like to comment.

Long Term Rentals

2006-02-03T16:13:00.000-03:00

Even though there are vastly more long-term unfurnished rentals in Buenos Aires than short-term rentals, it can be harder for expats to find one. The vast majority are published in Spanish language newspapers with cryptic abbreviations that mean nothing to an English speaker. For example, did you know that "c/dep" means it has a maid's quarters and "PH" means the apartment is in a small horizontal building with just 1 or 2 stories?

A reader wrote in with this question today about how to best locate a long-term rental. Since I'm doing this right now for myself, I thought I'd share my tips about how best to approach this.

Reader's Question

I have been in BA for 3 weeks and it looks like things are going to work out business wise, so I am going to start looking for a long term rental - 1 year preferred. I am currently in an apartment for about 6 more weeks with Reynolds. My initial impression is that the short term rental agencies are pretty weak as regards long term rental solutions. Any advise or referrals would be appreciated. Thanks Expatriado for allowing me to use the blog in this manner!

What Not To Do

Some real estate agencies that specialize in working with foreigners and relocation companies will do a search for you. For this, they may charge you 10% of the entire contract value, which is outrageous when you realize you'll have to be paying a commission to the real estate agent that is offering the apartment as well.

Find an Apartment Like an Argentine

Your best bet is to just use classified ads in Clarín and La Nacion or the online editions of both these papers. This is how ordinary Argentines search for their apartments and this is how you are going to find an appropriately-priced apartment in pesos.

There is another advantage to using the ads -- you have the possibility of finding an apartment that is offered by an owner, without a real estate agency. This will let you skip out on paying the agency commissions, which is a big plus. That's right, both landlords and renters have to pay the real estate agency commission -- stupid, but that's how it works.

The downside is that you're doing all the legwork yourself. It takes a lot of time to search through all the ads, call them up, ask them to describe the apartment so you know if it fits your criteria or not, then make appointments to go and view the apartments. This is further complicated if you don't speak Spanish that well or not at all. Sometimes the owners get nervous when you can't speak well and just tell you on the phone they're not interested in renting to you.

Some Help For Fellow Yanquis

If you would like to go this route, I can offer my personal secretary to help you out in your apartment search. She is doing this for me right now and doing a very good job of handling my own search. She'll take your apartment criteria, look through the newspapers, call the owners, and make appointments for you -- one after another, every 20-30 minutes. For me, this is just as good as using a real estate agent and you don't have to pay 10% to anyone.

There's also the added benefit of an Argentine voice on the other end of the line when she asks for the price. In the ads where the price is not listed, she always asks the price before giving out my name to make the appointment. Once they hear a gringo name, the price goes up by 30%, so be careful.

If anyone out there needs someone to help them, feel free to e-mail me and I'll see to it you have some help with your apartment search.

Beginning Your Move to Argentina

2006-01-28T18:08:00.000-03:00

Even though I've covered these topics before in this blog, I still get many questions about what to do when you decide to move to Argentina at the very beginning. Hint: Read some of my very old posts from a year ago, they're very helpful in this regard. However, since I just received a few e-mails with questions about this, I'll go ahead and do a "summary" post to cover as much as I can in a short amount of space.

Reader's Question

We are hoping sometime in the next 3-4 yrs to move to Buenos Aires, still being shy of minimum retirement by 3 yrs, but financially able to do so.

Could you advise what would be the proper first steps to put in place our plan to move and live there permanently, but still being citizens of the US?

I know this is a broad question, but I can't get responses from the Argentine consulate here in the US to answer the phone or e-mail. I'm sure they don't have any motivations to allow more norteamericanos to move there, but we are serious, my wife has family there and we have visited 3 times in the past 5 yrs.

Thanks for any little info you can afford me, and who to contact for moving a car and furniture in a container from the US to Buenos Aires....prohibitive monetarily or possibly reasonable?

Step 1: Get Your Visa Early

You are smart to try and start-up with your visa right away. However, speaking with the consulate is like talking to a wall. The people working in the overseas consulates are totally uncaring and usually only work on visa matters maybe 2-3 hours a day for a few days each week. Don't expect them to help you because they have no interest in doing so. They are paper pushers and it seems like a big chore for them to talk to Americans on the phone and try to help you with your visa.

The better option is to bypass the consulate entirely. Give a call to the nice folks at ARCA and ask them to do your visa for you. Unlike the consulate, ARCA is a private law firm that you hire to represent you before the Department of Migrations. They will file a visa petition for you directly with the Buenos Aires office of the Dept. of Migrations.

They prepare all your paperwork and complete all the filings on your behalf and can obtain your visa very rapidly. They will send you a permit that you take with you to the consulate that shows you have been pre-approved for a visa by the authorities in Buenos Aires. The consulate cannot deny your visa after you have this permit. You simply give them the permit and they put the visa in your passport and the process is finished -- without you having to waste time and energy dealing with these lazy workers at the consulate.

Step 2: Sell Everything You Own

My recommendation is not to bring your car and certainly not to bring any furniture. The fact is, you can furnish an entire apartment here in Buenos Aires (if you need a recommendation for an architect / interior designer, let me know) for what it might cost to remodel a 1-2 rooms in the United States. Don't even think about bringing your stuff here. For the cost of shipping alone, you can furnish half your house here with new things from the best furniture designers.

Step 3: Rent a Furnished Apartment Here

After you arrive in Buenos Aires, I suggest you rent a furnished apartment here for a month or two while you figure out what section of the city you want to live in. Then you can go ahead and look for a place to buy. There are plenty of furnished apartments in the city that you can rent for a month or two. I recommend using ApartmentsBA.com, but if you're on a limited budget there are others that are cheaper. I have a few posts about these issues.

Step 4: Buy Your Place Here

The next step is to find and buy an apartment here. I can give you a referral if you need someone to help you find a place. Keep in mind you won't be able to get a mortgage, so you'll need to come up with 100% of the cash required.

Step 5: Enjoy Argentina

And that's it! You're done! Give yourself a big pat on the back for choosing such a great place to live. Your retirement money will certainly go a lot further here in Argentina than it would have in the United States.

Kirchner Fighting Inflation by Freezing Prices

2006-01-26T12:32:00.000-03:00

Argentina's President Kirchner has been on the inflation warpath recently, trying to freeze prices of as many products as he can. Yesterday it was announced that he came to an agreement to freeze prices on some products with two prominent U.S. companies -- Kimberly-Clark, which makes diapers, facial tissue, and other paper products, and Proctor & Gamble, the largest consumer products company. This is in addition to the price agreements he already secured with ranchers, farmers, and supermarket owners.

Last month the annual inflation rate reached a 31-month high of 12.3%, so it is clear Kirchner has some work to do. It remains to be seen whether his war on prices will have any effect (so far it seems it hasn't). Previously, inflation was the scourge of Argentina for many decades. It disappeared for a decade in the 1990s after the peso was linked 1-to-1 with the dollar.

Kirchner has said that he worries about inflation so much that it "keeps him awake at night." Already I can see some of the beginning effects -- more and more property owners are asking for rent to be paid in dollars rather than pesos.

For the sake of the economy, which has just begun to really recover after the 2001/2002 crisis, let's hope Kirchner and the government can get this problem under control. As popular as Kirchner is right now, he could find himself in a very bad position if there is runaway inflation by the time the election rolls around.

A Country, Its People, and Its Leaders

2006-01-24T13:48:00.000-03:00

There was an interesting post made today and I wanted to respond to it. I think perhaps this reader hasn't yet discovered something very fundamental -- a country, its people, and its leaders are not a single entity marching in unison. You shouldn't judge a country or its people by its leaders or its government.

Reader's Comment

As I left Argentina, las noticias were reporting that the Boys of Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia invited Iran's (very nuclear) president for a little visit. If Kirchner kisses Iran, I will not travel to Argentina next year -- and neither will the folks on this blog.

An Interesting Flight

Several years ago, one of my American business partners and I were on a flight to India from Taiwan. Sitting next to him was a Chinese woman. After a little while, they each started discussing why their two countries were so aggressive with each other and always spewing rhetoric against each other. She just assumed that Americans must not like the Chinese people. By the end of the flight, the two of them came to the realization that the games leaders play between each other have nothing to do at all with the people in their countries.

Who Are The "Evil" People?

When Bush labeled Iran as part of the "Axis of Evil", I remember seeing a news segment a day or two afterwards, asking ordinary people in Iran what they thought about being included in this so-called axis. By and large they felt threatened and wanted to know why the Americans thought they were evil. They were ordinary people with ordinary jobs and families. They wanted to live their lives without the threat of B-2 bombers shock and awing them into submission.

Try putting yourself in the place of the Iranian government for one minute and see if you can see things from their perspective:

The U.S. President thinks you are evil and your country is included in an alliance of evil powers that includes both Iraq and North Korea... and how has the U.S. responded to those other "evil" countries?
The U.S. has launched a preemptive war against Iraq, which borders your country, and currently occupies it. The country did not have nuclear weapons.
The U.S. has thousands of troops along the Korean DMZ but has not invaded and talks about working out its problems diplomatically with North Korea. North Korea is rumored to have several nuclear weapons.

If you are able think like the Iranian government, you'll realize what they have already figured out -- that having nuclear weapons is a strong deterrent to a U.S. attack, which is a very real threat to the survival of their government. Survival is the most basic human instinct and permeates everything we do. If someone feels their survival is threatened, they will do anything and everything to counter that threat.

The United States' Military Conflicts

But surely the Iranians have nothing to fear, since the American people are peaceful and not interested in wars of agression. While that is true, a country's leaders do not always share their perspective and many times try to solve their problems through armed conficts.

As much as Americans would like to believe that their country is a peaceful one (and most do believe it), that just isn't consistent with the facts. This is a list of militarized conflicts involving the United States, the dates show the years in which U.S. military units (primarily regular, occasionally irregular) participated:

American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)
Undeclared War with France (1798–1801)
First Barbary War (1801–1805)
War of 1812 (1812–1815)
Second Barbary War (1815)
Mexican-American War (1846–1848)
Bear Flag Revolt (1846)
Nicaragua Naval Battles (1854–1858)
Utah War (1857–1858)
American Civil War (1861–1865)
Reconstruction (1865–1877)
Occupation of Nicaragua (1867, 1894–1933)
Shinmiyangyo Battle in Korea (1871)
Spanish-American War (1898)
Second Samoan Civil War (1898–1899)
Philippine-American War (1899–1913)
Boxer Rebellion (1900)
Panamanian Revolution (1903)
Second U.S. occupation of Cuba (1906–1909)
Tampico Affair & Occupation of Veracruz, Mexico (1914)
Invasion of Haiti (1915-1934)
Occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–1924)
Pancho Villa Expedition (1916–1917)
World War I (1917–1918)
Polar Bear Expedition (Russian Civil War) (1918–1919)
Spanish Civil War (1936–1938)
World War II (1941–1945)
Korean War (1950–1953)
Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct-Nov 1962)
Vietnam War (1964–1975)
Invasion of Dominican Republic (1965)
Capture of USS Pueblo (1968)
Mayagüez Incident (1975)
Operation Eagle Claw (1980)
Gulf of Sidra Incidents (1981, 1989)
Lebanon Peacekeeping (1982–1984)
Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada) (1983)
Libyan Patrol Boats (Jan-Mar 1986)
Operation El Dorado Canyon (15 April 1986)
Operation Earnest Will (1987–1988)
Operation Prime Chance (1987–1988)
Operation Praying Mantis (1988)
Operation Golden Pheasant (1988)
USS Vincennes shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655 (1988)
Operation Just Cause (Panama) (1989)
Persian Gulf War (1990–1991)
Iraqi No-Fly Zones (1991–2003)
Operation Provide Comfort (1991–1996)
Somali Civil War (1992-1995)
Battle of Mogadishu (1993)
Operation Uphold Democracy (Haiti) (1994)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (as member of IFOR and SFOR peacekeeping forces, 1995—)
Operation Infinite Reach (strikes on Sudan and Afghanistan, 1998)
Kosovo War (NATO operations, 1999)
Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) (2001—)
Operation Iraqi Freedom (Second Persian Gulf War) (2003—)
Haiti Rebellion (2004)

President Eisenhower warned against the dangers of maintaining standing armies and the the military-industrial complex at the end of his term as president. You'll notice when looking at this list that the number of armed conflicts has increased dramatically after the end of World War II, when the decision was made to maintain a large military force. It makes our leaders lazy and dangerous, using the military as the solution to all their problems rather than working hard to negotiate peaceful solutions to our problems.

The Disconnect

I hope this list serves to show the disconnect between a country, its people, and its leaders. I believe that the people of the U.S. and Iran both want peace. The problem is that the leaders do not. Throughout the history of the world, old rich men have had arguments with each other and sent young poor men to fight and die to force the other into submission.

If the rest of the world judged the American people (and many do nowadays, which is a shame) by the actions of their leaders and their government's foreign policy, we'd have the welcome mat pulled out from under our feet virtually everywhere. When dealing with the rest of the world, governments and leaders act selfishly, without concern for people outside their borders. Individuals, on the other hand, do not. Individuals care about their families, friends, job and just want a good life for them and their children.

That's why it is a shame that you'd consider changing your travel plans to Argentina because their president invites Iran's president for a visit. Who cares? What we need are more people traveling back and forth. We need more people from all over the world immigrating everywhere. We need to see foreign people in our communities and foreign children in our schools. We all need to relate to one another as human beings and not as collective entities who are trying to protect various "interests".

The fact is, countries that trade with each other and have travelers & immigrants moving back and forth will begin to understand and relate to each other as fellow human beings, not as adversaries. That will be a good thing for everybody. So, please, don't cancel your trip here. Come to Argentina and embrace the fact that the country welcomes all kinds of people here -- Americans, Armenians, British (yes, even British people are welcomed, despite the Malvinas war), Chinese, Koreans, Iranians, and more. So, despite what happens in the world of politics, I hope everyone out there continues to travel, see the world, and learn about all the different kinds of people out there.

U.S. and Latin America Move Further Apart

2006-01-23T01:36:00.000-03:00

Yesterday Evo Morales was inaugurated as the new President of Bolivia. A coca farmer, who is the first indigenous president in Bolivia's history, plans to nationalize the natural gas industry, increase coca farming, and transform the economy using a socialist model. He is an open admirer of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

As the Bush administration has been single-mindedly focused on the "war on terror", they've twiddled their thumbs as Latin America elects leader after leader who plans on taking their country leftward -- Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, and now Bolivia. And there are more elections to come with more leftist candidates expected to win. By 2008, when Bush leaves office, Bush's eight years will have marked pretty much the entire South American content's move from mostly center-right governments to leftist or center-left governments.

In many cases these changes of governments also come with changes in relations. There is outright hostility to the United States in many countries. Perhaps some of this is due to simple neglect. The U.S. hasn't done anything to enhance its relations with the South because its been too busy with a one-issue foreign policy.

If one were just looking at the numbers, the U.S. should be on much better terms with Latin America. Hispanics make up more than one in eight U.S. residents and are the fastest growing population segment. Most countries in South and Central America have their largest (and most financially successful) diaspora in the United States. In fact, there are about 18 million first generation immigrations who were born in Central or South America who are now living in the U.S. That's about half the population of Argentina and twice the population of Bolivia. The U.S. is the fifth largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and Argentina.

Instead of moving closer together, though, the U.S. and Latin America are moving further apart, and that's a shame. The U.S. is moving dangerously to the right and Latin America is most certainly moving too far to the left. I do hope that the next decade will see everybody moving back toward the center.

Financial and Tax Planning in Argentina

2006-01-23T00:03:00.000-03:00

This question was posted to the blog a few days ago and I thought it would be a good one to address here on the blog.

Reader's Question

What do retirees do with the retirement plans / investments they have back in the US? I'm guessing they keep them invested in the US but are their advisors in B.A. that can help them? I'm a financial advisor and I can't imagine how these people couldn't want little help keeping their portfolio's current.

Also for taxes. I've spoken with an American in Germany who does taxes for Americans there and he charges about 4x normal US rates because of limited supply of US tax professionals in Germany. Just wondering if that is a problem in B.A. I could see a problem with being disconnected enough from US news that keeping up with current tax laws and financial news would be a chore most aren't interested in taking on.

Any thoughts?

Tax Planning

Every expat should be using two accountants -- one in Argentina and another in the United States. Additionally, make sure your U.S. accountant is familiar with filing for the expat tax exception and housing allowances. If not, you may want to change accountants or at least make sure your accountant can get up to speed with these rules.

Your Argentina accountant will take care of your property taxes here (which need to be prepared and filed just like we do income taxes in the U.S., you don't get a bill in the mail). If you're working for an Argentine company, the company accountant will handle your income taxes. The tax will be paid by your company.

Financial Planning

It is my recommendation that all expatriates leave their investments in the United States. It is just way too unstable here to put any large amount of money in the banking system. You never know when they're going to confiscate the dollars, restrict withdrawals, or whatever else they can dream up.

Unless you really need face-to-face contact, I think it would probably be easier to continue to use your current financial advisor. With the Internet, fax, phone calls, instant messengers, FedEx, etc., it shouldn't be too hard to keep working with a financial advisor in the United States. If expat advisors really are charging 4X normal U.S. rates, it doesn't make any sense to use them. You might pay a little more for an expat tax return, but you should in no way pay more for financial planning or advice.

Bringing Money Into Argentina

2006-01-19T10:40:00.000-03:00

A reader recently left a comment on a discussion about bringing money into the country. There was some confusion over this, so I wanted to try and clear things up.

Reader's Comment

So, it seems no one has a solution [to the problem of bring money into Argentina] besides bringing in cash under $10,000 [when traveling]? I am involved in a business that requires money to be transferd to Argentina. Money that can not go down with a person. Any suggestions, comments, contacts would be greatly appreciated.

This is really sad for Argentina.

You Can Bring Money In

There is no problem bringing money into the country. If you're a legal resident you can transfer money to your bank account. The problem is that property here is priced in dollars and that's what people are usually bringing the money in for.

This presents a dilemma. The Argentina Central Bank converts all incoming wires into pesos. You can't wire-in dollars. That means when you convert the pesos back to dollars, you've lost 7-10% of your money, depending on what rates you get. That's a huge sum of money to lose on a wire transfer. To further complicate matters, the central bank sometimes withholds 30% of the amount of the transfer for a year, to make sure you are not a speculator.

There are various financial firms, private parties, money brokers, etc. out there that will let you do a wire transfer in dollars. They maintain a bank account in the U.S. and let you make a transfer into that account. After receiving the sum in the U.S., they give you cash in a bag here in Argentina.

Even though the financial firm you are dealing with may be a well respected legal entity here in Argentina, the operation they just carried out for you is extra-legal. The law of the land is that all transfers must go through the Central Bank. Someone told me the term for this is "blue money" -- not quite black money from drugs or something else illegal, but not exactly 100% legal either.

Despite this, virtually everyone transfers their money using one of these firms. But since this service is typically unadvertised, you'll need to have a contact or a referral. Usually this will come from your real estate agent or from your Argentine business parter (they all know someone), etc.

If you're operating a business, however, you should check with your accountant before using something like this. I've heard from people in the real estate industry here and they say that eventually the government may ask people to document the source of the income used to purchase the apartment. This would probably happen when you sold the apartment. They say there might be some hoops to jump through if you can't show that you transfered the money in a legal way, but no one really knows. Its all speculation at this point.

Something Bush and Kirchner Have In Common

2006-01-18T00:16:00.000-03:00

Anyone who follows Argentine or U.S. politics might be surprised at the title of this article. After all, with Kirchner moving closer to Hugo Chavez and Venezuela, what could Bush and Kircher possibly have in common?

A Complete Disregard For The Role of Independent Media

In Argentina, it has been reported that Kirchner retaliates against journalists and newspapers that print unfavorable stories. He directs government ad buys to papers and media that support him. He denies critical journalists access to government sources and presidential briefings. He has never sat down for a complete interview. Kirchner remarked once that his favorite journalist were photographers, because they don't ask questions.

The Economist stated in its most recent issue that the Argentine people might want to pay attention to this issue more closely, or else they might miss having a fair and impartial press in the future. I think they should be giving the same warning to the people of the United States.

Bush's government, instead of trying to influence media covertly and subtly like Kirchner's administration, directly issued payments to television personalities, such as Armstrong Williams, to spew government propaganda. They created TV news snippets and distributed them to local news stations, which ran them without identifying they were government-produced. Now the Department of Defense has been found to be paying Iraqi newspapers to plant U.S. propaganda in their news reporting. The articles were actually written by DOD spin-masters.

I find the whole situation distasteful and it proves that even though you can have two politicians that are on opposite sides of the issues, they're both wrong about the ways the go about trying to garner support. I'm sure each of them thinks they're only defending their own views and trying to move the public to their side of the issue, but what they're really doing is weakening the institution of the press in their respective nations.

When they're both out of power and the other party takes office a few years down the road, they're both going to wish the press was stronger to investigate the scandals and misdeeds of the next guy. No matter who's in power and what agenda they're pushing, everybody loses when we don't have a free, impartial, and independent press.

Health Insurance For Expats

2006-01-17T11:14:00.000-03:00

I received a question about health insurance for short-term visitors to Buenos Aires. Although I'm not entirely positive about this issue, I'll try as best as I can to answer it.

Reader's Question

I am moving to BA for four months starting in March. You mentioned that you have good, inexpensive health insurance. Can I get health insurance for only four months and without a DNI? I'm just planning to do the 90-day travel visa, which I'll renew for the last month. My US insurance (through my law firm) will only cover "emergencies" and for that they charge $475/month, which I don't want to pay.

Health Insurance Without a DNI

I'm not sure whether or not it is possible to get health insurance without a DNI or residency visa. My guess is that it would be up to each individual provider. I have a faint memory of Hospital Alemán asking me to provide either a DNI or passport when I signed up. I don't remember for sure, though. They could have just asked me for my DNI and I'm remembering incorrectly.

Maybe some other expat who doesn't have a visa/DNI could comment on this issue? Did anyone out there get a health plan without being an official resident?

Regular health needs are so cheap here that you really don't need health insurance. The last few times I came here (when I wasn't a resident), I regularly went to the dentist, a doctor, bought medicine, etc., and I didn't have a health plan. You might pay $100 pesos for a doctor or dentist visit, for example.

Keeping Your U.S. Health Insurance

I also currently maintain a U.S. health plan for emergencies, which I advise you to do as well. As good as the care is in Argentina, who knows whether they'd give you an organ if you needed one? I still like having the option of going back to the U.S. for health care if I become gravely ill.

I have U.S. health insurance with a $10,000 annual deductible. For a single man in his twenties, the cost of this plan is less than $500 per year. I then combine this plan with a Health Savings Account, which allows me to put up to $2700 per year in a tax free savings account. The money deposited is deducted from your income tax and the interest earned from the money deposited in the account is tax free as well.

If your marginal tax rate is 30%, that means that you'll save $810 in Federal Taxes by using this Health Savings Account, more than offsetting the cost of the health insurance. For expatriates, this means they can essentially get free U.S. health coverage.

In the event that you become gravely ill, you can withdraw the money tax free from the Health Savings Account to pay for your medical expenses up to the $10,000 deducible. The money can be withdrawn throughout your lifetime tax free for any medical expense except the purchase of health insurance. If you manage to be healthy throughout your entire life and not need the money, you can still withdraw it without penalties during retirement, just like an IRA. So, there's really no downside to having a Health Savings Account.

Argentina for Retirees

2006-01-16T02:08:00.000-03:00

I received a comment from a reader about a week ago about Social Security and living outside the country. As I'm not retired, I don't focus on this issue as much in this blog, so I wanted to take some time to address it.

Reader's Comment

I enjoy your blog. I have always heard that living outside the U.S. earning US dollars is the way to go! From your blog, it seems that you can do quite well living on a lot less, especially if you are living off of Social Security.

Pushing Your Dollars Further

I personally believe that in a few years, the U.S. is going to see a very large exodus of retirees. As the baby boomers reach retirement age (my own parents have begun to think seriously about what to do during their golden years) I believe many of them -- especially the well-traveled ones -- will realize the universe of opportunities outside the United States.

Let's face it, most boomers are going to be relying on Social Security as their primary source of retirement income. Private pensions are rare nowadays. Every day we hear about one corporation or another that's either abandoning its pension plan or dumping it off on the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. (which doesn't actually guarantee benefits, it cuts them by 50%).

If you're a retiree earning $1500 a month, you're not going to be living too comfortably in the U.S., even if you did manage to pay off your mortgage. First off, health care costs could eat up half your income. With what's left, you'll be lucky to meet the basic necessities of life. In Argentina, however, its a different story.

I just paid my bills again this month. My water bill came to $15, gas was $10, cable was $20, internet was $12, electricity was $13. I own my own apartment, so I pay no rent. Some of these bills are bi-monthly also. My building expenses were $75. I pay $25 per week for a chef service to prepare 7 healthy dinners for me and I always order delivery for lunch, which comes to maybe $3.50 daily. Add on a hundred dollars for miscellaneous expenses and I'm still at less than $500 USD per month.

Retirees who come here (and own their own home or apartment) can actually be saving money from their Social Security income. As long as you take rent out of the equation, you can easily meet your basic needs for $500 USD per month. In fact, you'll probably have money left over for trips throughout the country. With airfare in pesos for legal DNI-holding residents, your in-country trips will be affordable.

Moving from the U.S. to Argentina is literally "upgrading" your lifestyle and spending power. As long as you are willing to approach some of the challenges of living abroad with an open mind and a willing spirit, I see no reason why a retiree should be struggling to make ends meet with Social Security in the U.S. when they could be easily living in comfort here.

Argentina's Unfriendly Banks

2006-01-15T16:53:00.000-03:00

Although probably obvious by now to any expat who's already here, I felt I should point out to newcomers that the banking system here in Argentina is pretty terrible. It is an ordeal just to open up an account. And if you don't have a visa and DNI, forget about it. Bank accounts come with outrageous fees and taxes as well. The interest rates paid are well below the inflation rate and forget about accessing any type of credit product -- whether it be a mortgage loan or even a credit card.

To top it all off, the attitude is pretty terrible as well. Banks act as if they're doing you a favor just by letting you have an account with them. In fact, the vast majority of Argentina's banks have a Moody's rating of "E", the lowest possible rating. Banks rated "E" have very weak intrinsic financial strength, financial fundamentals that are seriously deficient, and a highly unstable operating environment. That pretty much sums up the banks here.

The banks should be clubbing each other over the heads trying to secure more depositors, but it seems as if they're doing everything they can to turn away business. It is a very odd situation, especially for an American expat who's used to vigorous competition for his financial business back in the states. You can't walk into a bank in the U.S. without them trying to give you a toaster, a Home Depot gift certificate, or a T-shirt of something or another to get you to open a no-fee checking account with free online banking and bill pay.

Here you'll wait in a queue for 10 minutes just to talk to someone to open your account. Then he'll direct you to another 10 minute queue to make your deposit. You'll also pay for the privilege of giving someone else free use of your money. And when the end of the year rolls around, you'll find out the government taxes you on the balance of your bank account, which causes a mini bank-run around late December each year, as people withdraw their cash from the banking system so they don't get taxed on it. It is truly a screwed up system all-round.

Its no wonder there's no credit in this country. With the rich sending their cash abroad to Miami and Europe and the middle class putting their savings under their mattresses, there's nothing to lend. It seems to me that the government could do a lot to improve the financial situation of the country by first working on improving the banking system.

Meanwhile, expats should expect frustrations. Make sure you have a very good relationship with a bank in your home country. First because you'd be nuts to put your savings here and second because you'll never get a loan here either. You'll have to rely on your homeland for the vast majority of your financial services, which is really too bad for Argentina and expats.

Buying Property in Argentina

2005-12-19T21:40:00.000-03:00

Even though I've written about this in the past, I want to do another post on property ownership. This will be a summary post that gives the key points of each aspect of buying/owning property here.

Reader's Question

I would like to retire in Buenos Aires. I just saw a great property that is for sale by owner. I will pay cash for it, so financing isn't an issue, but do they have title search companies? What is the procedure since I am buying it through the owner? Are there transfer taxes, and who pays them. Are there annual taxes, etc? What about home owners insurance, etc? As you can see I am starting on my quest and don't know much.

Financing

Foreigners should forget about finding financing in Argentina. It isn't available and when it is available, the interest rates are typically outrageous. If you don't have the cash, you'll have to get a loan in your home country and use the money to buy a property here in Argentina. The main problem is that if you can't show an income and a credit history here in Argentina, the local banks don't want to work with you. They don't care if you have income or assets in the U.S. or anywhere else.

Taxes

There is a stamp tax in Buenos Aires of 1.25% for both the buyer and seller when transferring the title of a property. The stamp tax differs in the various provinces. This tax is waved for your first property purchase. So, generally expatriates do not pay this. If you plan to be buying more than one property then you'll be paying it.

Title Companies

Here the title search is done by a notary or "escribano". It is the notary's responsibility to uncover any problems with the title. Argentina has a sophisticated and complete title registry that allows for the easy tracing of property ownership. Your notary will inform you if there are any problems with your property's title. Notary fees will be anywhere between 1% and 4%, depending on what notary you choose.

Property Taxes

There is an annual "asset tax" or "personal goods tax" that must be paid if you own property here. It will usually amount to 1% of the value of your property. The tax return must be prepared by your accountant here in Argentina and submitted on your behalf along with payment. Don't forget to pay your taxes!

Real Estate Agents

Real estate commissions are usually 3% for buyers and 3% for sellers. In my opinion, real estate agents here are not as good and not as ethical as the ones you'll find in the U.S. I would recommend using them only if you cannot handle buying or selling a property on your own.

Homeowners Insurance

Homeowners insurance can be purchased from almost any of the major banks here in Argentina. Expect to pay about 50% more here than what you'd pay for similar coverage in the United States.

South America Continues Its March Leftward

2005-12-19T12:10:00.000-03:00

Bolivia Moves Far Left

With the election of Evo Morales as the new President of Bolivia, foreign firms operating there -- especially oil and gas multinationals -- can expect to be squeezed hard in the coming months. By most accounts, Evo Morales is not a pragmatist like Kirchner here in Argentina or Lula in Brazil. He is more in the mold of Chávez and Castro.

Argentina Continues Leaning Leftward

For Argentina, this comes right on the heels of the firing of the popular (and highly regarded) economy minister Roberto Lavagna, who many credit with reversing the economic decline of the country. Additionally, a few days later, Kirchner announced the complete repayment of the IMF debt. The debt was paid off in full and ahead of schedule.

It was likely not a decision that Lavagna would have supported -- as it depleted a significant amount the country's foreign currency reserves. Additionally, the interest rates on the loans provided by the IMF are typically lower than what Argentina can get from the private sector, meaning Argentina will be paying more to finance its external debt, since it will no longer be using IMF money.

Instead, it was a political decision on the part of Kirchner. Kirchner will now be free of the IMF's intervention in his economic programs. With both Lavagna and the IMF out of the way, Kirchner is free to exercise absolute control over the country's economy. During the announcement, he thanked Venezuela's Chávez for helping make it all possible. Chávez purchased $1 billion of Argentina's bonds this year.

The Effects of Kirchner's Plans Are Still Unknown

It remains to be seen what Kirchner will be doing with this new autonomy. So far, the market has pushed down the peso/dollar exchange rate to 3.05:1, from the previous level of 2.95:1. So for now, expatriates will be getting things 4% cheaper. It remains to be seen what will happen in the long term.

The markets didn't take kindly to the firing of Lavagna either, sending the MERVAL stock index down 5% on the day Lavagna was fired.

With the IMF debts repaid and Lavagna gone, my guess is that we won't see any increases in the utility rates that are being charged by the foreign multinationals that own the utilities here. With the IMF no longer negotiating on behalf of the multinationals, I can't think of any reason why Kirchner would be willing to give any ground on prices now, given his worry about inflation. A raise in utility prices would no doubt only exacerbate the inflation situation.

Dual Citizenship and the Hayworth Bill

2005-12-15T17:56:00.000-03:00

I received a question today from a reader who is doing an article on dual citizenship and the Hayworth Bill. I'd like to take this opportunity to respond.

Reader's Question

I am writing an article about the Hayworth bill, a piece of legislation before congress that would criminalize activities associated with dual citizenship--voting in a foreign election for example. I wonder if you could tell me how you became a dual citizen, why it matters to you, and why you would support or oppose a "ban" on dual citizenship.

What is Citizenship?

Let me first clarify something -- I'm not a dual citizen. I'm a U.S. citizen and Argentina resident. However, my desire is to become a dual citizen some day in the future. Argentina requires most immigrants to live here for five years before giving them the opportunity to become citizens. I do expect to apply for citizenship at that time.

What is a citizen and what does it mean to be a citizen? A citizen is a person who owes allegiance to a nation and is entitled to its protection. There is a give and take involved.

Historically, nations have provided individuals with a system of laws, ways to peaceably settle disputes, and they protect individuals and their property from outsiders who would wish them harm. In return, the nation taxes the individual and reserves the right to draft the individual into military service when the nation is threatened.

Dual Nationality and State Oppression

Some people, especially government types, think dual nationality is a paradox -- an individual can't be loyal to two nations. So, they seek to discourage or penalize dual nationals. They want the person to choose between one country or another -- to "take sides" as if there was an argument. What if we don't want to swear our allegiance blindly? Could it be possible that sometimes your country is right and other times it is wrong? Must we all swear undying oaths of fealty to our government and the political ruling class?

I say the answer is no. I believe in the sovereignty of individuals who are free to make their own choices. My government, however, by virtue of my nationality, has complete power over my life. Think I'm being dramatic?

The government places restrictions on what kind of business you may conduct and who you can do business with.
The government can, at any time, place restrictions on what countries you are allowed to travel to.
The government can hold you captive within the United States and revoke your ability to travel internationally. Historically this was only reserved for people awaiting trial. Now its also done for people who owe back child support. Who knows how this could be expanded in the future?
The government can draft you into fighting in a war that you do not agree with at any time.
The government can imprison you and can, under the guise of capital punishment, murder you when it feels you are no longer useful.

A dual citizen, on the other hand, can decide to sever a relationship with one of his countries if it decides not to treat him fairly.

The Hayworth Bill

JD Hayworth is a bigot and his view of America is completely anglocentric. Not only does the bill try to criminalize things such as voting in a foreign election, he proposes the complete denial of residency visas to Mexican citizens. What a wonderful way to discourage illegal immigration from Mexico -- by denying visas all the law-abiding Mexicans who suffered through all the bureaucracy, the humiliating consular interviews, the years of waiting, paid the expenses, and did things the right way! What an idiot.

Cell Phones

2005-12-13T00:01:00.000-03:00

Here's a question from a reader who wants to know about what he can do about cell phones in Buenos Aires.

Reader's Question

One thing I have yet to tackle...the cellphone issue. Any advice about picking one up upon arrival in BA?

Cell Phones For New Arrivals

If you haven't yet received a DNI, you won't be able to get a cell phone contract with one of the major national cell phone companies. If you do find a phone company that will accept you, you'll be limited to using pre-paid cards.

If you need a phone right away, I suggest using Phonerental, which is a service designed for foreigners. The cost is about 1.5 pesos a minute for local calls and 3 pesos a minute for international calls with a 20 peso per month weekly rental fee (as of November 2005, when my father rented one of their phones). They did a good job and we were happy with the service.

Long term, after you have your DNI, you'll be able to pick between any of the companies here. I picked Nextel for my personal phone and for my entire office because I wanted the walkie-talkie feature (which works internationally between Argentina and the United States, by the way).

Cost of Living in Argentina

2005-12-12T11:16:00.000-03:00

A reader recently mentioned that Argentina has experienced inflation of about 10% this year and is expected to experience further inflation of 10% during the next year. With the dollar/peso exchange rate still hovering around 3:1 , that would seemingly be a concern for anyone expected to move here. I'm going to address this issue in this post.

Reader's Comment

Since the Expatriado moved to Argentina, prices have gone up about 25% yet the dollar value has stayed the same. This means that the cost of living has gone up therefore reducing in a dramatic way the advantage of living there. Furthermore, inflation is predicted to go up another 10% or so next year, while the dollar will continue to be steady at around $3. Thus, the promise of living in a cosmopolitan area with a reduced cost of living is coming to an end. Expatriado: Do you think it still makes sense to go live there in light of these new developments?

One of the Cheapest Cities Worldwide

Mercer Human Resource Consulting, which publishes an annual list of the cost of living in cities worldwide, recently put Buenos Aires 142nd, out of 144 cities ranked. What was slightly more expensive than Buenos Aires? Bangalore, India. The only two cities that were cheaper were Manilia, Philippines and Asuncion, Paraguay.

The fact that there was high inflation this last year does not surprise me at all. The economy is on the mend. Unemployment is down. There are more pesos to be spent and more employed people to spend them. Looking at where Argentina ranks -- 142nd out of 144 cities -- there is nowhere for it to go but up. So, yes, things may start to cost more here.

However, you can still live in a cosmopolitan capital city with a very European culture, architecture, and citizenry at the price of living in Bangalore, India. In what European capital city can you buy a 1000 sq. ft. apartment in one of the nicest areas in town for just $100,000 USD? None.

Lifestyle and Culture Matter

Sure, you could go to India, the Philippines, Thailand and any number of other countries and pay about the same as in Buenos Aires. Perhaps next year Bangalore will end up being cheaper than Buenos Aires. However, you won't find anywhere else that lets you live a western lifestyle at the same price as Buenos Aires.

I've spent a few months in India and even though I was amazed at just how cheap everything was, there was a price to pay for that -- people urinating in the streets, rampant poverty, shantytowns everywhere there was an open space. It wasn't just the poverty, it was the culture also. The television programs don't show men and women kissing. When I went to a bar / dance club the men and women were not dancing together. Most of the guys my age were still virgins and didn't date because they were expecting their parents to find them a wife.

There is no way, despite the amazing cost savings from living in India, that I could ever live in a place like that with such a foreign culture. If you look at the other cities that are on the list that are near Buenos Aires -- not a single one can provide the same kind of lifestyle that Buenos Aires does.

Expect Costs to Increase

It is only natural that costs are going up in Argentina. They are just so low right now that it would be difficult for them to go any lower. Nevertheless, this place is a bargain. In 2002 there were 10,000 American expatriates who were registered with the U.S. Embassy as permanent residents here. Today that number is 35,000. My parents just bought an apartment two blocks from mine because they came here and fell in love with the city. Their downstairs neighbor is American also. One of the biggest real estate companies in the city has its hands full just dealing with expatriates who are coming here.

There's never been a better time to be in Buenos Aires and if my expenses go from $1000 USD per month to $1100 USD per month next year, so be it. It'll still be a far better and cheaper lifestyle than when I was in the U.S. Costs won't go up forever, either. They'll rise until they hit some equilibrium. If inflation really starts to get out of control, the exchange rate will rise and American expatriates who have their income in dollars will be protected.

Money Options For Expats

2005-12-11T13:45:00.000-03:00

I got a question from a reader today who has e-mailed me several times before and, like many of us here once did, is struggling to make the decision to move here. While I'm always very eager to point out Argentina as a great place for people to choose to live or retire, I certainly don't want to do that if people aren't going to be comfortable financially here.

Reader's Comment

Hello. I've come across your site many times. Anyways, I am an American/Argentine girl with so much confusion, 35 years old, been back and forth and need to decide something. Sometimes I just want to do it - [move to Argentina] and let whatever happens be. What makes it so hard is that I have had ups and downs here and there. I wish I had all the money in the world - you can do whatever, clean up after after any mistakes, try something else, not have to plan.

Money Options For Expats

Your case is a little different than most expats because you're Argentine, bilingual, you have a DNI, and you don't need a visa to come here. For most people, however, when they decide to come here, one of the first things the Argentine government is going to ask them when they apply for a visa is how they're going to support themselves. Basically, the entire Argentina visa process is designed to let in people who are going to contribute to the economy and keep out people who are not.

You should ask yourself the same questions. When I applied for my visa, I was given three options, which are pretty much the same three options that will apply for you as well.

You can support yourself with an income from abroad. I did this with my small IT consulting business. Others do it by telecommuting, working as some kind of consultant, or simply living off the income generated by their investments. For those lucky retirees out there, you can support yourself with an income from social security, annuities, or a government / private pension.
You can start a business in Argentina. The government requires that an immigrant have $40,000 USD to invest in a business to get a visa, but since you don't need a visa, you wouldn't necessarily have to invest $40,000. You'd only need to invest enough to make enough profit to support yourself.
The final option is to simply get a job. Unemployment has fallen dramatically since 2002 and the economy is growing at 10% annually. Companies are hiring again. For most expats, they're limited by the language factor. If you don't speak Spanish, you're pretty much limited to teaching English, working in tourism or some other job focused on foreign English-speaking clients, or else you're being relocated here by some Fortune 500, in which you're being paid in dollars and money is not an issue.

However, you're a little different than most people who are moving here. As a bilingual Argentine who's been living in America for a long time, you should have no problem at all finding a job in the local market. Unlike the rest of us who are limited by our knowledge of Spanish, you have no such limitation. You could probably do whatever you're doing in the U.S. here. Maybe it'll take you a little longer to find a job, since you don't have a lot of contacts here, but there's no reason to believe you couldn't work here successfully.

Considerations For Workers

If you're going to be working in the local market, remember that you'll be earning a salary in pesos now. There are a lot of fully bilingual Argentines that you'll be competing against for a job and even though you've lived in the United States for a long time and perhaps have acquired some extra skills that put you a step ahead of your peers here, you won't be able to command a huge salary from an employer.

There is, perhaps, one exception to this rule. If you have good contacts in the U.S. and you can bring-in business for a company here, you can probably be paid well as a sales person. Barring that, I don't think any American expat should expect to earn anywhere near what they did in the U.S. when they're here.

You should ask yourself whether you're OK with that. Remember that it will also be much harder to return to the United States someday if you take a job in the local market here. Realistically, you're probably going to be earning one-fifth or less of what you earned in the United States for doing the same work. Suppose you worked here 10 years. You'd lose out on 10 years of Social Security credits, 401(k) or pension contributions and you'd save a lot less money. It may put you in a difficult position if you intend to retire in the U.S. someday.

Sure, you'll be building-up an Argentine pension, but as much as I don't trust Washington politicians to follow-through on their Social Security promises, I sure as hell don't trust the ones here. They've already cut pensions and retirees are given a pittance. At 35, the worst-case scenario for you with Social Security is that you get your benefits cut by a third.

Recommendations

My recommendation for anyone thinking of coming to live here for a significant amount of time (who is not independently wealthy) is that you try to have a job that pays you in dollars. Barring that, make sure you have a nice retirement fund and enough credits to quality for Social Security. You don't want to jeopardize you're retirement to come here. I certainly wouldn't want to end up being forced to work as a Wal-Mart greeter at 85 because I don't qualify for Social Security.

Good luck and I hope you're able to figure out a way to come to Buenos Aires!

Always Take Radio Taxis In Buenos Aires

2005-12-09T12:53:00.000-03:00

There was some discussion recently about using Radio Taxis here in Buenos Aires and I wanted to set the record straight on this issue.

Readers' Comments

Where / how do we find radio taxis when we are in BA.

Truth be told, while Radio Taxis are everywhere, all taxis are safe. I have taken about 400 rides in the last few years and have not had one problem.

Why You Must Take Radio Taxies

Ever since I got here, my Argentine friends and coworkers always told me that I should take a Radio Taxi every time I need to go somewhere. A month ago an Argentine friend of mine, one who always told me about the need for Radio Taxies, was in a hurry to get somewhere. She called a Radio Taxi to pick her up, but was told the wait would be 15 minutes. Since she was in a hurry however, she decided to go and catch a taxi on the street.

A few minutes after stepping into the taxi, she noticed the taxi was going in the wrong direction. When she pointed it out to the driver, he stopped. Two men, who were following in the car behind the taxi, got in next to her and put a gun against her side. They ordered her to hand over her wallet.

The taxi then drove on, heading outside of Buenos Aires. While she was held hostage in the taxi, one of the men took her wallet and went to an ATM machine. He used a walkie-talkie to communicate with the other thief in the taxi. He requested her pin number to make a withdrawl. Each time the ATM asked a security question, such as to provide a DNI or CUIL number, the man called back on the walkie-talkie and she was forced to provide all the information.

After driving her out of the city for 30 minutes, they dropped her in the middle of a shantytown outside of the city without her wallet, cell phone, or even her calendar/agenda. Fortunately for her, she had a few coins in her pocket and was able to find a phone to call a friend -- who then called a Radio Taxi to pick her up and bring her back to Buenos Aires.

Like many other people, I've taken taxis on the street and I've never had a problem. However, the chance is always there that you will have a problem. After seeing this happen to a friend of mine, I always make an effort now to call a Radio Taxi. I have a few of the companies programmed into my mobile and I call them and have them come right to the corner that I'm on. Maybe I have to wait five minutes longer, but I think avoiding an experience like this is worth the wait.

The way I see it, taking a taxi on the street is similar to walking around a bad section of town at night. The vast majority of the time there won't be a problem, but you never know when it'll be your turn to get robbed. Stay safe!

My Apartment is Finished!

2005-11-15T12:42:00.000-03:00

After four months of renovations, my apartment was finally finished today! Only a few details remain, but I'm happy that it was finally done. For the last 15 days, I've actually been living in my apartment as the construction was going on. When I bought my apartment back in July, I had the naive notion that maybe it would take a month or so to finish all the work. I also figured on spending about half of what I ended up spending.

In the end, though, I'm very pleased with the way everything turned out. Just like every software projects, construction and renovations hinge on three different variables -- time, cost, and scope. My apartment suffered from a very bad case of "feature creep", as we say in the software industry. I started with the expectation of adding wood floors in the bedroom, replacing the maid's quarters with an office, and buying decorations. In the end, I finally finished by:

Replacing & resurfacing everything in the master bathroom
Changing every surface in the kitchen
Tearing down and then rebuilding 1/5th of the apartment, which would become the office
Replacing the plumbing, hot water heater, etc.
Replacing every electrical outlet in the house, adding U.S. & European plugs to the Argentine ones
Adding a 5.1 surround sound system and home theater
Adding a home bar
Replacing all the lighting fixtures

The Cost of Renovations

Even though I spent about twice as much as I thought, in the end, I was very happy with how things turned out. Much of the expense was related to my home theater, which I was very keen on having here in Buenos Aires.

In general, the cost of renovations here was far less than what it would cost for something similar in the United States. There is plenty of labor expense that goes into a project like this and there is a big benefit of paying in pesos for that labor rather than in dollars. Throughout the project, I also tried to use locally-produced goods whenever possible, to avoid the costly imported furnishings.

I was very impressed with the work of my architect, who is also an interior designer. As such, she was able to manage the entire project, from the construction all the way through the purchasing of all the decorations. Having someone to take care of all this for me was a godsend. I couldn't imagine trying to do all this myself. If anyone plans on renovating a property they purchase, I can highly recommend her.

Pictures Coming Soon

I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow and I'll be gone for two weeks, but I'll try to have pictures online of the apartment when I get back, so you can all see how it turned out. By the end of the year, the apartment will also be available for rent, so if anyone is looking for a very nice place to stay in Recoleta, you'll be able to rent out my apartment.

Banking / Insurance for Expats

2005-11-14T14:11:00.000-03:00

I mentioned previously that for U.S. expats, I recommended banking with USAA Bank. There's a question that came up about how non-military people can become members, however, so I wanted to address that here as well as go over some of the benefits of USAA that are of particular value for expats.

Reader's Question

I checked the USAA website but it seems that they only allow military even though you mentioned they accept everyone. Can you tell me how exactly you managed to get in with them? It would be much appreciated!

Getting an Account With USAA Bank

If you're not current or former military or a dependent, you can't get insurance from USAA, but you can still open a bank account with them. I know this because I helped my girlfriend open an account with them and she's not military.

The way you do it is by calling 1-800-531-BANK. Speak to an operator and tell them that you want to open an account with USAA Bank and they will direct you to the right department. They will give you a USAA number and temporary password which will allow to to access the bank, brokerage, and "member services" part of their website. If you like, they will also send you a packet of information in the mail.

With your member number, you'll be able to then open a bank and/or brokerage account with USAA. USAA Bank is an FDIC-insured Federal Savings Bank, not a credit union, and therefore they cannot legally restrict access to their bank to a specific group of people.

It is important that you have a U.S. mailing address when you sign-up. Argentina is on a "restricted country list" and they will not open an account for you if you tell them you are living in Argentina. After you open the accounts, however, you can update your mailing address on your accounts with them and they won't close your accounts, but they won't open any new ones for you while you live in Argentina.

Benefits of USAA Bank

USAA offers a number of benefits for expats. The bank is geared for people who live abroad for extended periods of time and that's what makes it such a great choice for expats. There's no one thing that makes it the must have bank for expats, but instead there are a lot of little things that all add-up to making it the best choice.

Local phone number here in Argentina
All forms/documents/statements can be obtained online
Extremly full-featured online banking/bill pay service
No need to ever show-up personally in the bank for anything
Wire transfers to your account in Argentina can be requested over the phone and by fax
No foreign transaction fees on non-US Dollar credit card transactions (this alone can save you thousands of dollars if you use your credit card to pay for things)
No cash advance fee on credit card transactions, including foreign withdrawals from ATMs
Fast customer service, without long hold times
The ability to mail things out of the country (my old bank wouldn't mail my replacement credit card out of the country, "The computer won't let me," the rep said. I kid you not.)
You can mail-in checks for deposit

Benefits of USAA Insurance

If you qualify for insurance with USAA, you should call up right away and get a "US Touring Policy", which is a special insurance policy for expatriates and it covers you on any car you drive while in the USA. You may think there's no point in having insurance while outside the U.S., but it helps. If you ever go back to visit family or rent a car, you can be comfortable driving knowing that you are insured if something happens. The policy costs $5.00 per year, which is a whole hell of a lot less than even the rental car insurance costs.

It also maintains continuous insurance coverage, while is important if you ever move back to the U.S. and need to obtain coverage. You pay a lot more when you have a gap in your coverage.

In Support of Free Trade For Argentina

2005-11-09T16:44:00.000-03:00

The Summit of the Americas has come to an end, Bush has gone back home, and things are getting back to normal here. The summit produced virtually no results, with Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and a few other countries refusing to set a date to resume discussions on the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Meanwhile, the FTAA is being championed by the USA, Mexico, Panama, and a number of other countries. In fact, Bush left the summit and went to visit Panama to discuss a bilateral free trade agreement afterwards, since the FTAA seems to be going nowhere.

Despite what everyone says about Bush, he's right on free trade. Free trade is not some "yanqui" imperialist plan to control the world. It's about creating jobs, growing economies, and making everybody more wealthy. Look at the two people at the summit that were most vocally opposing free trade -- Diego Maradona, the Argentine soccer star, and Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela.

Maradona became rich by exporting his services as a player to clubs in Spain and Italy. Imagine where the soccer world would be without the international movement of players. Venezuela is currently awash in money from selling its oil on the global market. The global oil market is financing Chávez' pursuit of his socialist agenda at home. Both of these men benefited from global trade, but somehow what's good for them can't be good for the rest of Latin America?

At the summit, Argentina threw away an opportunity to really press Bush on actual free trade. In the last few weeks, Bush made a bold proposal to cut Agricultural subsidies as a bid to restart WTO trade talks, which would have allowed farmers and ranchers in Argentina and throughout Latin America to compete in the world's largest market.

Even though Europe and Japan weren't so exited about dropping their own subsidies as part of the WTO talks, Argentina and Latin America should have pursued this further at the summit and made it a condition of going forward with the FTAA. The FTAA doesn't need to be a one-sided giveaway to the U.S. There's no reason why Latin America can't insist on getting a fair deal. However, if they aren't even willing to talk and they're only interested in chest-pounding, then progress will never be made.