Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires does some things very well.  Organic tapas. The tango. Sleeping in. Provocative design.  Cafes.  Grilled meat.  Siestas.  Color.  Graffiti.  Live subway performers.  Night out until 6am.

Buenos Aires does other things less well.  Politics, customs, bureaucracy, punctuality, traffic, littler, smog, sidewalks and subways are a few.

Personified, Chile would be your earnest, god fearing, hard working neighbor.  Argentina is that passionate but aimless friend you knew in high school, who is immensely artistically gifted, broke, and whose house you are afraid to set a food inside.  She has passionate love affairs, and even though she might not always have money to go out, she remembers what it was like when everyone wanted to be like her.

Would I want to invest here?  Probably not.  Argentina has not been kind to its foreign investors over the course of its history. 

Would I want to spend a summer taking siestas from noon to three, going out until 4am with friends, and killing time in cafes and at concerts?  More likely.

Claro must have bought the rights to have their logo on every street sign in the city.  They´re in Bariloche too.

Classic cars downtown - a good fit for BA.

One of the best $2 meals ever - a good sign was the mess of people crowding the stand.  Turkey has kebabs, the south has fried chicken, and Argentina has chorizo.

One of many cool boutique hotels and cafes in the city.

Lots of quirky art and design in Palermo, which is BA´s own young artsy up and coming yuppie district.  This is an eyeglass store.

Lots of this style - something between street graffiti and anime?

A more classic example, well kept.

Here are your store opening hours.  

Residents of BA (portenós) love to party.  One of many, many ads for concerts we saw.

Helpful...almost.

Welcome to Palermo - we actually saw dozens of shops for different styles of designer kids clothes.  National pastime)

Struck my eye... someone didn´t care enough to throw these in the garbage, but did care enough to leave them standing up.  Sadly, BA is covered in litter and dog poop.  There´s no expectation that you clean up after your dog, so watch your step!

Helpful...almost.