Viveza Criolla

My post today is about viveza criolla and how mostly all foreigners here bag Argentina as a very dishonest place to do business which is utter crap and very damaging to the countries image.

Viveza criolla is human nature and to say that portenos are a step above most other countries like united states Australia and most of Europe is a fantasy.

In all the years I have been coming here the most dishonest things that have happened to me have been being ripped off by taxi drivers by a few pesos .

I'm sure that bribes happen but I accept that and deal with it.

In Australia which people believe to be paradise .I clocked up 3000 dollars in fines just for parking and also the police in Australia are known for their heavy handed attitude.

People of the lower classes in Buenos Aires in the main are kind honest and trustworthy and I can tell you that I have dropped money on the street here many many times and had it returned by poor people .

I believe that foreigners in Argentina are using this line to create fear and business for themselves .

I remember when I brought my apartment here recently I went to this very famous foreigners real estate office in Argentina that deals with buying property in Argentina . They tried to tell me that if I didn't deal with them I would be fleeced of my money while trying to charge me 7000 pesos just to get me a CD and constancia de mi domicilio.

That job took me 3 hours and cost 20 pesos.

In Argentina I have to say that the Escribana system is excellent and they do a very thorough job and most only charge 1 percent .

Well good luck Argentina and my prayers are with you against Germany

Dos porteñas en Palermo Soho

Argentina is the new El Dorado for stressed out New Yorkers

Today is a cold and cloudy actually my favourite weather for being inside and enjoying a book and catching up on my Argentine vocabulary.

I have been living here 8 months now since October 2005 and has it been a challenge.
Moving to another country is much harder than anyone says especially one where the native language is not your own.

I have wanted to live in Argentina for as long as I can remember from the first trip here in 1983 to many trips over the years there was a very strange pull to this place that made me want more and more.

Nowadays it seems that Buenos Aires is the hot spot for New Yorkers and stressed out Americans wanting to escape George Bush high real estate prices and the fear of terrorism.

I have to say I have good feelings about this movement overall as I believe that in time that the influx of different energies and ways of doing business here will create a very different Buenos Aires one that is more modern and progressive.

I hear a lot of complaints on other sites about expatriates moving here and not adapting to the culture and treating it like a cheap place to have fun in my experience I have met plenty of expatriates here who after just three years are very integrated into Argentine society.

I live in a area full of Arabs and Armenian and they are Argentine first I must tell you . In a city of 300 thousand people of Arabian descent they have assimilated into Argentine culture amazingly .

I am of Greek descent born in Australian to Greek Cypriot parents. The Greeks of Australia still very much live a Greek lifestyle even after 2 to 3 generations but here in Argentina I have met numerous Greeks who had a Greek parent or grandparent and their culture was completely modified by Argentina to the extent that most do not speak the language after 2 generations.

Argentina is a great melting pot that has accepted and created a very homogeneous society.
The problems I foresee here is the integration of the newest immigrants from Peru Bolivia China . The racist comments I have heard regarding Peruvians here have surprised me .

Argentina seems a fine place for European races but be black Indian or Peruvian the road seems a lot harder.