Running in Buenos Aires

One of Buenos Aires' best features is its many beautiful parks ("over 250" according to the city tourism website). Some of them have a fascinating history: Tres de Febrero, for example, was built on the land of defeated strongman Juan Manuel de Rosas. Many of the parks have exercise stations, and when we lived there, we used to ride our bikes every few days to the Lago de Regatas and enjoy the free outdoor gym.

I've been enjoying running this year (137 miles over 42 runs so far in 2017), so I brought my running shoes on this trip. I ran on 3 mornings, totaling 13.2 miles (21 km), at an average pace of 8:06/mile (tracked with Strava). It's late spring there now, and the weather was wonderful (around 80°F / 27°C), perhaps a bit too hot one of the days. (The drinking water fountains along Avenida Sarmiento were very helpful.)



The parks were full every day (especially weekends, but also weekdays) with cyclists, runners, walkers, an outdoor dance/cardio class, and people just hanging out.

- Ben

Adios, Argentina

I thought this video would be a fitting post for our last day in Argentina. I made it for Ben last summer, when our knowledge of Argentina didn't extend much beyond wine and steak. He was unsure what he was getting into with this adventure of ours, so this animated flipbook was my attempt to represent our year in Argentina. Turns out, I wasn't so far off.



Adios, Argentina. Te vamos a extrañar.

- Steph

My city is my gym: Public recreation in Buenos Aires

One of the things I like the most about Buenos Aires is the way the city uses its public space for recreation. There are bike lanes (bicisendas) along several major roads, and they're building more. (Borges St. near us in Palermo just got one.) There are dozens of beautiful parks with grass, little lakes, and trails.

At our favorite of these parks, there's a ring of fitness stations. They appear to be co-sponsored by Gatorade and the city. Here's one with all kinds of bars for sit-ups, push-ups, chin-ups, etc:

Map of our favorite park

This one has strength-building machines that use your own body as a counter-weight. It's sponsored, interestingly, by the Israeli JNF (which is better known for planting trees in Israel):

Several parks in the city also have public wi-fi. This is an ad in a subway station for the wifi at Parque Los Andes:

This is a skate park near Plaza Italia, where kids do jumps and stunts on BMX bikes and skateboards. (I imagine in the U.S. - where even wood playgrounds are disappearing because of liability concerns - a  cement half-pipe next to a major thoroughfare wouldn't even be considered.)

It's really nice not to have to pay for a gym. When the weather's nice, the city is my gym. It raises the quality of living in a way that's hard to quantify but is very real.

- Ben

Cost of living in Buenos Aires

We used to comment a lot on the high cost of living here, and the sometimes strange discrepancies between what's expensive and what's not. Now that we've been here longer, I no longer wince at paying $3+ for a cup of coffee in a cafe, though I still refuse to pay full-price for a movie ticket (there are almost always half-price deals available).

The staff at a local hotel put together a list of "How Much do Things Cost?" for visitors. I'm including it here (translated into dollars) to demonstrate two things:

1. The cost of living
2. The huge gap between the official exchange rate and the black market rate (more on that below)

Item	Official exchange rate (4.5 pesos : dollar)	Black market rate (6 pesos : dollar)
Subway	$0.55	$0.41
Bus	$0.24 - $0.39 depending on distance	$0.18 - $0.29
Taxi	During the day the initial meter is $1.62 and then 16cents/200 meters, at night the initial meter is $1.93 and then 19c/200m.	$1.22 then .12cents/200m / $1.45 then 15c/200m
Cafe con leche	$3 - $4 depending on the café	$2.33 - $3
Medialunas (pastry similar to croissants)	$0.77 - $1.11, depending on the café, $7.11 the dozen in a bakery	$0.58 - $0.83 in cafes, $5.33 the dozen
500ml bottle water	$3.33 in a restaurant, $1.33 in a kiosk and $1 in a supermarket	$2.5 / $1 / $0.75
600ml soft drink	$3.33 in a restaurant, $1.77 in a kiosk and $1.44 in a supermarket	$2.5 / $1.33 / $1.08
Local beer 970cc (not imported)	$1.53 in a supermarket, $6 in a bar	$1.15 / $4.5
Pizza	Average $10-$13 for a big pizza, depending on the toppings and the place.	$7.5 - $10
Ice cream	$4.44 for a cone	$3.33
Lunch menu including main course, beverage and dessert or coffee	$11	$8.33
Dining out	Starting at approximately $22 and up per person	$16+
Museums	$0 - $2 if the government runs them. The privately owned MALBA charges a $5.55 ticket for adults.	$0-$2 / $4.16
Cinema	General ticket: $8.88; 3D: $10.22	$6.66 / $7.66
Theater	Starting at $30 and up	$23+
Nightclubs	$9 - $15	$7 - $12

(FYI, I've adapted a list that was aimed at tourists, so it hides the high cost of everyday items like cereal or milk.)

So why include the black market rate? Because it's closer to what goods should actually cost. The Argentine government tightly controls the official exchange rate, using its dollar reserves to intervene almost daily in the local foreign-exchange market. Over the last six to nine months, it has only allowed the peso to devaluate slowly, opening up a wide gap between the official exchange rate and the black market one. The Wall Street Journal explains it better than I can:

Concerns over the economic direction taken by Argentina's government has sent the gap between a tightly controlled official exchange rate and a parallel rate—largely set by businesses conducting complex transactions in stock and bond markets to secure dollars—to multiyear highs. ... 

The blue-chip swap involves the purchase of Argentine sovereign bonds or the local shares of companies with listings in the U.S., and the subsequent sale of those securities abroad for dollars. The blue-chip swap rate is the exchange rate that is implicit in these transactions. 

The lower value of the parallel rate reflects expectations that Argentina eventually could have to devalue its currency at a swifter pace to trim capital flight and appease exporters.

Now most Argentines, us included, can't access the black market rate, so the cost of goods is closer to the middle column. Recently we've found a money transfer service that provides us with pesos at better than the official rate (but not quite as good as the black market one). With inflation at about 25%, getting pesos at a better rate has helped cut into the ever-rising cost of living. But it's still an expensive place to live, and getting more expensive.

- Steph

Dancing tango

After all this time in Buenos Aires, we finally started learning tango. We have a wonderful tango teacher, with whom we've been taking private lessons twice a week. We're hoping that soon we'll graduate to dancing at a milonga (a social tango dance). Here we are practicing:

- Steph

My mom visits Argentina

The view from my mom's apartment

My mom just left after spending a week with us in Buenos Aires. We hit up most of the major neighborhoods and dined at some nice restaurants (see my planned itinerary here). My mom also got in plenty of shopping, which is surprisingly a good way to see the city. We found leather in the centro and handcrafts in San Telmo and Recoleta and perused the boutiques in Palermo.

Here are pictures from her trip, broken down day by day (she has pictures of us, I mostly took pictures of the places we went):

DAY 1 — Centro

Protest in the Plaza de Mayo. The sign reads "The Malvinas (Falkland Islands) are Argentine."

Museum at the Casa Rosada (government house).

DAY 2 — Shopping on Florida street

DAY 4 — San Telmo and Recoleta crafts fair

Sunday street fair in San Telmo

DAY 5 — Recoleta cemetery and Palermo

Recoleta cemetery. On the way there, our cab driver asked, "Do you want to go next to the cemetery or inside it?" Very funny cabbie...

We also took a tango class, saw a milonga (a social tango dance), practiced our Spanish and rode a lot of city buses (my mom liked the "local color"). Overall, she said she had a very "authentic South American experience." And I loved showing her around the city.

- Steph

JSConf Argentina, and the Centro Metropolitano de Diseño

This past weekend,  I had the great pleasure of attending JSConf Argentina/Latin America 2012. That's JS as in Javascript, the web programming language. I love Javascript, and for the last few months I've been trying to pivot my work toward a platform called Node.js, which is built in Javascript. I also tried unsuccessfully to organize a BsAs Javascript meetup earlier this year. So I was thrilled to hear, a few months ago, that a JsConf was coming to town! It was organized by Guillermo Rauch, an Argentine developer now based in San Francisco. (His bio page is outdated; he's not 19 anymore).

They flew in some of the top Node.js luminaries from the Bay area - basically the creators of projects I've been working with every day for months. There were several hundred people in attendance, mostly Argentines, but also Brazilians, Colombians, and BsAs-based expats like me. The sessions by the Americans and Brazilians were in English, the rest were in Spanish. Node.js was only a small part of it; a bigger focus was on "front-end" Javascript, like new graphics capabilities in web browsers, 3D visualizations, and building mobile apps with Javascript. I met a lot of great people, and hopefully the BsAs JS meetup that we started to organize over lunch will come to fruition.

The building the conference was in, the Centro Metropolitano de Diseño (diseño meaning design), was really cool. It looks like it was originally a warehouse of some kind, and was retrofitted with prefab structures on the inside, in a way that maintained the original roof, exposed pipes, columns, etc. It was like the building itself was recycled. The rawness of the design reminded me of the Pompidou in Paris. The building is now a public-private partnership, with the city helping to incubate design-centric businesses. In addition to the businesses, a library, and an auditorium (each housed in one of the prefab units), there's a little museum with industrial equipment that (I assume) was part of the building's original function.

- Ben

Buenos Aires: Itinerary for visitors

My mom is coming to visit at the end of the month (!) so I'm working on devising an itinerary for her. Here's what I have so far. For any travelers to Buenos Aires, what am I missing? What should we skip?


DAYTIME ACTIVITIES

Boca: I wasn't that impressed when I went. It's mostly just a small touristy strip with brightly-colored houses. But maybe it's one of those landmarks you're just supposed to see when you come to BsAs. Ben hasn't been, maybe he'll want to come.

Recoleta cemetery/crafts fair: Saturday, or any day if we skip the crafts fair. I quite like it personally, but there's a lot of crafts in San Telmo too. I should remember to bring a map to the cemetery so we know what's worth seeing.

San Telmo antiques fair: Sunday. Plus I love any excuse to see more of San Telmo.

Tigre: If it's not too cold, we would love to rent kayaks in Tigre. If we can't, maybe not worth a whole day.

El Ateno bookstore: One of the coolest bookstores I've ever visited.

Teatro Colon: There's a piano concert on May 26 or guided tours for 110 pesos.


Downtown: Congreso, Casa Rosada, Obelisco, Plaza de Mayo etc.

MALBA: Half-price on Wednesdays.

Museo Bellas Artes: Never been. Any other museums worth visiting?


NIGHTTIME ACTIVITIES

Tango class: Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights at DNI Tango.

Tango show: Never been to one. Ooh, the qualifying rounds for the City's Tango Dance Championship 2012 will be held between May 10 and 26.


RESTAURANTS

Osaka/Lima Mia: The Peruvian-Japanese fusion trend is one of my favorites in the Buenos Aires restaurant scene. We've had really good meals at both Osaka and Lima Mia (not as much at Paru) and my mom really likes fish, so it seems we should hit up one of those. I'm leaning toward Lima Mia, for the pisco sours and cheaper menu.

Parilla: You can't come to BsAs without eating in a parrilla, but my mom's not much of a steak-eater, so I think we only need to go to one. We've tried Donca (excellent the first time, just OK the second), Don Julio (good but nothing special), and La Brigada (touristy but fun once).

Miranda: One of my favorite go-to restaurants in the city. One huge benefit is that visitors can get their steak fill while I enjoy an enormous salad. Plus the cocktails are amazing.

Olsen: For brunch?

Puerta cerrada: Another cool trend — restaurants in people's homes. We've only been to Cocina Sunae, so it would be great to branch out. Accepting recommendations.

Cumana: Great for traditional Argentine food, and not too expensive. Have to go one night, and maybe order wine out of penguin pitchers.

Dada: Highly recommended but never been. Maybe for one day when we're exploring downtown.

- Steph