BA Trip Report with Pics

Here are some random thoughts on BA:

Buenos Aires has been OK for me so far.  I have been really sick the last 3 days so I haven't had a chance to get out too much.  We're in Recoleta at the moment and then moving to a different part of the city next week.  And then it's off to a place much further south away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

My first impressions of Argentines were people with class but also with gamble.  Don't ask me how those impressions came about but that's what popped in my head.  I may be getting the "gamble" from a very well known online Argentine player.   Buenos Aires itself is very nice, heavily European influenced so a lot of nice architecture.

Things here are very cheap since they've been in a financial crisis of sorts.  In fact our hotel is exchanging Argentine Pesos for US Dollars at a rate of 8.5-1 when the going rate in the financial markets is 6.5-1.  I'm still in disbelief over that.  There are people on the street offering up to 10-1 but the higher the rate being offered, the more likely there is to be counterfeit money involved so it's probably best to stick with exchanging at reputable places.

On the subject of counterfeit money, one of the big tourist scams is taxi drivers switching your $100 bills (Equivalent to about 12 bucks USD)  with counterfeit money when you pay, then acting like you gave it to them and refusing to accept it.  Apparently there's a lot of pick-pocketing that goes on here too though I don't think so much where we're staying.

We've been out to three restaurants so far and the food was good to excellent at all of them, so high marks there.

Here are some pics. my wife took.  I'll do my best to post these wherever we end up travelling.