A quick overview of town so far: Buenos Aires isn´t called ¨The Paris of the South¨ for nothing. The general layout and feel of the city resembles a classic European metropolis, albiet one with a bit less history and a bit more graffiti (if that´s possible). You can very roughly divide the Central City into three sections - the North Side, South Side, and Microcentro (downtown). The North side is where the money is, the South side is where the workers (and to a lesser extent the artists) are, and the Microcentro is downtown - and where most of the tourists are.

The Subte(subway) serves the more central part of the city, while commuter rail serves the outer parts and suburbs. The commuter rail lines will generally terminate near the beginning of a Subte line, which goes the rest of the way into the Microcentro. You can´t get everywhere by Subway like you can in New York, Paris, London, and some other towns, but cabs are cheap. Traffic lanes are taken as a loose suggestion at best, and in a hideous error of Urban Planning, traffic signals will show a yellow light (along with the red light) a few seconds before the light turns green, leading cars to race through the intersection immediately after the light turns green - if they wait that long. Needless to say, this policy is not conducive to a pedestrian having a leisurely stroll through town.

Also not conducive to said stroll is the the Avenida 9 de Julio. It´s (at least according to the Argentinians) the widest street in the world. 10 lanes of traffic each direction and 3 medians about 20 feet wide - think a giant Queens Blvd. You can get across the thing in one shot if you run fast enough, but I sure wouldn´t recommend it - especially with the aforementioned traffic engineering. It takes about 5 minutes (including waiting for three lights) to get across it at a regular pace.

The good news is that if you cross in the right place, you can at least be entertained while you wait for the lights.

More on the economic situation - and how it affects tourists and travelers - as well as more pictures and thoughts on the Subte, the various barrios, and the town in general later. As for me, I´m doing fine, trying to get used to the the Argentine accent (they pronouce ll and y as ´sh´) and trying my best to get my Spanish back in class. Haven´t done much touristy stuff yet - I always try and just wander around town as much as possible before I start having specific destinations.