It is really hard not to like Buenos Aires. When you first land in Buenos Aires you realize how European this city is. Of course the second thing you discover how beautiful women are in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires for me cerainly lived upto its description of Paris of South America. I lived in Recoleta hostel for one month, I would highly recommend this hostel. It does have the fraternity feel to it. If you do stay at this hostel, would ercommend you take a nap from say 5PM to 10PM because most people show up here around 11PM and next two hours are spent discussing where to go. Some of the clubs I went to while in Buenos Aires were Pacha, Buenos Aires News, Mint, Kykes (sp?). There are others but the names escape me. All of them were excellent. The experience in clubs in Buenos Aires is very different from say San Francisco. During my almost 1.5 month stay in BA, I found BA girls to be the most friendly women. The music in most places goes from 80 disco, pop songs, of course the Spanish/Brazilian salsa songs. I would strongly recommend taking couple of Salsa dancing lessons if you are going to stay in BA for long. You will find the South American girls particularly girls from Brazil are natural when it comes to dance.

While in Buenos Aires you will discover, people here love to dress up. If one wants to read news in English there is daily Buenos Aires Herald. The inflation in Argentina runs at about 4.8%, wholsale inflation is 7.6%. Since the 2002 the accumulated inflation in Argentina is 50%, which of course has had huge impact on common folks. On October 6th, I read two stories in BA Herald that mentioned wife of rich businessman was kidnapped in broad daylight and held for ransom (1/2 mil US$). Perhaps this is the reason you will find armed cops or armed private security guards standing outside shopping malls, hotels etc.

Another thing you will enjoy not only in BA but all over Argentina is medialunas, which are really croissants. But you also get these things with Dulce de Leche, if you have sweet tooth you will love them with dulce de leche. While in Argentina or actually anywhere in South America I never found single person walking in the street with cup of coffee in their hand. They all sit down and spend 1/2 hour to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. May be the relaxed business atmosphere is the reason South American economies are in such poor state, but people are not driving themselves nuts. The traffic in BA is bad, they take left turn from third lane sometimes, but NEVER observed anybody giving a finger to anyone!

If you visit Bank of Boston building you will discover the effect that Peso devaluation has had on common people, there is a list of people that have commited suicide since the devaluation. There is almost daily protest outside Bank of Boston building. If you walk around bank buildings around the Bank of Boston building you will see lot of interesting graffiti.

Inspite of the economic hardship folks in BA seem to be getting on with life and enjoying it to the fullest. I would certainly consider retiring in Buenos Aires at some point, but then again Argentina has some other interesting places one could retire using the over-valued US$.