Category Archives: Argentina adventure

How can you add your signature to a PDF for free (without printing and scanning)?

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Another question that needed answering…

I was planning to finish up a post on our wonderful experience with Aerolineas Argentina this evening, but instead got to spend some quality time figuring out the answer to the above question (thanks IRS for taking 4 months to get back to me on my 2006 taxes!).  Anyway, those of you that hang out in offices all the time won’t have much need for this tip, but in the event that you ever do need to sign a PDF and email it back to someone while on the road, here is an excellent tutorial I came across via google (which references some great and easy to get free software):

How To Add Your Signature to PDFs For Free

My thanks to the original author!

Our first vacation from vacation: Iguazu Falls

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Just got back from 3-days in Iguazu falls and didn’t want to pay the AR$60/day for internet access at our hotel, so apologies for the lack of posting lately.

Awesome trip!  Iguazu is truly spectacular.  We stayed in the Sheraton which is the only hotel in the park itself on the Argentina side and it was phenomenal.  Plus, we stayed there on Starwood points, so it was a very cheap trip (thanks consulting!).  We’ll write a more thorough review of the trip in the days to come, but in the mean time, here’s lots of pictures:  Iguazu Pictures Enjoy!

p.s., it’s pretty wild to return home from a vacation and not dread going back to our regular lives… all of you out there that are still consultants, take note!!

How to find a Spanish school in Buenos Aires (we love ours!)

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One of the major reasons we wanted to come to Buenos Aires was to learn Spanish.  We didn’t realize at the time that Argentine Spanish is a bit, shall we say, special – they use “vos” instead of “tu” to mean “you”, and they pronounce everything with a lovely Italian-sounding accent (you may be familiar with the word “pollo” – pronounced “poyo” through most of the Spanish speaking world but “posho” in Argentina).  So, it’s not exactly your standard Spanish, but it’s lovely just the same and we were super excited to start studying.

After a few days settling in to Buenos Aires, we started our search for a Spanish school.  There are well over a dozen different schools here in Buenos Aires, most located in or near the center of the city.  The standard schedule is 20 hours a week, typically with classes running ~9am to 1pm-ish, and the schools usually have classes at various levels running each week.  Prices range from $150-200USD/week, and pretty much every school offers a small discount for paying for multiple weeks upfront.

We started our search by reading through posts on the various BA expat blogs and google searches.  We found a few schools to visit that were recommended and had decent prices – we wanted to check them out in person, and Ryan needed to take the placement test (pretty much every school has you take a placement test if you’ve ever studied Spanish so they can place you in the right class for your level – go figure).  We decided to visit IBL, expanish and Vamos Spanish.  Here’s our quick takeaway on each:

  • IBL: Located in a cool old building turned into a shopping arcade and office building on busy pedestrian Florida Street.  Let’s just say that we weren’t in the best mood after battling the crowds on the street to get to the building.  The school is located on an upper floor in the building with an enclosed patio area used for breaks and for a smoking area.  The staff (which seemed to be mostly locals) was friendly and said most classes had ~5 students.  Overall, the school was fine but didn’t particularly wow us, and we weren’t excited about the daily rush-hour subway commute to get there.  Cost: $175/week.
  • expanish: Definitely the busiest and most commercial of the schools we visited, expanish is a volume operation.  They have great marketing and a bustling space with a central “living room” area (they’re strangely proud of the countless pictures of students sleeping on their couches that are plastered all over the walls – we’re not sure exactly what’s up with that).  There were at least 15 students/prospective students hanging out in the common area while we were there.  The school offers the standard 20 hr/week class schedule and is also located downtown-ish, just off the massive 9 de Julio street.  We got the sense that this is the choice for backpackers and younger, single crowd looking to meet other independent travelers through classes. Cost: $160/week.
  • Vamos Spanish: We wanted to visit this school because it was pretty much the only one we found in Palermo, walking distance from where we were living.  The school occupies its own antique building, with a common room on the ground floor and classrooms upstairs.  It’s a smaller school than the others we visited, typically with 10-15 students in a given week.  The mostly-foreign support staff is very friendly, and we got a good vibe that the experience was a bit more personalized here than the other schools we visited.  Cost: $160/week.

We decided to go with Vamos (partly because we really liked the feel of it and partly due to location) and have loved our experience so far.  We’ve spent more than 80 hours each in class (we’re in the running for the title of longest-running students ever!) and have learned a ton over that period of time.  Class sizes are small – my classes have each been 1-4 students (including one week where no other students were at my level, so I got private one-on-ones with my teacher), and the curriculum is customized.  The teachers adapt the topics covered and the materials used based on the needs of the specific students in the class, unlike other schools that follow a fixed teaching plan (e.g., colors day 1, telling time day 2, etc.).  The school develops its own teaching materials, and we’ve found that the teachers are great at finding the right exercise to help with your confusion over este vs. esto vs. esta or correct use of direct object pronouns.  As you might guess from our backgrounds, we’ve both been through quite a few classes and educational programs at top schools, and we’re both very impressed with the teaching style and talent of our teachers at Vamos.

Outside of the classroom, Vamos puts a lot of effort into offering additional activities to its students.  These range from practical post-class “workshops” (e.g., how to recognize and prevent getting stuck with counterfeit bills, how to navigate the crazy BA bus system) to weekly “intercambio” language exchanges for practicing your blossoming Spanish with locals  to advice and assistance on booking tourist activities and trips.  One of the employees formerly led trips all over South America and is a great source of recommendations, and she’s more than happy to help you with as much of the booking/planning process as you want.  The school has a strong community vibe, and we really look forward to seeing the staff as well as the other students each morning when we arrive.

While we’re clearly very satisfied with our choice, there are plenty of good options in Buenos Aires.  Key things to think about when choosing your school:

  • Location: Morning rush hour sucks.  Especially if this is your vacation.  And especially if you haven’t been waking up to an alarm clock for a while – it’s a rough transition back to having a schedule.  Figure out how you’re going to get to and from the school and make sure you’re actually going to do it.
  • Volume of students: There are pros and cons here.  Fewer students generally means a more personalized experience.  It also means it might be harder to get a class together that’s at your level (becomes more of a problem as you get to more advanced levels).  We went with a smaller school, and it’s sometimes been a challenge for them to pair Ryan with compatible classmates.
  • General vibe: The schools vary a bit in terms of the type of environment and students they attract.  Some are definitely geared more toward backpackers or those who want a 1-2 week basics class, while others draw an older student group or people living in Buenos Aires for longer.  The vibe from the staff and the academic director are also good indicators of what a school is like, so pay attention to these.

All in, we think our 80/20 approach to finding a Spanish school was quite successful!  I went from not knowing how to introduce myself to telling stories in the past tense (which anybody who’s studied Spanish before knows is way more painful than it sounds), and still more to come.  Let the adventures in Spanish continue!!

Cost of living in Buenos Aires

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So, we’ve been looking into planning a 3-day trip to Bariloche for next weekend, but after determining that it would cost ~$400 USD each for round trip plane tickets we decided it was time to sit down and figure out exactly how much we’ve been spending since we got here.  Before I continue, it should be noted that the locals here all swear by the long distance bus system–apparently you can get executive class which has seats that lay flat and in addition to personal entertainment systems/movies, they feed you and give you free champagne.  Now, that all sounds great, and it’s definitely a lot cheaper (more like $50/each), but I don’t care how “comfortable” it is, it’s still a 22 hour bus ride.  Each way.

First Class Bus Seats Argentina

Now that I see it, I totally want to spend 22 consecutive hours in a seat like that...

So, after much discussion, we’ve decided that we are not going to spend 44 hours on a bus for a 3 day trip.

Aeron Chair Image

We used to spent 15+ hours a day in these kind of seats and no one brought us free champagne 🙁

So, we dug into our spending over the last month or so and our budget can basically be broken down into 4 broad categories (this may be a breach of the terms of our rehab–we made pivot tables):

  • Rent:  $1200/month

  • Spanish School:  ~$1220/month for the 2 of us

  • Food/random cash expenses:  ~$1200/month or $40/day for the 2 of us

  • Tours/other excursions outside of day to day living expenses:  Variable

    • 1)  Rent:  $1200/month (USD)

    We are now paying $1200/month on our 3-month contract.  This is large 1 bedroom apartment with 1.5 bathrooms in a nice part of Recoleta and is at a well discounted daily rate vs. shorter term rentals (e.g., this apt. is listed at $100/day or $600/week) and includes all utilities + internet + weekly maid service.   Depending on what neighborhoods you are willing to consider and how nice of a place you want you can get cheaper than this (or much more expensive).  There seem to be “budget” apartments that range from ~$900-$1200/month for a 1 bedroom and are pretty hit or miss in terms of quality and “Luxury” apartments which are more like $1800+/month at a monthly rate and are significantly nicer.  We are somewhere in between.
    If you’re trying to figure out how to rent an apartment down here, be sure to check out our post on How to Rent an Apartment in Buenos Aires

    Currency issues: Apartments are pretty much always priced in USD and most want cash, so don’t expect to benefit from exchange rate changes as the prices are pegged to the USD.

    Bottom line: We’re paying $1200/month, if we wanted to go cheap, we could have probably found an acceptable place for $1000/month, but it would likely be significantly worse than what we have.  So I’d say that we are on the low end of what we could be paying.  If you are here for a shorter time period, I’d budget $300-600/week–much better than hotels, but definitely not free.

    Relative to San Francisco prices: ~33% of what we were paying in San Francisco, though hard to be apples to apples as that was a 12+ month lease and unfurnished.

    2)  Spanish School:  ~$1220/month for the 2 of us or $610 each   (USD)

    We are attending Vamos Spanish for 20 hour/week intensive classes (and loving it–review to come).  They charge US$150/week per person and it’s usually 1-4 people in your class which is pretty awesome.  We looked at several other schools as well and the range seems to be $150-$200/week for 20 hours at the smaller schools, or you can go to the university where it is significantly cheaper, but much larger classes.

    Currency issues: Spanish schools generally price in USD, but most allow credit cards or PayPal payments.  Just don’t expect to benefit from exchange rate changes as the prices are pegged to the USD.

    Bottom line: If you’re going to do intensive spanish classes, you should plan on spending at least $150/week.  Can definitely get more expensive if you throw in private lessons which are more like $20/hour on average.  That said, it’s definitely our favorite part of being here and well worth the expense to learn such a valuable life skill.

    3)  Food/random cash expenses: ~$1200/month or ~$40/day for the 2 of us. (USD)

    This is by far the most volatile expense category for every day expenses and for us is easily 95+% food.  We generally eat in a restaurant for 1 meal a day, sometimes 2 and the rest of the time either cook at home or eat left-overs.  After our  first couple of weeks of eating out all the time, more lately we’ve  been averaging about $40/day (~AR$ 150).  Here’s how it breaks down by meal:

    Breakfast: Argentines aren’t that into breakfast.  A typical Argentine breakfast, if they bother eating in the morning, is a coffee and a couple of Medialunas (basically a combination of a croissant and a donut).  This will cost you ~AR$10-20 (~US$2.50-5.00) depending on where you get it.  If you really want to splurge, you might get a Tarta (individual quiche) for ~AR$22 pesos, but that’s about the sum of your breakfast options.  We generally eat cereal at home.

    Lunch: Restaurant lunch prices can vary significantly and will typically run you anywhere from AR$30-50 (US$8-15) per person.  There are 3 primary options:

    • Basic: If you want to go cheap, you can often find a basic sandwich for ~AR$20-25 + a drink for ~AR$5-10 bringing you to a total of AR$25-35 (US$6-10).
    • Menu del Dia: If you aren’t in the mood for a sandwich, most restaurants offer a ‘menu del dia” in which they’ll offer 2-3 options which usually include an appetizer + an entree + a dessert + a drink + a coffee for AR$30-40 (US$8-12).  Very good deal assuming you like what they are offering.  Quick tip:  The “Menu del Dia” is always written on a sign outside the front door of the restaurant and rarely reprinted on the menu itself.  So be sure to memorize the options before you go in!
    • A’la Carte: Basically the standard dinner prices which vary by restaurant, but are often in the range of AR$30-60 per entree and AR$20-30/starter or salad.  Basic drinks (soda, water, etc.) are usually ~AR$8, a beer will typically run ~AR$15 and a glass of wine is more like AR$18 for a solid pour.  Quick tip: Always order wine by the bottle–very often, 2 glasses of wine cost more than the same bottle and they are always very happy to package up a bottle that you didn’t finish for you to take with you.

    Dinner: Basically dinner is the same as the A’la Carte option from lunch.  Assuming we don’t go somewhere super fancy, we’ll usually order a bottle of wine + one starter + 2 entrees and that will run us ~AR$120-140 for 2 or AR$60-70 each (US$16-18 per person)  If we go to a nice place we’ll spend considerably more, that said, even at the nicest places we’ve probably maxed out at ~AR$300 (US$80) for the 2 of us–this is very expensive here, but keep in mind the same dinner would likely cost closer to double or triple that in San Francisco.

    Alternative lunch/dinner: We have become huge fans of empanadas and usually have empanada night at least twice a week.  You can usually get great empanadas for ~AR$4 each and it would be difficult to eat more than 3-4 of them each, so this is a very cheap dinner.  We usually buy a dozen and then have them for 2 meals and there are empanada joints everywhere.  Also, you can do the same with pizza, though it’s slightly more expensive and doesn’t offer quite the same quantity of food per peso as empanadas do.

    Grocery stores: We aren’t in love with the grocery stores here.  You can definitely eat cheaper if you cook at home assuming you have a decent enough kitchen and cooking utensils.  That said, as a short-term renter, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to stock up on all of the spices and other cooking supplies that you’d want in order to make something you’d actually enjoy eating (spices are very expensive and hard to find here).  Most packaged/processed food at the grocery store is relatively expensive and fresher food seems cheaper (e.g., ~US$5/lb for rib-eye steak, grass fed of course).

    Wine: We drink a lot of wine.  Wine is WAY cheaper here than it is in the US.  Most stores have wine ranging from ~AR$8 up to ~AR$100 per bottle with the bulk of the offerings in the $AR20-30 range.  We are now hooked on a AR$13.50 bottle (~US$4)  which is quite good (and we are picky).  Also, it’s great to try good wine in restaurants as there is only about a 10-20% mark-up vs. the 3x US mark-up.  We save A LOT of money on wine here (though ironically drink less now that we are not consultants…)

    Bottom Line: US$20/person is probably a decent estimate for what you’ll spend on average for food/drink.  That said, for our first week or 2 we were probably double that, so if you’re here for a short trip you’ll likely spend more.  You could definitely spend less if you put some effort into it, but we are certainly not splurging at US$20.  Way cheaper than San Francisco, but it does add up.

    4)  Tours/other excursions outside of day to day living expenses:  Entirely up to you

    Most things that cater to tourists are expensive and priced in dollars, so proceed at your own risk.

    In summary

    It more expensive here than we had heard.  Many friends who had visited even just a few years back enjoyed much lower prices–apparently prices have been increasing from 20-30%/year for the last several years.  That said, it’s still a very cheap place to visit/live on a relative basis.

    Here’s our average daily expense summary (keep in mind this is for the 2 of us):
    Daily USD   (peso)
    Rent               40      (154)
    School            41      (157)
    Food/wine   39      (149)
    Misc                 ?        (?)
    Total               120   (460)

    Hope this is helpful.  Happy to answer any questions!


    Dear purse snatchers,

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    Us: the couple sitting on the bench in the botanical garden reading our books and enjoying the beautiful day for a couple of hours.

    You: the band of 2 women and one guy that welcomed us to Buenos Aires by teaching us to be a little bit more careful with our belongings when in public spaces.

    We were a bit confused, but also flattered when you asked us for directions to Plaza Seranno in english despite obviously being locals.  Of course, we were more than happy to share our map with you while your friend snuck up behind our bench and grabbed Jen’s purse in order to show us how important it is to keep a close watch on our valuables.

    I’m writing to thank you for providing this valuable public service on behalf of the city of Buenos Aires–it was tremendously helpful to us and we have been much more careful since.  Some people might mistakenly think that you were actually trying to steal Jen’s purse for real (and to be honest, we wondered about it as well for awhile), but upon further inspection, there are several indicators which make it clear that you had no intention of actually making off with her purse:

    1. The park itself: Given that the Botanical Garden is surrounded by a tall fence, has few hiding spots and has only 2 exits which are staffed by guards, it would obviously be almost impossible to steal something from someone and make a get away unless you were EXTREMELY fast or very sneaky.
    2. Timing/location within park: Clearly,  if you had actually wanted to succeed you would have targeted your victims at night in the dark, or at least in a secluded part of the park, or at least somewhere where there weren’t other people nearby.  The fact that you went out of your way to choose us at our bench in broad daylight with multiple other benches full of people not only nearby (~10 feet), but also directly facing us is a pretty clear indicator of your intentions.
    3. Resource deployment: Your band of pretend-thieves/BsAs-tourist-safety-officers consisted of 2 young and athletic looking folks (a guy and a girl) and one very overweight woman (for the purpose of the story, we’ll call her Helga).  The fact that the 2 of you that looked as though you could run quite fast (we’ll call you Speedy and Smarty) were the two that tried to distract us from the purse by asking us directions while appointing Helga to grab it and take off “running” is probably the strongest indicator of your intentions.

    When the people sitting at the bench 10 feet away suddenly yelled “THIEF!!” and pointed at our bench as we were showing Speedy and Smarty our map, we were very confused, scared and quickly becoming angry as we turned to see Helga running off with Jen’s purse.   Of course, it quickly turned from fear/anger to pure confusion as we watched Helga waddle along at her top speed of 1.3 MPH away from us down the main path in the direction of several other passersby and away from any discernible exit or escape (given the tall fence and guards and all).  Given Helga’s impressive land speed, we actually had quite a bit of time to consider what our next move should be…

    As I turned around and saw Helga ambling off (which was almost hypnotic), my thought process was something like the following:

    “Hey!!”

    …

    “What the…?”

    …

    “I should chase her…”

    But then it occurred to me that this must have been a trick–I’m ashamed to admit that I briefly thought that maybe Helga was just a diversion since even in the heat of the moment it was clear that there was no possible way that she could successfully run off with anything; Speedy and Smarty, please accept my apologies for briefly thinking that you may have been deploying some sort of clever double fake-out plan–clearly that’s not something you’d be capable of (you being city safety officers and all).  My thoughts continued:

    “It’s got to be a trick, they want me to follow her…”

    …

    “Yeah, that’s it, they want me to chase her down so they can take something else…”

    …

    “Ha! I’m smarter than them, they won’t trick me”

    …

    “Wow, she’s really slow”

    …

    “Wait, what else could they want to take…?  We don’t have anything else with us.”

    …

    “Wow, I’ve been standing here thinking about this for a long time now and I could still catch her in under 5 seconds…”

    …

    “Maybe this is some sort of hidden camera video show…”

    My musings were abruptly halted as Helga–having completed her part of the plan in showing us that the purse was steal-able, and also making it obvious that she wasn’t really trying to steal it–simply put the purse on the ground a short distance away from the bench and kept on lumbering away (still at top speed).  Jen retrieved the purse and we had plenty of time to look through it to make sure everything was still there while keeping an eye on Helga and having confidence that we could still catch her if need be.  Speedy and Smarty were nowhere to be found at this point, but I can only assume that they had moved on to the next group of tourists they needed to welcome for the day.

    Thank you again for your help.  Simply reading about other people’s experience with pick-pockets and the like does not nearly have the same effect as having experienced this simulated theft that you performed for us.  Best of luck with your future demonstrations, please let us know if we can put in a good word with any of your supervisors–I’m sure they would be very interested to hear how effectively you are performing your duties.  I’ve included the below picture of me sitting on the bench just before the demonstration took place in case you don’t remember us:

    Purse Demonstration Diagram Image

    All the best,

    Ryan and Jen

    (this happened a few weeks ago, but I figured it was about time I wrote it up)

    Grilled cheese, please

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    When I say grilled cheese, what comes to mind?  Maybe a gooey toasted sandwich on Wonder bread with melted Kraft singles . . . maybe a diner-style sandwich on a hearty country loaf with classic cheddar?  Ask for “grilled cheese” in Buenos Aires, and that’s exactly what you’ll get – a slab of grilled Provolone cheese locally called a “Provoleta”.    Yum.

    Grilled cheese (aka Provoleta) imageWe had heard about this enticing inclusion on the Argentina parrilla menu, otherwise dominated by beef, beef and more beef (and the token chicken or pork option).  Can we really order a massive piece of cheese that’s been sliced thick and thrown on the grill?  Seems so decadent and outrageous, but we figured that if we could quit our jobs, get married and move to the other hemisphere all in a matter of weeks, we should be able to handle this.  And turns out, we did just fine – a nice crust on the bottom and ooey gooey bubbling goodness on top – yum!  We’re not saying we’re going to order this as our main dish anytime soon . . . but on the other hand, we’re not saying we won’t either.

    Questions that need answering: Why do the buses whistle?

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    Seriously, they whistle.

    Not only are there literally thousands of them (we have seen 10+ on the same block at the same time);  not only do they aim directly for you whenever possible; not only do they emit disgusting exhaust fumes, not only are their engines extremely loud; but on top of all that, some ass clown thought it would be a good idea to make them whistle at you.  All the time.  Day and Night.  Loudly.  Why???  I want to know WHY.

    Buenos Aires Bus Image

    Every one is a different color, but they all whistle the same. By which I mean annoyingly.

    Google turned up the following result which provides a very good overview of the bus situation:

    “Concerning Argentine Buses (or: Why I love it here)”

    I’m going to digress for a moment to explain how the buses work here. First, you have your “Guia T.” This is a two part booklet, the first part being a map of Buenos Aires that is divided into grids. Opposite of the grids are corresponding boxes that contain a list of every bus that passes through that

    grid of the city. These maps, however, do not tell you where these buses stop in the grid, just that they do. You then use your Guia T to look for a bus that passes through the part of the city you’re currently in and through where you’re going. Then you search the physical 4 block by 4 block square that is that grid in order to find the elusive bus stop. The signs are small and the buses will really stop anywhere. For most “portenos” (Buenos Aires residents, or “people of the port”) this is do-able. (?!?!?) If you, poor soul, need more help the second part of the Guia T includes a list of each bus’s main neighborhood stops with a drawing of the bus, which is necessary because all the buses are painted different bright colors to distinguish them.
    So, to recap: hidden bus stops, unclear routes, confusing maps and buses that look like they belong on carousels. And if the driver tells you “Arriba” while you’re getting on you better get the hell on because that roughly translates to “I’m shutting the door now and driving wildly into traffic whether you are standing there or not” in Castellano. (Castellano being the Buenos Aires specific brand of Spanish).

    Note: These buses whistle. No, not like a train whistle. A human whistle. These buses, should you look lost at a street corner anywhere in Buenos Aires, will good ol’ fashion greasy-construction-worker-at-a pretty-lady whistle at you to let you know, “Hey, baby, I know where you could be going. With me.”

    I think that sums things up fairly well.  You may think I’m kidding about this, but I would never kid about whistling buses.

    Whistle Image

    I can hear one outside my window now. Why.

    Can anyone explain this phenomenon?  If so, please do so in the comments!

    Miranda: Top quality lunch at a great price!

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    Success!!  I think we’ve mentioned in some of our other posts that our dining experience in Buenos Aires has been a bit hit-or-miss thus far.  We’ve been to a few restaurants that are great, and just as many that are mediocre (as well as one or two we wouldn’t let our dog eat at, if we had one).

    Today, after a long morning of getting our heads back into Spanish class after a weekend off, we were starving and headed over to Palermo Hollywood to check out a Mexican restaurant we’d heard was good (Taco Box – it was closed, so we’ll have to give it a try another time).  By the time we walked the 30 minutes there from our school, we were starving and quickly ran into Miranda.  Every table on the sidewalk was full, and they had a decent lunch special, so we thought we’d check it out.

    Miranda entrance image

    Our server initially only gave us the regular menu (which didn’t include the special lunch set menu) – not sure if this is because he was trying to up-sell us or because it’s the only menu in English – we’re giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming the latter.  Once we asked for the daily menu, it took us no time at all to choose from the multiple options offered (did I mention that we were starving?).  We each had impressive appetizers (yay chorizo!), big main plates (chicken and veggie skewers for me, steak sandwich for Ryan), drinks and coffees for 90 pesos (~$23 US), including tip.  Just to put that in perspective, one of the aforementioned restaurants we wouldn’t let our dog eat at cost us closer to 150 pesos (~$40 US) – granted, that was dinner, but Miranda was far better in terms of ambience, food quality and service.

    All in, Miranda is a winner in our book.  We’ll definitely be back again to take advantage of their great lunch deal and plan to put it in our dinner rotation as well!

    Tip for learning spanish #1: Take your wine home!

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    Perhaps the best tip ever:

    Podríamos tomar el vino para llevar?

    =

    Can we take the wine to go?

    And the answer… YES!!!

    Que Fantastico!!!

    Wine Bottle Image

    These probably cost only $2. Total. Viva!!

    Yes… in Argentina, you can order a super cheap yet awesome bottle of wine at a restaurant, drink half and then take the rest home for later.  We are building a large collection of half full bottles

    !Viva Argentina!

    How to rent an apartment in Buenos Aires

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    We finally found a great new short-term apartment here in Buenos Aires. Finding the right short-term rental is far more complex than you might think, so read on for our reviews of all the agencies we worked with and a very important list of tips/tricks to make sure you get a good place and don’t get taken.

    Yesterday we finally agreed on a new apartment.  Even though we didn’t decide until 3:30pm yesterday, the gang at ApartmentsBA were able to let us move in at 5:20pm which was pretty awesome.  The apartment isn’t perfect–it could use some more light and we wish we had a patio and a dining table–but it is huge, has a great kitchen is in a perfect location in the heart of Recoleta and perhaps most importantly, it has a king sized bed!  Most of the beds down here are tiny double beds and while Jen and I like each other, it hasn’t been so much fun waking up every time the other person moves for the last 2 weeks 🙂  Pictures of our new place down below.

    Before the pictures of our new place, we thought we’d give a little bit of an overview of the process we went through to find this place and some brief reviews of the agencies we worked with and some general tips/tricks.

    Continue reading →