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July 14, 2007
How to Survive in Buenos Aires on $20 a Day
Don't come here, wait until the next economic crisis, or best yet, adjust your expectations appropriately.
We have been wondering where all the super-cheap stuff is we heard so much about from our friends that have visited Buenos Aires over the past couple of years. When we were planning our trip here, we heard fantastic tales of steak dinners for two complete with desert and a bottle of decent wine for under USD $15. Clothes, at a third of the cost of their equals in the United States, could be snapped up supposedly everywhere. One could even get a 10-day vacation package that includes a breast augmentation performed by world-class doctors cheaper than a weekend in Vegas! Ah, the promise of such deep discounts in a recovering economy beckons like an irresistable siren, especially if, as it does for us, his work schedule forces the traveler always to travel at peak times when the cost of getting to and from the destination is at its highest. He thinks, "Sure it will cost three months' salary to get there and back, but once I get there, staying there will cost practically nothing!"
Countries with an unstable economy can be cheap if one visits from another country where the economy is stronger, but unstable economies can fluctuate wildly. When travelers start to flock to a place in droves for its low prices, eventually there are enough tourists that the demand for goods and services become high, even if the demand for such things is low among those that live in the place. With high demand come higher prices, and if the economy is unstable and the cycle of inflation and recession does not happen smoothly, those high prices can come in dramatic spikes.
Last night we attended an English-speaking group in Belgrado. This is a group of porteños that get together to practice every week, and they often have visiting English-speakers dropping in to get tips about the city from the locals. We told them how much we liked their city, how beautiful we find it, how excellent the food is and how much nicer people seem to be than we had heard. Yet we also told them of our dismay that things are not as cheap as we had heard. They explained to us that yes, things used to be much cheaper, but inflation is on the rise. According to one of the group members, prices for everything have gone up about 30% since April.
That is quite a hefty jump, but that does not seem to be uncommon here. Deby Novitz, author of the TangoSpam blog says that inflation during the year of 2005 ran about 30%.
It should also be noted that these are not official figures. Official figures are supposed to look at a wide range of goods and services in the economy, whereas annecdotal reports tend to focus on the things people use on a regular basis. That often translates into a marked difference between what people see as a price jump at their local market or gas station and the numbers reported by official agencies that monitor the economy. The Buenos Aires Herald reported (6 July 2007) that 12-month inflation was 8.8% through the end of June, although the same article notes that critics of the present administration suggest that the politicians are tampering with the figures to make themselves look good.
In any case, porteños are being hit even harder than tourists who are, despite inflation, getting very good exchange rates. At present, the exchange rate for us is about 3.1:1, or ARS $3.10 to the dollar. Six months ago, it was ARS $3.06 to the dollar. One year ago on this date, it was ARS $3.08 to the dollar. Furthermore, compared to Europe and North America (including Mexico), the prices here are still cheap for a lot of things, especially things that you need on a daily basis.
Just like in Mexico, certain things are cheaper than they are elsewhere, and other things are more expensive. For example, in Mexico, the prices for electronics seem obscene to us, but the prices for produce are generally cheaper. It is when one starts looking for specific items that he tends to suffer sticker shock, and that is exactly what happened to me in Buenos Aires.
I needed to buy some shirts with long sleves when I came here because it is winter here and I could not find long-sleeve shirts in Mexico before we left. That was just as well, Shawn told me, because a student of his, upon hearing that we were going to Buenos Aires, advised him to buy clothes here because they are so much cheaper than they are in Mexico. I had to find a fat-clothes store in Buenos Aires, and through the help of the Internet, I did, before we even left Guadalajara.
We went there shortly after arriving, and it was the kind of place where you have a personal attendant that pulls items with no price tags down off of shelves from behind the counter when you ask to see them. Maybe that should have been a hint at what I'd end up paying, but at the time, I just figured that is how they do things here. I liked several things that they had, and I ended up buying several nice shirts, some ties, a sports jacket and some slacks. These were all things that I either needed for the trip (the shirts) or have not been able to find in Mexico (oversized sports coats and longer ties just for gordos). Then they handed me the credit card receipt to sign and I almost passed out. It was multiple thousands of Argentine pesos. To give you an example, the shirts ran from USD $80 to $150 each. They are all store brand shirts made in Argentina. They are not designer imports. Do not get me wrong. They are decent enough shirts (dress button-down, the most expensive claiming to be of "Egyptian thread"), but I know, having bought several over the years, that they would cost less in the United States. They would cost a whole lot less in Mexico. It certainly was not like what Shawn's student said about clothes costing one-third what they cost in Mexico.
It seems that there is a fat tax for finer men's clothing, but there might also be a tourist tax in the sense that, as a tourist, I was only able to find information on that one store, and perhaps there are others with much better prices that I might know about if I were a fat guy actually living here. One should also bear in mind that these are things I have not even been able to find in Guadalajara. It seems that there are a lot of things that are a trade-off like that; in Mexico, there are certain things we just cannot get that we have been able to find here. Is it worth paying a little more for greater selection? Yeah, I hate to have to admit that I'm this much of a consumer whore, but for me, yes, it is.
The problem is, one often hears amazing tales of unfathomable bargains in other countries. It is my experience that these should be taken with a grain of salt, for many different reasons. Prices go up. Economies fall and come roaring back. People forget to include other indirect costs when telling about their experiences. What constitutes good quality to one person is utter garbage to another. People have widely-differing priorities. The list of factors that can make a memorable cheap trip for one person an expensive waste of time to another are endless. Yet it is alluring, when considering a trip somewhere, to believe all the hype and convince oneself that, not is it only a sound financial choice to go there, but that one would be a complete idiot to not take advantage of such ridiculously good deals. The fact of the matter is, with travel, like with everything else, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
In closing, let me give you a few prices, converted for your convenience to US dollars, for things about town in Buenos Aires. Unless a location is stated, these prices are the going rates in multiple places about town.
- a shot of Jack Daniels: $6.50
- pad phai (choice of chicken, beef or shrimp) @ Empire Thai: $9.36
- Sprite Zero (600 ml/20 oz bottle): $1.30
- Sprite Zero (600 ml/20 oz bottle) @ Richmond Café (see Graham Greene's "The Honorary Consul"): $1.97
- double espresso: $1.61
- double espresso with cream: $2.25
- tapas plate (8 different tapas) @ Artemisia: $8.72
- order of 2 egg rolls at Cinco Corderos: $0.65
- oversize men's sport coat (silk) @ Big & Tall: $708.64
Posted by crispy at July 14, 2007 07:38 AM