3245  Safety tips for Buenos Aires

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 12:43:01 -0300
From: Alberto Gesualdi <clambat2001@YAHOO.COM.AR>
Subject: Safety tips for Buenos Aires

Dear friends from tango list

Besides the comments from Janis Kenyon and Christian Luthen , I would like to comment some "locar colour" situations

1) Ezeiza aiport has been turned upside down this days, due to a huge smuggling of cocaine made last year , that involve people from an airline (Southern Winds ) , military officers from Ezeiza aiport ( chief of air station ) , internal aeronautic police ( that has been intervened , and word goes around that it will be dismantled as a task force to be replaced by other force or even civilian control ) . Due to this toxic smuggling, all the Air Force authorities ( not the one at the aiport, the country Air Force command) have been fired.

So do not worry if you found some nervoussness around Ezeiza, since the situation is still on progress. It could be that you don t suffer any inspection, but it could be that now that everybody has been fired , the remaining security watchdogs do overwork (unnecesary but expectable)

2) The US dollar rate is around 2,86argentine pesos to 1 (purchase vale ). The Euro currency is around 3.76 argentine pesos to 1 (purchase value). You can check the official website of Banco de la Nacion Argentina , that gives the daily quotation for currencies. https://www.bna.com.ar/pymes/py_internacionales_cotizaciones.asp

Do not acept less than this . There is an abusive exchange agency , inside the migration area and luggage claim , that is charging artificial rates. The reason to change inside the migration area, is for some fees that are asked to be paid in local currency, and foreign currencies are not acepted ( I do not mean the free shops, but other areas such as luggage carriers ). So if you came in an group and need to change foreign currency , ask permission to a custom officer , to get out to the hall of the airport, and change some notes at the Banco Nacion counter, and then return to the group inside the migration area .

3) Taxi cabs have collapsed in terms of truthfullness and security. Be sure to hire a cab at the airport , that is official . The official taxi cabs are white and blue , and have a counter with a TAXI sing , blue over white . This is the only taxi cab reliable. Remise service is also provided at the counters, close to your exit doors from migration area. Tienda Leon is one of them, they have remise and also shuttle service, a bit expensive but reliable.
Depending the destination of your travel from the airport , in a taxi cab you are not expected to pay more than 40 ARP from Ezeiza to downtown . Shuttle service is cheaper but it has waiting time, the bus departs each 20/30 minutes depending the time of your arrival.


4) There is a special police center for tourists, where you can report stolen goods , or any harm to you or your belongings.

Comisaria del Turista . Av Corrientes 436, This is downtown , Corrientes Avenue is the one where the Obelisco is placed. And Reconquista street, is 6 block walking down towards the River . There is a small square at the corner of Corrientes & Reconquista , and the police stations is inside the sqaure.

The place is open 24 hours, and there are english fluent assistant. I have just made a phone call to check english level and is aceptable.

Telephone 4346-5748. 4328 2135(local code area is 011 for Buenos Aires in case you have cell phones ) or 0800-999-5000 free dial

5) Besides the tango activity due to the Tango Festival that starts on February 28th , you may want to check this site for some pedestrian walks .

www.bapocket.com.ar

Safety is reasonable at daylight . It will be better for you to leave your valuables into a safe place . Also you can take photocopies of your passport , not to carry it with you . Usually tourists are treated well by police forces, but you can be involved as pedestrians in a robbery scene at downtown (hope not ) . Banks time table is from 10 am to 3 pm, monday to friday, usually. So, if you do not need to go to banks downtown .... do not go to this area .
On weekends downtown area, specially Plaza de Mayo and San Telmo neighbourhood, are nice places to walk and have a look.

warm regards
alberto





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