Monthly Archive

It’s very encouraging at this international conference… the success of our partners in emerging markets like Romania, Poland, and Russia, places similar to Argentina… Of course there are big differences but the Eastern Europeans have overcome numerous obstacles that we as Americans can barely imagine… the unreliability of the postal service and vendors, and the dishonesty of business partners. But they are well rewarded for their efforts. With much less competition and a fresh enthusiastic market they can make some serious money quickly. And they can take a significant percentage of market-share… something unheard of in the US except by very large companies. The future looks very promising for these companies and I hope we can duplicate their success in Argentina.

 Which reminds me that we will be looking for bi-lingual writers and marketers in BA in the coming months. So, if you know of anyone please contact me through this blog.

 Cheers!

Well, the gods smiled on us and we received our bag yesterday morning… The only thing is out of our two suits only one is wearable. The other had been chewed up by Floridian “silver-fish”, little bugs that ravenously eat fabric… Anyway, a suit with holes in it is not going to work here in Germany, especially at meetings with suited Romanians, Poles, South Africans, French, Australians, Brits, and Russians. So to avoid international embarrassment I’ll go American business-casual…

Surprisingly though the Germans are very laid-back about getting started in the morning, here it is almost 10am and we haven’t started yet, people are kind of strolling in… and another stereotype broken… the sun came out for a few minutes this morning! 

When you take up residence in a foreign land it’s only natural to have moments of confusion about who you are and what you’re doing… But when you have one of these moments in front of German Immigration officers after being pulled aside while attempting to enter the country… well, that spells trouble…

“Speake de Deutche?” he asked, more forcefully this time…

“No, I don’t speak German. And I’m not doing anything wrong… just trying to go to a publishing conference in Bonn.”

“Where’s your ticket from here to Bonn?”

“I don’t have a ticket yet. They only gave me the tickets for Buenos Aires to Sao Paolo, and Sao Paolo to Frankfurt. They said I’d get the tickets for the next leg when I arrived in Frankfurt.”

“So, you don’t have a ticket?”

“No, they haven’t given it to me yet.”

“What about your bagage, where’s your bagage ticket?”

“I don’t have that either, it was on my boarding stub and I must have accidently left it at my seat…”

“You’ll have to come with us.”

After a 14 hour series of flights, your weary correspondent was whisked passed immigration, following the big ‘agent’ in the black leather jacket and followed by two other burly German plain-clothes polizei.

When we reached the investigation nook and a large stainless steal table, he said, “Empty out everything from your pockets. You haven’t been handling any drugs have you?”

“Drugs!? No, I haven’t… I don’t… anything…”

I held out my hands and was swabbed by a plastic testing device. They had taken out my laptop and were running tests on it as well as looking through my bag for the third time.

The disturbing thing was the way they were looking at the drug test kit and talking about the unfolding results… They seemed to be arguing with each other about what the results meant… “Oh, god”, I thought, “do they know how to use that thing?! Did I touch something in our apartment building, in the cab, in the airport??”

Then the agent in the black jacket put the drug testor in his pocket and stepped close…

“Look you’re coming from South America, so, we have to take precautions… You can go now.”

Maybe it was my appearance, the beard and need for a hair-cut… Our fumbling with answers about ‘living’ in Argentina, but only having been there for two weeks… Our story always sounds suspicious (even to friends and family). The roster of Central and South American countries on our passport certainly didn’t help…

Whatever it was I sure as hell hope I don’t have to go through that every time I enter Europe from South America!

After the interrogation we had to run to make our train for Cologne. We shivered on the platform as the train pulled up. All of our warm clothes were in our checked luggage. And when we arrived at the Cologne station we came to find that our checked luggage did not get there with us… We wondered the train station in our short-sleeved polo shirt until we found one of the few coats for sale (it was an ugly thing with a pathetic fake fur collar and the brand name ‘Russian Solid Jeans’, but dammit it’s warm!). On a Sunday afternoon all the clothes stores were closed. So, here we are with a week long conference ahead of us and only the clothes on our back…

Will our bag show up? We’ll see… More to come from the land of the Huns…

My wife’s not used to living in the city full-time. Everytime someone talks about anywhere out in the country her ears perk up and her mind wonders back to the Catskill mountains where she’s from… So for her I’m posting a couple pictures from our last trip out to Salta, Argentina, the foothills of the Andes in the northwestern corner of the country. It’s a beautiful part of the world… Click on each one for full effect…

This morning we met with our legal council here in BA, an Irish-Argentine who went to the London School of Economics, to discuss the pitfalls of hiring and firing in Argentina. Sure enough, it’s as I feared. They follow the European system of ‘employee rights’, “the worst part of the system” as he put it. What that means is that even if you hire someone part-time, or on a freelance basis they can sue you for benefits and other perks if you pay them on any kind of regular basis. If you hire someone full-time you have to give your left kidney to get rid of them even if they’re stealing from you.

As in much of Europe this makes employers more hesitant to hire… voila, less jobs and slower growth…

When our American colleagues were in town we discussed how rounds of firing are healthy for a business and motivating for employees. It’s a crude fact, the mention of which makes Europeans cringe. But of course, when you see someone else working less hard than you and getting paid as much you feel like you either need to work less or go somewhere else where you’ll be better acknowledged and compensated… It’s a vicious cycle that I’m sure leads to the demise of many companies (and then there are no jobs for anyone!). When the dead weight is cut it’s an acknowledgement to those who stay that their work is appreciated and valuable.

We got blogged. We were flatteringly mentioned by a veteran BA blogger over at www.buenostours.com in his useful, insider Buenos Aires Blog Round-up… we are now anointed contributors to the “splitting-at-the-seams Buenos Aires blogosphere”. It reminded me of the Monty Python skit in ‘The Meaning of Life’, “Just a thin-mint, Sir”, “Oh, I couldn’t possibly…” and the massive fat guy explodes…

Anyway, Buenos Tours will give you practical insider knowledge of BA culture and of where to go in the city. The USP, the unique-selling-proposition of our blog, on the other hand, is our complete lack of knowledge. It’s about the process of discovery. So, when we find ourselves on the radar of seasoned expats such as Buenos Tours we blush at our ignorance…

If you think it’s all about going out to fancy restaurants, lounging in cafes, and enjoying the low prices down here… then my friend, you’d be mistaken. There’s real work being done, hours spent chained to a computer… researching… looking for employees… making deals… etc etc

And yes, we think we’ve even made a small breakthrough in working on this semi-silly little blog… If you look to the top left you’ll see a new link to sign-up to have the blog entries emailed to you. Yep, we now have the ability to build an email list. For those of you in our business you know that when you can do that you can have an online business.

So, my point is that I think theoretically one could use this WordPress blog format to create a money-making website and eletter. The great thing is that with this you can almost completely cut-out the tech people and do everything yourself with a professional look and feel. I just might try it with a financial eletter, but we’ll see. Oh, and do sign-up if you don’t get enough email already…

Some friends are in town on a tour of Argentine investment opportunities in both real estate and stocks. They’re headed out to Salta for the first leg of their tour. With one night in BA, we took them out to a swank bar/restaurant in a very well preserved and converted mansion with a beautiful courtyard. We somehow fen-angled the best seats in the house on the balcony (the balcony at the top of the stairs in the photo) overlooking the courtyard. You can see pictures here on their quirky flash website (if you can figure out how to navigate it): http://www.milion.com.ar/w2/index.html More photos and reviews here: http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/South_America/Argentina/Distrito_Federal/Buenos_Aires-1541981/Nightlife-Buenos_Aires-Milion-BR-1.html

The current owner inherited the place in the late 90’s and as a young man he struggled to maintain it and pay all the expenses etc. Then when the financial turmoil of the early 2000’s struck he did the only thing he could think of to save the place and not have to sell… he started a bar in the basement… When that was successful he opened a restaurant on the first floor. The food was not great. But the ambiance more than makes up for it and they make some good drinks including a tasty scotch mojito. The place is now internationally known, and worth a visit if you’re in BA…

Last night we had dinner with Argentine tour guide/consultant Maria O’Connor (Irish-Argentine obviously) and a Californian who is buying some property out in San Martin, Argentina. We had some stimulating conversation and of course came around to the subject that always comes up when a couple of Americans dine with an Argentine… why Latin America is so screwed up!

Maria told us what it was like to be in the thick of Argentina’s 2001 financial crisis. She was a real estate agent at the time. On the eve of the crisis she and most everyone else were still doing deals, buying houses, signing mortgages and lease agreements etc. They just couldn’t believe what they were being told might happen would indeed happen… the reprocussions on their money, their livelyhood, were just too great to consider. They couldn’t believe it. So, when it hit, it hit hard. Suddenly, their money and their property was worth 1/3rd what it was before. For Maria it had a silver-lining. She didn’t get paid for about 7 months, so, she decided to go into business for herself. Now, she is owner of her own thriving tour business: www.sharingargentina.com

Because of the devaluation Argentina is a great value for foreigners. But it probably won’t last forever. In the 80’s Buenos Aires was one of the most expensive cities in the world. Argentines would come to Miami and buy truckloads of clothes and electronics. There was a saying then that the wealthy in Argentina vacationed in Europe, the middle-class vacationed in Uruguay, and the poor… they vacationed in Miami! But, those days are long gone. Will they come again? Maybe. The Argentine economy has grown a break-neck 8% a year for the past 4 years. But who knows where in the cycle we are. There is some foreboding about Argentina’s current policies in the financial press. But that press seems to be spearheaded by political rivals hoping to dethrone the Kirchners, a husband and wife team (the Clintons of Argentina), who are expected to stay in power for years to come… Anyway, we think about these things as we consider purchasing some real estate here in Buenos Aires. We’ll keep you up-to-date on that issue as we get more serious about it…

After our first post about bringing our parrot down here with us, people have asked about him, what kind of bird he is etc…

Here’s a picture of him lounging on the couch. It’s taken some adjustment, but he seems to like it here. We’re actually looking for a ‘girlfriend’ for him. So, if you know of any available female caiques in the greater-Buenos Aires area please let us know…

We’re starting to figure out where the locals go, where the good values are… Last night’s dinner was particularly satisfying… a hip restaurant, great ambiance, good service, cold beer, a surprisingly delicious skirt steak, and the best part… the bill: $14 total!

(I know, some pictures would help. We’re going to get in the habit of taking the camera with us as much as possible…)

Today we visited one of the more famous areas of Buenos Aires that we hadn’t yet been to, San Telmo. We had heard mixed reviews of the place, so went to take a look for ourselves… What we found was a touristy sort of bohemian area of blocked-off streets, not super exciting, but not disappointing either.

Numerous musicians and street performers were plying their art in the streets. Some were quite good, playing a Django Reinhardt sort of fast-paced gypsy jazz…

Others were mere tourist sideshows…

The architecure was nice. Much of it reminicient of New Orleans…

I wish I had taken more pictures, but amidst the tourist hordes we wanted to look like locals… Anyway, there’ll be plenty more chances to explore San Telmo in future.

At different points in my life there have been different reasons for getting up in the morning. In college it might have been, “Oh my g*d, my greek class starts in 3 minutes!” or, “I need a cigarette…” When I worked in Florida the motivator was mainly to avoid embarrassing myself in front of  people like Michael Masterson and others. But here in Buenos Aires I’d have to say that the motivator is… The Coffee. It almost doesn’t seem to matter where you get it, the coffee here is just excellent. These aren’t big American-style cups of coffee we’re talking about, but small, efficient, savory shots of expresso… At some point I’ll cut back on my coffee consumption, but, that time is not now….

Before we get too carried away with all the positives about BA let’s have a candid review of the very real and significant negatives about the place…

1. Crime - When we last visited the city we were told not to leave the balcony windows open at night, even though we were on the fourth floor of a secure building on a visible and busy street… There are police on almost every other street corner here. There’s good reason for these precautions. As I understand it, the rape and murder rates for Argentina are very low. But petty crime is a problem. That being said, we haven’t had any problem or felt the least bit unsafe here.

2. Poverty- Even in the nice neighborhoods you have people pulling what look like ox carts on which they pile cardboard and whatever else they can salvage from the dumpsters. You also have children begging for money, which is difficult to see as you can imagine, usually young girls ages 5-10… On Ave Florida, the main tourist street you have young children playing accordians for money. On Valentines’ Day entire families were out hustling roses in the tourist areas. When you give the children money you just hope that someone’s looking after them and that those people, or their parents, aren’t using them beyond what is necessary…

3. Pollution/Sidewalks- The city by American standards is pretty dirty… the buses belch diesel exhaust, which tends to coat the sidewalks and buildings over time. You get a sore throat at first when you’re not used to it. The sidewalks are generally in bad shape, so you have to pay attention. Also, like in Paris, you’ve got to watch out for canine landmines!

4. Social Inequality/Corruption- While this doesn’t really effect us on a day-to-day basis right now it’s an important Latin American issue. There was a small example at the grocery store the other day… The woman in front of us in line who looked otherwise perfectly able-bodied would not touch any of her groceries, she wouldn’t bag them (here, like in Europe, you usually bag your own), she wouldn’t move them from the bagging area back into her cart, she wouldn’t do anything until someone else did it for her. You could tell by her accessories and the ultra-bitchy look on her face that she thought she was just too good to perform any manual labor whatsoever… While that wouldn’t go over so well in your local Publix or Whole Foods, I think it’s indicative of the South American elite who think they are superior to everyone else… no wonder the region is always flirting with socialism…

 Anyway, there you have it. These are the main negatives to living down here. Some are more serious issues than others, but so far it’s been worth it… and it can’t be milk and honey all the time…

Today we picked up a baguette of fresh bread and three croissants from our local bakery, a very nice upscale European-style patisserie with personalized service and all the pasteries you could imagine. We restrained ourselves and bought the aforementioned necessities,  which cost just over 3 pesos, still less than a dollar…

 Evidently they also cater just about anything you could want and offer delivery. When our Spanish gets better, we’ll be taking advantage of that…

A January article in Newsweek makes BA sound quite alluring: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16500159/site/newsweek/

Written by a friend of a friend this article makes one want to get involved with the hip artists’ underground of BA, which we haven’t discovered yet… Of course, I don’t think we actually have time for much undergound hipster activity…

Why did we come here? In part it was a lifestyle decision, but the main purpose was to give our employer, a newsletter publisher, a foothold in the Spanish speaking market. But it has yet to be determined whether or not this market is even viable. Afterall, most wealthy Latin Americans learn English anyway when they become serious investors. But regardless of that, I think there’s definitely an opportunity for an investment advisory service positioned as an advocate for the Spanish-speaking investor… That’s one of the approaches that we’re exploring.  There are many hurdles to overcome, legal and logistical, and many others we have yet to discover…

He he he… We’ve seen a number of these creative stencils. They’re actually rather tasteful graffiti, small sized, with an actual message instead of a bunch of nonsense. This is one of the better ones…

In most ways BA is incredibly cheap, example: today’s lunch for two at a nice locals’ tex-mex restaurant with drinks and tip was $12.

For a highend dinner for two with a nice bottle of wine you won’t pay more than $60-80.

Taxis are cheap.  A 15-minute ride costs less than $5… But I’ve heard they will rip you off if you’re not paying attention.

Electronics are expensive. Anything that has to be imported is expensive, American or European namebrands… Luckily this is not true of beer. You can get a Stella Artois for $1.50!

I guess it’s politically correct for foreigners to pretend that the low-prices aren’t a major factor in the attractiveness of Argentina… Whatever floats your boat. And besides, you can always find ways of spending more $ than you should!

The French Embassy juts out into the main BA thoroughfare ‘9 de Julio’ (the largest urban avenue in the world). I’ve been told that this is because when the dictator at the time was demolishing entire blocks of beautiful classical buildings to widen ‘9 de Julio’ (to march his armies up and down) the French fortified their Embassy and wouldn’t let it be destroyed… sounds like the French anyway…

I’ve seen it argued on other expat blogs whether or not BA should be compared to Paris… To me it does indeed have a Parisian flavor to it. There are many fine examples of French architecure, but it certainly doesn’t have the architectual splendor of Paris… So, I’ll leave it at that for the moment and I’ll post as many picures as I can in this blog to let you draw your own conclusions… Also, check out this website with many very nice photos of BA: http://baires.multiply.com/

We got into Buenos Aires on Tuesday, other than a snafu bringing our parrot through customs (he did make it), everything went smoothly… [BTW: We 'smuggled' him onto the cabin of the plane because he was supposed to go down with the luggage but we were worried something would happen to him down there, so, we put his cage in a discreet gym bag and carried him on instead of checking him. Luckily we didn't go through security again right before getting on the plane. It went fine except once when we were giving him water he made some noise struggling to get out, but we neutralized that with some coughing and zipped up the bag...] Like us, he was happy when the flight was over…

The weather has been great, it’s summer, sunny in the mid 70s with a cool breeze. We’ve been going out to eat a lot at the outdoor restaurants to enjoy the weather and the low prices…

It’s been a little tricky setting up the home-office. We’ve had some close calls with the electrical adaptors, one of which started smoking and was briefly on fire, another one made my laptop screen flicker wildly… Also, it’s been a helluva time setting up the wireless in the apartment.

Argentine retail of electronics is pretty far behind the US. They don’t have any “big-box” stores that we’ve seen, (which is why we had to buy the adaptors at sketchy mom-and-pop shops…) It’s slim pickins and expensive, and they only keep one or two of each item in stock, then you have to make sure that what’s in the box matches what the box says… and of course you have to communicate in Spanish which is tricky in itself for some of us… So, I finally struck pay-dirt after buying the second wireless router…

But configuring the router was a different story. Of course, it didn’t go as the ‘EZ 1-2-3′ setup claimed… but after finally getting in touch with the US technical support, in India, via my Skype internet phone we got things figured out. Now Shirley and I don’t have to work from our bedroom tangled in a web of cords…

As you can see things are coming together. I’m studying my Spanish, getting ready for classes, so I’ll have some idea of what’s happening around here… And maybe someday we’ll even get a business going!