Category Archives: Useful Information

2012 13/06
At 10:15 | By Maria Pietilä | Posted in Useful Information |

Tips for the people coming to Buenos Aires

Here are a few tips to make your visit to Buenos Aires and Argentina more beneficial for you!

  • Tax free shopping is a great way to save a bit of your money during your stay. Shopping in Buenos Aires is quite expensive, so you should really pay attention to these instructions how to make it ~13% cheaper to you.  When you are strolling around Buenos Aires, look for stores with the sign “Global Blue – TAX FREE” (I posted their logo below). Tax free in Argentina means without VAT (normally 21%), but as Global Blue takes its own slice of the cake the real advantage you get is somewhere between 13% – 14%. Global Blue only works on items produced in the country of origin (in this case only Argentine produced products). It’s best to explain the process through an example. We bought a pair of shoes for Maria from a store called Normandie, It offered the Global Blue tax free system and we took it. The cashier printed out a Global Blue receipt, which we had to take to Ezeiza International Airport. The cashier also gave us a pamphlet and it explained the whole process (including a map of Ezeiza detailing where to go). When we left Argentina, we went to the desk at the middle of the check-in desks. There was a man checking each product for “Industria Argentina” and marking the receipts accepted for cash in. After this we had to go upstairs to an another desk to cash our tax free receipt. 3 days later Global Blue had paid us our massive return of 3.99 euros to our bank account. We only realized the opportunity for Global Blue tax-free shopping during the last few weeks of our stay, so we didn’t purchase more than one product from a tax-free store. This is a guide for you to have an eye out there and only shop from these stores to save over 10% of your purchases.
  • Get your medical checks before your departure. We didn’t get a medical certificate saying that we could do exercise in a gym, so we couldn’t get a membership in a gym in Buenos Aires, unless we paid for 15-50 euros for a certificate that would be free in Finland. You should also get your teeth checked. I (Julius) can tell from my personal experience that the dentists in Argentina aren’t as tidy and clean as in Finland. I’m not saying that they are bad, no. I happened to find a very good private dentist that took my wisdom tooth out for about 120 euros, gave me medicine and a later “check-up” date was also included in the price. I would still advise you to get your teeth checked in Finland.
  • In Argentina there are a few supermarket chains, the biggest are the Cencosud -group (Jumbo, Disco and Dia, a Chilean company) and Coto (an Argentinian company). The prices in the stores are not that much different, but the coupons and the daily offers may differ a lot. When you are leaving your flat to do groceries, you should always check online which store has an offer for you today. For example, Coto may have Wednesday to Thursday -15% off when you pay with a credit card, while Cencosud has nothing. This will save you a lot of money. Also another thing to note is that any credit/debit card with a metal chip on it is considered as a credit card in Argentina, so don’t be fooled with an offer of “Today -20% with a debit card”. The Cencosud group has an interesting way of marketing products and stores nearby. Almost every time you make a purchase, you get a coupon giving you a discount for between specific dates at a specific store nearby. When we left Argentina we had at least 20 coupons for a sushi place, you can’t miss them.
  • To say it shortly: Spanish required! Some of the people (10-20%) speak some English, but they don’t want to speak English so don’t expect to hear it from anyone. If you go to a hospital, prepare for Spanish. If you go talk to a police officer, prepare for Spanish. The bright side is: You will learn A LOT of Spanish! :)
  • At least during our stay the monetary system of Argentina was very upside down. For example when we were going to Uruguay, we wanted Uruguayan pesos before we left, but the banks didn’t give them to us. They said “We can give them to you if you have a receipt that you bought Argentine pesos with your Uruguayan pesos”. Most of apartments will have their rent in US Dollars, but you CAN’T get ANY dollars from Buenos Aires. If you want to pay in pesos, you will have to pay a higher exchange rate (10-20% more) so the person renting the apartment can go to the black market and get the dollars from there. During our stay we didn’t meet a person who would want Argentine pesos instead of Dollars, this creates a problem of inflation as not one person has confidence in the peso.
  • During our stay we noticed the inflation. Argentina is not as cheap as you think it would be: Some of the prices are even higher than in Finland! It’s good to have some savings before coming to Argentina as an exchange student. When we arrived, a small pastry, factura, in a nearby bakery cost 1,8 pesos – when we left some stores sold the same facturas for 2,4 pesos. It’s not much, but 30% increase in half a year is enough to notice it in your daily choices in a supermarket.
  • Always ask the price, even in the coffee stores, the prices can vary a lot and the prices can be different for the foreigners. For example we went to a video-rental place near our flat in Palermo and the guy at the cashier wanted a deposit of 150 pesos (~30 euros) for renting a movie. We were confused and we asked him if this deposit was for everyone and he replied “No, its just for foreigners.” This is the kind of treatment the Argentinians give to Foreigners so you’d better prepare yourself for a “gringo extra” in any stores. Our law teacher Diego Fissore told us that its completely legal, as long as the company is not owned by the state (f.x. the post office, police etc.) According to Fissore, a private company can ask a customer for any amount of money for its services, just as the video-rental company did.
  • Get the SUBE -card when you arrive. The city of Buenos Aires used to run with coins, but nowadays most of the commuters use a card called SUBE. You can get it in most of the post offices in BA. It’s simply a plastic card. You can put any amount of money on your SUBE in hundreds of kiosks in the city in just a few moments and use it in Buses, the metro (Subte) and the short-distance trains.
  • There are free activities in Buenos Aires such as Hipodromo (excluding special races) and some museums.  Check online for more info!

These were only the things that we didn’t know pre-hand or take into account for some reason. Don’t take this as a “to-do-list” -before leaving.

 

 

 

 

JAMK Addthis
2012 27/02
At 1:13 | By Maria Pietilä | Posted in Places to see, Useful Information |

Two long weekends

This week we only had school on Wednesday and Thursday. Monday and Tuesday were national holidays, because of the carnival weekend.  The whole weekend was rainy so we did things inside: On Saturday we went to the movie theater near Alto Palermo shopping mall called Cinemark. During the night (starting from 22pm) they play movies that are not dubbed in Spanish: they only have Spanish subtitles. We watched the movie Hugo in 3D and paid 44,5pesos (7,60euros) per person. The movie was really nice and the theater was huge! The last shows that they had started at 1.20am. It’s really cool that here you can go to movies even during the night!

We also visited a couple of museums: We went to Puerto Madero to see the Fragata Sarmiento, which is a ship from the 19th century.  (It has even been in Finland in the year 1935!) The entrance fee was only 2pesos (0.35euros) and you can freely tour the ship.

After admiring the cannons we headed to Museo de la Ciudad. (Entrance fee was 1peso, which is 0,17euros) I personally liked the museum a lot! There were many old toys: Dolls, Legos, board games and old children bicycles.

On Tuesday it was Laskiaistiistai and we wanted to bake traditional Finnish Laskiaispullia so we needed a spice called cardamon. We couldn’t find it from our Disco-store so we googled and found El Gato Negro. (Located in Avenida Corrientes 1669) It’s a cafe and a store that sells all kinds of spices, coffee and tea. This old-styled cafeteria has an unique atmosphere. It’s definately worth visiting! We found our cardamon and made delicious Semlas.

This weekend is also long because there is a carnival in Buenos Aires so Monday is a public holiday. However the website says that the carnival is suspended until further notice due to the train accident that took place on Wednesday in Once –train station (51killed and over 700 injured)  Our original plan was to see the carnival but at the moment looks like this weekend we are just chilling outside having a picnic and enjoying the sun :)

Next Friday we are going to Uruguay for a company visit and we are planning to stay there a couple of extra days. Looking forward to the trip!

JAMK Addthis
2012 15/01
At 0:02 | By Julius Halme | Posted in Useful Information |

Week full of … trash?

Firstly I have to correct some mistakes: Milk is not more expensive than back home, when you buy it as the locals do.  In a plastic 1 liter bag. 1 bag costs around 4,5 pesos (~0,80 eur) per liter so its roughly the same.

Continuing on the trend: The mobile phone operator Movistar is cheaper than we thought. Initially we thought that we would pay 0,99 pesos per minute (less than 20 cents), but then I realized after googling for a while that we might get free calls between eachother. I went to the Movistar website and found a place where I could register. After a 20 minute process of adding the number I had recieved, adding passport numbers etc. we had everything set. At the end we realized that you can add 2 numbers to your prepaid sim that are free for use up to 1000 minutes of talk and 1000 text messages. Pretty neat!

Roughly what its worth from left to right (in euros): 1, 2, 10, 20 and the coins are all less than 20 cents.

 

Then some things we have been up to:

Monday was an endless day of walking. We set out to get a bank account to use in Argentina. In the morning at 9 we were already at HSBC. The lady behind the counter told us that its impossible to get a bank account here in Buenos Aires without a residence permit, which we dont have as we are traveling on a tourist visa. She told us to ask other banks as HSBC, being a commercial bank might have different regulations than others. After hearing about this we went to Citibank, Banco Frances, Banco Nacion and lastly to Banco Ciudad. At Banco Ciudad the guy told us exactly what we need to get this done: 3 papers; Passport, a paper from the local tax office and a paper from the police confirming that we have a home. With this information we headed back home to search for the nearest police station, as you couldn’t get the paper from the tax office before you had the paper from the police. We thought we found the nearest and we headed out hoping that we could do it before it got too hot (at this time it was 35 degrees). After a 10 block trek to a totally unknown territory we finally arrived at the police station. There was a kind lady behind the counter but we didnt understand her completely. She gave us a paper with an address of a different police station we had to go to. 45 minute walk in the scorching heat and we were there. We paid 10 pesos (1,8 eur), the lady told us that the police would arrive on Tuesday to check that we gave her the correct address and that we actually lived there. Then we were on our way back home. Then finally after 10 hours and 10 kilometers we were finally back home at around 7 pm.

On Tuesday we waited for the police. We were told that he/she would come between 9 and 15 pm. Well, no one showed up. At 4 pm we left our apartment to get some fresh air and buy an international phone card. Now we can call all around the world, worth 10 pesos (1,8 eur). With the card you can call to Finland for 20 minutes. In the evening we were looking through apartments since we don’t have a place to stay after the 7th of February.

Since it was so difficult to get a bank account as a foreigner in Argentina, we decided not to get one. It also seems that the police stole 10 pesos (1,8 eur) from us.

On Wednesday we went to vote in the Finnish presidential elections. We walked about 10 blocks north to the Finnish embassy and used our rights to vote. We met a few tourists there and it was great to hear people speaking Finnish all around us. After lunch we had one more thing to do on Wednesday.

The tiresome walking trips on Monday were quite hard on our feet. So it was time to get a SUBE card to use in the local metro network. We went to a place where we thought they were handing them out, but instead the clerk asked us to go outside to a stand with a couple of young seasonal workers. They asked us for our passports, but we didn’t carry them at the time, instead we gave them our driver’s licenses and we got the SUBE cards – strangely for free. This is something one should get if the stay in BA is longer than few days, its very easy to use and very easy recharge. More than half of the small kiosks or “locutorios” charge it within 5 minutes. 1 trip with the SUBE is 1,1 pesos (roughly 20 cents), 1 trip without the SUBE is 2,5 pesos which is significantly more.

The stress was building up, mostly for me, about the fact that we don’t have an apartment for February-May. I looked through every website I could get my hands on. Finally I stumbled upon a website on Craigslist that was renting apartments with reasonable prices at good neighborhoods of BA. The website was called http://www.purabuenosaires.com.ar/.

On Thursday we were exchanging e-mails very frequently between the company and we ended up having a guy from the company show us an apartment in Palermo Soho. We went there, liked the apartment and hopefully we end up living there. The neighborhood is very quiet (compared to the center), pretty and one of the safest in BA. Every building is different there, not just by design but by color. You might walk down the street and see buildings painted in green, purple, yellow, blue, gray and red.

One thing I have noticed about the infrastructure if BA is the trash. In the morning, there is no trash whatsoever. During the day the trash piles up. At sunset, these men come out of nowhere, 2-5 in every corner of the street. They sort out the trash, put plastic with plastic and paper with paper. They do the work that people do voluntarily in Finland. Below I have attached pictures taken roughly 12 hours apart, at 9 in the morning and at 9 in the evening outside our apartment. In the pictures the guys sorting through the trash are just behind us and yelling some dirty secrets about themselves to Maria :)

 

 

JAMK Addthis
2012 14/01
At 3:20 | By Maria Pietilä | Posted in Useful Information |

Operations: Phone number & Laundry

Getting an Argentinean phone number turned out to be more challenging mission than we first thought it would be:

Many small Kiosks and Locutorios sell prepaid sim-cards. Two biggest phone operators here in Argentina are Claro and Movistar. We read good reviews online about Movistar so we wanted to get that one. We bought two sim-cards, 10pesos per each. (about 1,80 euros) It took us one day to realize that the card doesn’t come with any money in it. (Of course all the instructions were in Spanish) Often the places where you buy the sim card don’t charge them so you’ll have to look for a special kiosk where reads on the window f.ex Movistar recharga. (Or some other operator that you have: Some kiosks recharge only Claro)

Adding money into your sim -card is really easy procedure: You tell the shop assistant your phone number (that comes with your new Sim card) and then the amount that you want to put into it. We charged ours with 30pesos; Movistar had a promotion that we got 15extra pesos, so we have now 45pesos worth of talking and texting. In the shop you receive almost immediately an sms telling that the credit has been added.

One big challenge in Buenos Aires was to find a place where to wash clothes: Our apartment building, like many other apartments in Downtown, doesn’t have laundry machines. The Lavanderos will wash and fold the clothes for you but we wanted to find the place where we can use the laundry machines ourselves. Luckily we found one just few blocks away called Lava ya. The service was helpful and friendly so we can recommend the company. http://www.laundryargentina.com.ar/

They charged 12pesos for washing one load + 12pesos for the use of drying machine. (We had our own detergent and softener) After you have paid to the clerk, he or she will give you tokens to use the machines.

Our total was 24pesos (around 4,30e per load) Not a bad price for clean and nice fragranced clothes :)

 

JAMK Addthis
2012 10/01
At 2:43 | By Julius Halme | Posted in Places to see, Useful Information |

Wool socks in Sao Paolo

At last we are here,

We arrived on the saturday afternoon, January 7th, around 12.30, to our apartment. The trip went pretty well except for a one detail. Maria´s suitcase decided to stay behind, but moments ago we called the company and its on its way as I write this. During one of the stops in Sao Paolo, Brazil Maria realized that she still had her woolen socks on, In 30 degrees celcius I told her that its a bit overkill.

The apartment we had rented prior to departure is okay for a month´s stay. We met the landlord at the apartment along with the representative of the rental company. The landlord was very kind and luckily we have the contract in writing. One unusual thing about renting an apartment in BA: you pay with cash and USD. Our apartment includes water, electricity, wi-fi (2 mbps), television, phone (with unlimited usage in Argentina) and a few small kitchen appliances such as a coffee maker, smoothie maker and an ancient gas stove that has to be lit with matches :)

Tapwater in BA is not drinkable. Bottled water takes a big part of your groceries budget. Beef, in any form, is cheaper than in Finland. Some even 50% cheaper compared to Finland. Pork is quite the same priced. Even though there is a big amount of Cows in Argentina, the milk is quite expensive, just a few cents more expensive than in Finland.

During the first day we bought food, water and some necessities so we could survive through the first day. On the first day we realized that there is no dish brush to do the dishes. We went to walk around town and we found Carrefour -store. We found a brush there and queued up to pay for it. The lady at the cashier asked for my ID for the massive purchase of 14 pesos (less than 3 euros). One of the big challenges in Buenos Aires is to get small bills or 1 peso coins. There is a serious shortage of them. We went to an ATM to withdraw money, but 2 ATMs we went to didn´t have money.

On our second day we decided to go for a walk. We read a tourist guide about a cemetary in Recoleta. Since Maria didnt have any shorter pants expect the ones she wore on the airplane, I offered to give her one of my shorts. She agreed and we were on our way. The streets were totally deserted in the Sunday morning,  I would recommend for anyone to go for a stroll on a Sunday. All of the small stores are closed, but the shopping malls are open. The cemetary was really cool and we took more pictures that we can share right now, but below you can see a few. We even found an ex-president´s mausoleum. A tour guide told us that even today you can buy a mausoleum or a place for it from anyone willing to sell, but the prices for one are astronomical as all the wealthy and powerful want to be buried here.

After the tour in the cemetary it was really nice to get back to our apartment. Our AC works well and the difference between 32 and 21 degrees is something one will definately feel. We were quite tired after a 7 hour stroll and the jetlag is also keeping us from sleeping late in the morning.

 

JAMK Addthis
2012 06/01
At 0:39 | By Julius Halme | Posted in Useful Information |

Getting ready for departure

Hey,

Today we finished packing, we had some problems with the weight limits. Fitting a 6 months worth of clothing in one bag proved to be difficult. Then we found out that we can bring 2 bags, instead of 1! Our problem of 32 kilo bag all of a sudden became 2 x 23kg bags, which made things a lot easier :) The past week has breezed by, saying goodbyes to friends and family. Atmosphere is anxious: Both excited, but still a bit sad.

UADE gave us a Pre-assignment that had to be returned upon arrival. We finished our assignments today, so we dont need to worry about it any more.

 

We made a small list of costs prior to departure:

  1. Flight tickets (roundtrip)
  2. UADE tuition fee
  3. Vaccinations
  4. Insurance
  5. Apartment for first month
  6. Trip from Airport to the apartment
  7. A few passport photos
  8. Moving stuff

1. The cheapest roundtrip we found from Helsinki to Buenos Aires was from Kilroy Travels website. The price was 897 Euros. The flight goes through Heathrow, London via Sao Paolo, Brazil ending up in Buenos Aires. The flight time is roughly 24 hours per direction.

2. UADE tuition fee was 755 Euros.

3. The vaccinations required were Hepatite A and B (3 shots; the last 6 months after the first one) 50 Eur/shot, Yellow fever 35 Eur and Tetanus (free for finnish citizens). After yellow fever vaccination you can get the international vaccination certificate and the price for it is 10 euros. On top of these, there is the fee from the doctor 13,70 euros.

4. For the both of us it was in total 298 euros from Lähivakuutus. It covers injury, sickness, luggage, home (including stuff stored still in Finland), legal issues and flight tickets (delays, cancellations). It was called “Nuorisopaketti” and its valid 1 year from the date we took it. We went through every insurance company and this was by far the cheapest.

5. We found an apartment at a price of 725 USD per month. Security deposit for this apartment was 700 USD (refundable at check-out). Administration fee was 45 USD and the late check in fee (because we arrive during the weekend) was 20 USD. In total this was 1490 USD = 1165 Euros.

6. The same company that provides the apartment also provides a transport service from the airport to the apartment at the price of 50 USD.

7. A few passport photos is always a good idea to bring on any longer trip. They usually cost 15 euros.

8. This one proved to be very stressful. After the Christmas holidays you basically have a week to move everything and clean up your old apartment. We cleaned our apartments together so well that we could even see the identification numbers at the back of our fridges ;) Even the top shelves were cleaned thoroughly because we had a highchair.

 

Luckily we recieved a student grant from JAMK of 1250 euros each, which helped us a lot. But still we both worked hard during the fall to gather some savings for the exchange period. Financially the biggest costs were the apartment and the flights.

 

 

JAMK Addthis