Argentina - First Impressions

So I´ve been in Argentina for two weeks now. Like people told me, Buenos Aires really is a middle-class, European style city. However, three differences struck me very quickly:

1. Poverty

I live in recoleta, by far one of the nicer areas of town. Very nearby is the Avenida Sante Fe, full of higher-end shops of every description. Most of those shops don´t put their trash in dumpsters, they leave them on the sidewalk for people to come and rifle through them. The trash-diggers are generally young, well-dressed, good looking, and do most of their work in the daytime. This is considered more or less a legitimate job.

2. Labor

Back when Peron was in power, he relied on the unions for support and they responded in kind. Since then, the tendency to strike and demonstrate has been very strong. Yesterday, i headed over the cultural center only to find that it was closed because the janitors were inside tearing all the paper apart and banging on drums.

3. Banks

Not suprisingly, the financial crisis of 2001 has resulted in a rather suspicious relationship between the banks and the general public. The banks are only open five hours a day during the week, from 10 AM to 3 PM, and they usually limit how much money you can take out at one time. Even the seemingly small sum of AR $600 (about 200 USD) is considered big enough to be untouchable later in the day when most of the cash is gone. Plus, most stores give a pretty significant discount (usually about 10%) if you use cash instead of credit.