I know Im digging up a 2 year old question. But I wanted to know what @RayhanV thought of DF and/or PDC after reading the reviews of other posters. Also did you check out other towns and if so what were some highlights?

Thanks, Ryne

Yup, looking to concentrate on working solidly for a month or 2, while enjoying the city at the same time.

I have narrowed it down to Mexico City and Playa del Carmen. Or maybe both.

@hjbarraza any advice on the best places to stay in Mexico City and what the best way of finding cheap short term rental apts would be ?

I lived in Mexico City 4 or 5 times.

Good community around “la roma” and “condesa”, lot’s of cafe’s that are used to “Internet squatters”. Affordable and secure as long as you have a bit of common sense. Tons of expats and travellers.

While I’ve never been to Medellin, this is my third week in Bogotá, from my point of view, it’s cheaper than México City, and people are quite nice. Internet is far worse, and streets are generally more insecure. Sunset is about 6:30 where the entire city is usually insecure. Except for Uptown North part of town, which has prices similar to those of Mexico City.

IMHO, if you want to concentrate on work for a few weeks, Mexico City is a great alternative. Let me know and I’ll hook you up.

If you want to enjoy latin culture, and take it slower, Bogota or Medellin would be a better option.

I’ve never been to BA.

mexico gets my vote. so much to see and do. easy transition, safe, and cheap.

I’m Argentinian and have lived in Buenos Aires for a year.

Price-wise, Buenos Aires is quite expensive for Argentinian standards, specially rental prices. You won’t have a problem finding a place quickly, though. There is lots of so called “alquileres temporarios” that are basically fully setup flats you can move into without much fuzz.

Here is a Website with short term rentals, as above:
http://www.bairesapartments.com/

In terms of food and other essentials, prices fluctuate greatly based on which part of the city you live in (by as much as a factor of 4!), but you can expect to eat at a decent restaurant for 150-200 ARS and most fruits and vegetables can be bought inexpensively at your local groceries shop. Most other things you’ll want to get on one of the supermarket chains at reasonable (less than the US, more than most of South America) prices.

Anything imported (and I do mean, anything) is generally a lot more expensive than if bought overseas due to very tight import restrictions and high import duties (50%!). So bring all your tech and fancy make-up with you .

Argentina presently has tight currency exchange controls and the government artificially sets the price of the ARS to suit its needs. There is a parallel black market for the US dollar that prices it quite differently. At the moment, if you were to bring and exchange 1000 USD in cash in the black market, you’d get 14520 ARS versus 9590 ARS if you used an ATM or a brick and mortar forex shop. This essentially makes your trip a good 50% cheaper if you bring cash with you.

As for safety, I wouldn’t say Buenos Aires is the safest of places, but so long as you exercise common sense and don’t walk around laptop in hand at 2 am…

The Internet in public places isn’t the fastest and 3G operators have abysmal service (country-wide). Your best bet is finding a good coffee shop (certain Starbucks locations during off-peak hours, for instance) or one of the co-working spaces in town. I haven’t personally used the latter so I can’t comment on those, but I’ve heard good things.

Transportation is ridiculously cheap. I was there a few months ago with my girlfriend and I think we spent around 6-8 USD each over the course of a week. No taxis.

In terms of entertainment, the city is pretty damn big and culturally diverse and there is always something going on for everyone: football matches, theater (featuring world-class acoustics on one of them), endless bookstores (one of them is a converted theater!), all kinds of random events (randomly bumped into a German/Austrian bratwurst festival last time I was there), second-hand arts and crafts markets on the weekend, etc.

Hope that helps.

Hey! I was in BA for two months last year. Loved this city! Here’s an email I wrote for the friend of a friend who was visiting last year…

This is the map I made. Look at the notes on each place, some have recommendations and some I didn’t actually get to.

My favourite restaurants were Mishengue and Gran Dabang. Mishengue there was very little English spoken so take your phone or play dinner roulette - everything we had was fantastic though. Argentinians eat really late, so although they’re often busy if you go there at 6.30pm you can often get a spot. Gran Dabang was more casual (and cheaper), and they came over and explained the menu in English.

I highly recommend booking into Nicky’s NY Sushi. It’s an expensive sushi restaurant. The food is great, but what’s even better is the speakeasy out the back. After dinner (you can only get in if you eat there) you ask to see the “Bodega”, and you’ll be taken through.

Ninina is a good work spot - they do a good coffee and a mean huevos revueltos.

In general - foursquare is heavily used over there, so no matter what you’re looking for, you can usually find something on foursquare. And of course, you can just look out for an empanada shop for a cheap and delicious snack

ATMs can be a PITA - often they won’t work or will just be out of cash Plus the fees are exorbitant, so get as much out at once as you can (it’s about $10 fees per withdrawal). I think I must have used my credit card to pay for a taxi when I arrived, but if you can, I suggest getting some cash out before you leave, because the ATM at the airport didn’t work for me. Actually, it may have, but only let me get out a little bit… I can’t remember.

Anyway, I’m not sure where you’re staying, but I marked an ATM on the map in Palermo that always worked for me. They are hard to find, so if you need money on your way out, look them up on a map before you go - you won’t necessarily just find one.

Also - if you’re having trouble getting cash out, try a lower amount - sometimes it just has a limit on how much you can get out in a single transaction.

I drank the water in BA just fine, but if you’re at all worried you can buy big bottles from the supermarkets.

Tipping is usually 10 - 15%, but don’t tip taxi drivers, they don’t expect tips.

Oh - and a note - in Spanish, man is hombre and woman is mujer, so sometimes you’ll see H and M on the bathroom doors - and M is for the ladies

Be careful if you go to La Boca - go during the day, preferably on a Saturday or Sunday when there will be lots of tourists around. In general BA is pretty safe, particularly Palermo, but don’t walk around with your phone or camera in hand, or it might be snatched by an opportunist.

And… that’s about it! Oh I took a salsa class - can’t remember where exactly, but it was in Palermo. It was chaotic and hot but fun, and a good place to meet people (and cute Argentinian guys who can dance really well).

Hope that helps!

I wouldn’t work in Argentina. If you don’t have a work visa, you’ll get terribly underpaid jobs that are basically meant for foreigners who coming for 6-12 months and have a lot of savings to live off of. If you get a work visa and a real job it will still be super low pay. It’s a better place to either work remotely in a foreign currency, or just go for a sabbatical with plenty of savings and just enjoy daily life. It’s a pain to work there. If you work downtown, it’s more stressful than Manhattan.

Thanks @juan for a lot of information to think about!
I have a friend who also just stayed in São Paulo without proper visa.

I lived and worked in Brazil for 3.5 years without a proper visa (I have 3 passports, so I went in and out of the country every 3 months) by working as an English teacher at an independent school (the large ones ask for work visas) and as a freelance editor, writer and translator, mostly at Time Out São Paulo. I have friends who overstayed and didn’t have any problems, Brazil doesn’t really look for illegal immigrants/workers, so if your plan is to stay there for 1 year and then leave, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Your overstay fine isn’t due until you return to the country and expires after 5 years, so as long as you stay out for that long, you won’t have to pay. Even if you do return, the max fine was R$800 last I checked (about 225 euros).

As for finding work, start at the InterNations, Couchsurfing and MeetUp meetings and network your ass off and you’ll make the contacts you need in no time.

I am from Argentina, and I highly recommend you to work remotely if you are planning to come here.
A Argentinian company will paid you a insignificant salary if you compare it with a US Company. A normal salary can go from 9000 ARS to 16000 ARS ( 750 USD to 1300 USD ).
Anyway, if you need to work here you can check for work at bumeran.com.ar

I don’t know how visas works for foreign people, but if you need to refresh it and you are in Buenos Aires, you can just take a ferry to Uruguay and come back in the same day.

Thank you! That is very close to what I thought: either get student visa (for language courses), or get work visa from local company, or invest money.
Language courses are good option for me. I’m interested in that. But I was also curios about working visa.

Since it’s my country, I thought it would be nice to help translate some of the information, so here goes:

You may come to Brazil as a tourist and stay for 180 days a year on multiple stays, never for more than 90 consecutive days.

Having a “Stable Union” with a brazilian partner gets you permanent residence (So, living together with a boyfriend or girlfriend, even for same-sex relationships). Investing R$ 150 thousand ( US$ 50,000.00 to US$75,000.00, as the Real is fluctiating between 2 and 3 for a Dollar. The real tends to stabilize at around 2 Reais for a Dollar and sometimes falls beneath that, so keep that in mind).

All temporary “work” visas are pretty awful and need a company to “stand by you”. One apparent exception is if you intend on teaching a language, which apparently makes it easier. The most usual apparently is valid for 2 years and it costs 100 Euros. Student visas may bring you trouble with taxes, not sure if worth it, especially considering low cost and how “open” Brazil is to immigration. Try calling a brazilian consulate and ask away if you have somewhat of a plan.

One important thing to notice is that Brazilians are really receptive to immigrants, even illegal ones. May be not everyone will love you, but generally Brazilians do not see immigrants as “stealing their jobs”, and the laws and government also make it pretty easy because we see it as something good for the country.

As a Brazilian, some things:

Development in Brazil is usually done in Cheap. Freelancing is mostly done through Networking and pay is short. If you get a job at a bigger company, maybe you have a shot at earning more, and I can refer you to good places, but usually it’s intense, at least 40 hours a week, and the pay is not really great, especially when considering US companies paying for remote Jobs.

If you still want to work with a brazilian company, you have a startup ecossystem in the three southernmost states (Better pay, better flexibility), lots of big, rigid companies in São Paulo (Some with better pay, some with more flexibility, usually not the same ones), and a lot of opportunities pretty much everywhere else (Small businesses, freelancing, pr agencies and even some startups etc., usually lots of hard work for low pay, with very rigid structures, or freelancing DIY).

As for Argentina, do not work for an Argentinian company. The country is in a pinch, and it’s looking awfully bad right now. Earn from somewhere else and it will be a breeze, get you pay in their currency and you may find yourself in financial trouble pretty soon.

@podviaznikov I think the best way would be to look for a remote job regardless of where the actual people that hire you are, you can be in Argentina and they elsewhere, I think a good start would be at remoteok.io

This way I also think you will get paid more then a local Argentinian business can pay you.

Open an investment checking account with Charles Schwab. They refund ALL ATM fees and convert at the current exchange rate with no conversion fees… Most ATMs recognize Schwab cards for at least 2 million VND here in Da Nang. My statement shows returned ATM fees and the withdrawal in USD (2 million VND = US$92.26. No minimum deposits required. It’s the best banking deal on the planet.

Jim Robinson
Da Nang

Yep, Charles Schwab is a bank. Here’s info about their no ATM-fee checking account: http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/banking_lending/checking_account

I’m in Buenos Aires. Getting money from the ATM is easy. That said, only some ATMs take my card and I can only withdraw up to 2400 pesos per transaction with a max of two transactions per day. I think the ATM fees are high at around 84 pesos (it varies) if I want to withdraw 2200 pesos, but I use Charles Schwab because they refund me all the fees.

Sure, the spread is much smaller. The blue market is mostly for money launders now