Argentina

It’s easy to make friends with Argentine guys – football is everything.

Argentines have a reputation for being the biggest snobs on the continent, but maybe that’s only those from Buenos Aires. Still it’s a nice and day difference when comparing the country’s people to those from the more tropical regions of South America. Many Argentines hold a condescending view towards Chileans, Brazilians
, Bolivians and Colombians – in short everyone else. They consider themselves different than the ‘indios’ even though most Argentines are of mestizo descent.

The people of Buenos Aires, the porteños, have the highest per capita rate of visits to psychiatrists in the world. There is a major inferiority complex hidden underneath their assertion that Argentina is superior to the rest of the world (and equal to Europe). There is also a strong anti-American sentiment, although people can generally let things lie.

Distribution of wealth as usual creates an enormous separation between rich and poor. Only a few years ago one used to meet rich Argentines traveling all over the world but there are much fewer since the peso collapsed. Much of the country sank into poverty, and employment for many people has been hard to come by. In Buenos Aires you can observe on the streets late at night one group of recently unemployed people, the cartoneros, scavenging cardboard refuse left in front of businesses.

Even with the hard times though, the Argentines love to joke and kid around. They are at heart a good people under their holier-than-thou veneer. Just don’t expect to be invited to share yerba mate very often. Argentina is generally not an easy place to hitchhike either.

It’s easy to make friends with Argentine guys – football (soccer) is everything. The best teams play out of Buenos Aires and the top two are River and La Boca. There is a huge rivalry with Brazil.

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