Some observations of Buenos Aires...

1. Road rules (ie. traffic lights and line markings) are just a suggestion. Drivers decide how many cars can fit in two lanes (generally 3 or 4). Indicating is pointless as ´lane´ changes are spontaneous. But as we´ve been told, there are very few crashes in Argentina compared to Australia, because if you crash in Argentina you invariably die. Being assertive is the key, there´s no fear and the skills are amazing, something most Australian drivers lack.

2. Every second shop (near our hostel anyway) is a corner store/cafe with $1 peso an hour internet.

3. A bottle of vodka is cheaper than a bottle of water.

4. Everyone lives with their family until they marry and move out.

5. Argentinians are very well educated. Christian - Pablo´s friend just finished a Masters in National Defence and Foreign Policy in Argentina - isn´t that your field of expertise?

6. As with most non-Australians we´ve met, Argentinians are fiercely patriotic (quoting stats on how good their country is). I wonder whether most Australians are too, but either don´t memorise the statistics or don´t feel the need to advertise how good Australia is (maybe both) - maybe it springs from these countries getting a bad wrap on the news, whereas Australia rarely does (so far as we know - I´m told our human rights policies are frowned upon by the EU at least).

7. Not that I know anything about architecture but walking down the Avenida de Mayo this morning I could have been in a classic part of Paris, thats how elegant most of the buildings in central BA are.

8. As in Rio, almost every apartment has air conditioning, which drips the condensation onto the footpaths. Walking along the footpaths requires some attention to the little puddles so that you don´t contantly get dripped on - usually hits you in the middle of the forehead.

9. There are people who walk dogs for a job - quite often you´ll see 8 or 9 dogs tied to a lamp post while the walker is inside a cafe watching the soccer.