Barrio de Retiro

Barrio de Retiro is well known as it is the main link for the few railroads that exist in Buenos Aires, and for having the enormous bus station that connects you to the whole of Argentina, including to the north and practically the whole of South America, specifically the centre and the south.

The neighbourhood is found in a fairly unusual place because despite the fact that next to the station there is a spectacular park with monuments and an immense clock, it is a neighborhood full of skyscrapers and around it, as often seen, is the poverty. For example, when you leave via a bus you will hear the cries for help from the villas miseria (shanty towns), that you practically pass through or close to if the bus goes nearby. One day when we left for a trip we saw people fighting in a football court with people surrounding them, watching... it is without a doubt one of the saddest things I saw in the Republic of Argentina.

On the other hand, in this neighbourhood there is a multitude of cheap shops, located outside or in premises and although none of them seem very hygienic there are many delicious choripanes (sausage sandwiches), perritos calientes (hot dogs), served with sauces of your choice and french fries for around four pesos; in other words, it will cost a euro or less.

In the same place, in the train station which is the main link to the city, there is one of the the best cafés in Buenos Aires and although it is quite expensive, it is very cool. It has typical coffees, huge lamps...it is a fairly old and beautiful place that completely contrasts with everything that you can see as you pass through the door and see the outside.

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It is likely that you will visit the bus station on many occasions as it is the cheapest way to travel here as trains barely exist and planes are a slightly more expensive way to travel, a lot more in fact! Except with the company 'LAN' who can find good prices. The recommended thing to do is to visit all of the companies that travel to your destination and to compare prices and to haggle over the prices because there is quite a lot of disloyal competition between them, which is wonderful for us! (I will explain this in more detail in my travels! )

In this neighbourhood you will also find an abundance of natural orange juice, phone cases... and the cheapest of all, which you should always buy there, are the sim cards. In other places the normal shops try to charge forty pesos (or at least they tried to trick me when they heard my accent) here they are 5 pesos (if you haggle with them). This is where I bought my mobile for only 140 pesos which would be something less than 25 euros, approximately, which is a very good price for a mobile.

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Another important thing is the instituto de inmigración (institute of immigration), which can be found in this neighbourhood. You will need to visit the institute to state your length of stay in the country in order to obtain a visa, initially for the provisional one and then you will need to return to collect the official certificate. You may have to wait in a queue for a number of hours for this but at least then it will be done. I don't know if they will change it there and then or how it works but if you continue waiting there you can have peace of mind that the next day you will not have to do anything else. I would also recommend going early to avoid the large amounts of people, coming with all the necessary documents so you do not have to return. Furthermore, the certificate costs 300 pesos.

This place is not the best to visit as it is very dangerous, especially during the night. If you arrive late at night do not walk to the metro stop as it is likely that you will be robbed. The whole place is full of people sleeping, without money... including during the day as it is completely full of pickpockets. I know this as my flatmate only took her wallet to pay for something that she bought and a man ran past her and stole it from her, so you need to be very careful of all these types of things. Moreover, you are going to have to visit this neighbourhood at some point, for both travel and a number of other things as you can access the train, metro or bus since it is very well connected. As a tourist spot, you're not really missing anything so if you can, avoid it! Or like many people do, visit the place that I have displayed in the photo: the large clock in the park in front of the train station, that is the truly beautiful place.

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