One of my Spanish students, with a great sense of humor, have written some articles about his experiences in Buenos Aires.
The travel guides for Argentina advise travelers to exercise caution when moving about Buenos Aires at night. I haven’t seen any evidence that the city is any more dangerous than any of the larger cities in the States. Of course, one has to use caution and there is always the chance of a random mugging or pickpocket in most any city in the world.
However, the travel guides do not give sufficient warning to the real danger, the one thing that can strike terror into any traveler, or resident. This enemy will strike in the city and in the suburbs; the rich or the poor; the young or the old; in the night or middle of the day – it has no mercy.
The first photo shows this tyrant. You can see by the smear marks that it has already struck some hapless passerby. Where does this villan come from.
The second photo shows a group of machines that daily produce this threat to all of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires. This mayhem is caused by the love affair that the Porteños (B. A. natives) have for their dogs, a love that borders on, well, it is a lot of love. Since people have to go to work, dog walkers are hired to walk large numbers (10 to 20 per dog walker) of these animals each day through the streets of Buenos Aires. Hundreds, maybe thousands of these caregivers stroll through the city’s neighborhoods with their precious cargos who, in turn, leave little presents here and there on the sidewalks and streets of the city. These dog walkers are chosen with the same care one would use to select a baby sitter. Many a tourist has wandered about looking at the marvelous architecture of this beautiful city unknowingly collecting globs of this stuff on their shoes to tromp into their hotel room.
So to all of you travel guide authors, for goodness sakes, tell the people about the true public enemy No. 1 in Argentina.