Buenos Aires is anything but predictable. To get the best from your Buenos Aires vacation you must be prepared. You can play it safe or play Porteño rules to master Buenos Aires and its culture.
Our Survival Guides get you off the ropes and into the center of Buenos Aires’ cultural ring and our handful of survival techniques helps you ‘fancy-up-that-foot-work.’
The Porteño (people of the port of Buenos Aires) secret weapon is “chamuyo”, pronounced cha-moo-show. Chamuyo is a finely honed sweet-talking – resistance is futile. Your ear and sensory being must quickly tune in.
However, head our warning, the most important Buenos Aires vacation survival technique is the mastering and defense of chamuyo, the Porteño way of communication. It is a slick mix of smooth talking, exaggeration, persuasion, and unrelenting confidence.
Unfortunately, there is no textbook or ‘Chamuyo For Dummies’ but here are some hints to start thinking like a Porteño.
To learn the chamuyo technique one must listen very carefully and watch the experts (i.e. the peoples of Buenos Aires). When asking a question, you might sense that a Porteño is about to say, “I don’t know.” Not a chance, even if stumped for an answer more often than not the chamuyo ensues.
It is very rare that locals will admit that they do not know the answer to a question so here is your opportunity to listen and learn – when getting ‘bum’ information and again meeting your ‘Svengali’ expect an elaborate excuse just to add to your confusion.
If pressured to buy something with much insisting going on or you have a problem in a hotel or apartment, expect chamuyo. It could be that look in their eye, the crook in their sexy smile or their infectious comedy. Sometime they might get very serious – this is dangerous! Serious chamuyo often has ridiculous reasoning you will never disprove.
The Buenos Aires vacationer should not waste their time trying to convince a Porteño they are wrong or seek an apology during a heated debate. Turn those tables, chamuyo-back, disarm your opponent with patience and charm, avoid the confrontation (usually an escape route) and you might just get somewhere.
Take these few hints, and when in doubt, and if you feel you are being ‘chamuyo-ed’ it is all right to say, “Bueno, que chamuyero que sos vos!” Pronounced, buay-no, kay cha-moo-sher-oh kay sew-s vos, and meaning, “My, what a smooth-talker you are!”
Most Porteños are warm and loving people, socialized with ‘old-world’ charm and good manners that welcomes appreciation of their culture.
There is still some way to go for Buenos Aires to really wake up to first world customer service, but once acclimatized, you realize that idiosyncratic dysfunctionality of the city is all part of its charm and no doubt you will enjoy your Buenos Aires vacation.
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