by request

Differences I noticed between Bs As and Santiago:

-Santiago's metro absolutely kicks the pants off of the Bs As system...dramatically more extensive, faster and cleaner. Actually, I felt like Santiago (except the air) is just cleaner in general.

-Buenos Aires is bigger: It took a lot longer to get to interesting places in the heart of the city than it does here. Once you're in the middle of Santiago, nothing is really more than 15 minutes away on public transportation or your feet.

-Buenos Aires has nicer water. Santiago has the ugly, smelly, concrete-banked Río Mapocho. Buenos Aires has the enormous, beautiful River Plate and various offshoots, which may be polluted but are still pretty nice.

-Buenos Aires is cheaper in some ways: Public transportation is half as expensive (not to say that the buses or metro here are particularly costly--much cheaper than the states) and taxis are a lot cheaper, less than half of what they cost here, I'd say.

-Buenos Aires felt more like an American city in some ways...parts of it reminded me a lot of Harlem in terms of the height and age of the buildings, the way neon signs run perpendicular down the fronts of the apartments, the underground parking lots. It made me want to go back to Harlem to see if this is a good comparison or not.

-Santiaguinos are darker, shorter and heavier. The relative influence of Europeans and Amerindians on Argentines versus Chileans was striking.

-Santiago feels more modern. The Chilean national IDs, for example, are very advanced, with multi-colored background print, textured surface, complicated barcode, etc....a lot like an American driver's license but more so. The Argentine national IDs are pieces of pink paper with photo and thumbprint pasted on and laminated together.

-Argentinians really DO eat a ton of steak, and it's good steak, but Chileans make up for it by having better empanadas.

I'm sure there are other things that I noticed but that's what I can think of now, off the top of my head. I'm going to publish this and then try to put some pictures up. Bye!