Bienvenidos: some basic info for the dyke traveller in the ol´ Bueno

1. CUNNI-LINGO: some choice words

• lesbiana: spanglish, easy - it means lesbian
  
• torta: dyke, or, see previous post
  
• carlitos: not a lipstick lesbian, but not hard core butch, either, this is for the soft-butch ladies out there, or, the chapstick lesbians as one fellow traveller would say


• chongo: butch lesbian...and we mean butch


• pareja: romantic partner


• novia: girlfriend (also romantic) - however, novio means boyfriend. You may need to reassure someone that yes, you meant to put an a at the end, that no, you´re not bad at Spanish, you´re just gay.


• coger: to fuck. In other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, this also means to catch, as in to catch the bus. In BsAs, stick to arreglar when talking about the bus...unless you´re into that sorta thing.

2. YOUR HAIR

If you´re a chick with short hair, especially if you lean more on the carlitos or chongo side of things, you will be getting (shamelessly) stared at in many parts of the city. We´re talking turn-around-in-your-seat, walk-backwards-in-a-crosswalk, never-breaking-eye-contact STARES. Long hair and an overtly feminine appearance are in here in BsAs, so someone like my pierced-up, faux-hawked, boy´s-clothes-wearing (not to mention adorable) butchie of a girlfriend has been walking around this city like she´s got a dick on her forehead. Bummer for her. However, if you´re rocking the revival of the 20-something dyke mullet, the party-in-the-back style (especially when incorporating a rat tail) is making it back with the boys here in a questionably big way...combine this with your boi-ish charm, and it might just help you blend. Now the stares have never been aggressive and are shaking-of-the-head disapproving at the most, but it´s something that surprised us at first. Now we´ve learned to smile and wave, take a few pictures, sign some autographs and continue having a gay old time.

Used to being a metropolitan hot-shit dyke in the cit-tay? Well, you´re not anymore. The only time we get checked out now, is by the straight girls trying to figure our if we´re guys or not.


3. PDA

The stares aside, holding hands or being a little touchy in public shouldn´t get you attacked here, by any means. Like any major city with a wide variety of people and cultures available for the clashing (especially when most of its country is Catholic), maintain your wits about you and trust your instinctual hater-radar. This especially applies outside of Buenos Aires, where things tend to be a bit more traditional. Your outside appearance also plays a role here, as those who look like blatant dykes holding hands may get more attention than those who look like porteña straight girls who also like to hold hands. Needless to say, these lesbian cultural differences will probably also throw your once finely-tuned gaydar a little off. So watch who you hit on. While being generally cautious, definitely give the local culture some credit - after all, same-sex civil unions are legal in Argentina...which, is a lot more than many of our beloved states can say.

4. WHERE TO STAY

The amount of negative or positive attention you get can also depend on the neighborhood you´re in. For the peso-pinchers looking to stay anywhere from a week to 6 months, I would suggest renting a short-term apartment. While it´s often cheaper than renting a hostel per night (and definitely cheaper than all lodging advertised as gay) it allows you to cook for yourself and gives you the privacy to uh, show your affection to people of the same sex in the comfort of your own temporary home. Though there are plenty of sites that can arrange this for you, we went through stayinbuenosaires.com. They have budget, short-term and last-minute apartment rentals, are very accommodating and attentive, and even have a gay resource link on their website. While we haven´t been out and proud to the landlords they connected us with, we are sharing a one bedroom and no one seems to mind.

We did, however, make the not drastically devastating mistake of renting in the neighborhood Recoleta. We had read that it was ´safer´, was close to major city conveniences, and it was in our price range. However, the staring problem we´ve encountered is definitely more prominent here. For those of you familiar with San Francisco, think North Beach. Young, wealthy, bursting-with-their-first-child straight families and toy poodles abound. Our proximity to the Recoleta cemetery and beautiful parks keep us relatively uncomplaining, but the higher price tags on everything from coffee to groceries has us thinning out our budget more than we´d like. Most expat and local dykes we´ve met are shacked up in Palermo or San Telmo.

PALERMO we found to be a bit out of our budget for apartment rentals. However, it is where 90% of the lesbian nightlife is situated, increases your chances of seeing a little same-sex PDA, and decreases the dick-on-your-forehead problem. Think San Francsco´s Castro or New York´s Greenwich Village but a little less screamingly gay. It´s also just gorgeous and has a lot of great shopping and eating opportunities.

SAN TELMO is friendlier to your pesos, but less central than Palermo. It´s more mellow than the hustle-and-bustle of our dear Recoleta and has more of a stroll-along-the-cobbled-sidewalks sort of a feel. It also is home to a few choice queer havens, which we´ll get to later.


5. SMALL TIPS & TRICKS

• Bring tampons. Especially if you´re an applicator kind of gal. O.B. non-applicator tampons can be found, but are a bit pricey in pesos. Pads however, are everywhere.


• Watch your step. Those cute dogs everyone seems to have? Well, they don´t clean up after them. And they do their business in very creative places around here. And at a crosswalk, stay on the curb if you know what´s good for your feet. Drivers seem to get extra points for hitting tourists.


• If you´ve got a heterophobic streak, now´s a great time to get over it. Straight couples make out EVERYWHERE. And it´s heavy. Like sucking fingers, licking faces, feeding-you-grapes and moaning. All in front of you in line at the movie theater.

• Wondering whether or not to bring your sexy time...accessories...? Wrapped in a bandana and stuffed into a sock, ours had no problems getting through the lax Buenos Aires customs checks, which seemed to exist only to show us the exit. And if you´re picky about your lube, bring that, too.


• Buy a travel book. Though Lonely Planet has lead us down the wrong rainbow brick road before, it´s a great jumping off point. And if you want to read more than that, and aren´t fluent in Spanish, bring some English-language titles, because they´re few-and-far between and often a rip-off even when converted into US$.


• Get ready to dig for your dykes. While BsAs´s rep as the next gay city does not go unfounded, you probably won´t find an in-your-face queer neighborhood as they exist in SF or NYC - but don´t get discouraged, it just requires some hit-and-miss work. And us spoiled San Francisco dykes are in need of a little challenge.