clarkgriswold

Watch out when walking in Buenos Aires, the bird poop scam is back in a big way !

avrooster

It never went away and we have warned about it over and over and over again.

In fact, my advice is that, if ANYTHING stramge happens near you, assume it's intended to be a distraction, hold firmly on to your belongings and don't let anyone get near you. Yell, if necessary.

Have a great time in my town.

thursdaysd

What avrooster said. I was hit with it (in the form of yellow goo on the metro) in 2012. Since I wear a money belt and knew about the scam they wasted their time.

PatrickSch

It happened to us in Buenos Aires in San Telmo least week- the guide had called it the mustard scam- a woman behind us called out señorita and pointed at my wife's back where I saw globs of a mustard like substance- stinky. I started to yell and backed away and she and her husband backed off. We had been warned buy out tour director from Gate one tours so we knew how to react. Getting that glop all over you is no fun.

PatrickSch

I wanted to add to my post above that the so called mustard scam occurred while we were on the San Telmo walk in Fodor's Buenos Aires guide. We were on a short side street-mid day with no other people close by. The perpetrators may see tourists following this walk and know it is a good time to strike as you are looking at the book for the next turn in the walk.

thursdaysd

I don't think the location makes much difference. I was on the metro in the middle of a crowd. You will look like a tourist no matter what.

clarkgriswold

Have they cleaned up any of the dog poop that was all over the sidewalks in Buenos Aires when we were there in 2011?

MarnieWDC

Good news, Clark...there is a good bit more bagging of dog poop than in past years. You'll still see some here and there, as those dog-walkers just cannot keep up with the herds, but most individuals, and even the walkers, seem to be making an effort.

Scarlett

lol, pick your poo .. bird or dog ?

The Dog Walkers , the guys with 10 + dogs on leashes going down the street to the parks were responsible for much of the mess that the dogs leave. They tied the dogs in the shade somewhere and took a nap, then walked them home in an hour or so and never picked up after the dogs.
I am sure there are 1 or 2 responsible dog walkers but over all, I saw that they were terrible about leaving messes on sidewalks and in the parks.

Anywhere there are tourists there will be the bird poo scam artists . I never saw them but heard about them in Paris and Italy , years ago.