Well, back from BA on a recent business trip, I could hardly believe this shocker: BA is smoke free, that is the restaurants, bars, and (cough) even cafés. For years, I always contemplated and experienced BA and its culture through a lingering, thick haze of nicotine and smoke. Espressos with no fags? unthinkable. A fernet-cola without a puff? not doable. Dancing at milongas until the wee hours without cigs. I’ll stop now. It was city where I was once told by a friend who was a pack-a-day die hard smoker that as a “non smoker”, I had no right to complain (of the smoke). Hence, as you can see, it came a total surprise when Ley 1799 enforcing the non-smoking law, went into effect in October. Perhaps for me it was a Hallelujah, arriving to bed not smelling like a stale cigarette but I wondered how BA would continue to function. Somehow it has and the law is even being enforced (something that did not happen in Santiago when they recently tried to pass a similar decree). One word of advice though: hold your breathe walking out the door; the cigarette fiends gather rain or shine outside the local to get their fix. But fair is fair I suppose