Buenos Aires Take 2 rant

Everyone has told me horror stories about BA. All I saw when I was here for my brief stay the first time was beautiful buildings and parks, amazing steak and chocolate, and friendly backpackers. This time, however, I was assaulted at the metro within minutes of stepping off my bus from Cordoba.  I was with 4 other girls, and these stupid Argentineans did every trick in the book to try to steal our backpacks. One asked me for the time and I ignored him. A second splattered something on one of the girls bags and then people were coming at her with tissues to clean it up (a trick that gets you to stop, take your bag off so they can steal it). Then a guy went to a third girl and was trying to pull her bag out of her hand. He luckily didnt get away with it. Then I felt my small backpack fall down off my bigger backpack, and realized someone opened up 2 of the 3 places it was attached.  I grabbed it just in time before it fell, and he reached in and grabbed what he could out of the pocket. Moron got away with just a deoderant, so I hope he smells powder fresh at least. I was so frazzled because there were 5 of us and it was 8AM in the middle of a crowded train station. I am traumatized from taking the Metro again.
Robbery attempt 2 happened at the hostel. I met the friends I made in Valparaiso and Mendoza at the Garden Hostel near San Telmo. The first night went smoothly, but some of the people said there were locals staying at the hostels who were friends with the owners and a little shady. In the morning, 3 of our friends were checking out, so they left their bags in the other 2´s private room, which locked but didnt have a locker inside for passports and all. One of the local guys went to escort us to the market, and was being REALLY odd. He walked off to make phone calls, and when 2 of the guys were getting suspicious that they thought he was calling back to the hostel to tell his friends we were far enough away, he was asking where they were going, why they had to leave, what was going on. The whole thing was just so weird. We all ended up running back to the hostel and the locals were looking at us funny and seemed surprised we were back. We made an executive decision to lose the $ from the hostel and just change to a different one in San Telmo. I am happier here but still on guard about everything. I´m nervous to take taxis too because my friend just told me that in La Paz his friend got held up at knifepoint, robbed and dropped of on outskirts. It makes me want to cut my trip off and come home, but I know its just a bad couple of days and things will go back to being wonderful again like they were for the last 5 weeks. On a happier note, I had a really nice day in San Telmo today at the street fair, watching live tango and crazy pieces of artwork. If I wasn´t staring every potential robber in the street down it would have been much nicer though :) Tomorrow I had to Uruguay where it has to be safer than here!!