Hola Amigos! Cheffina in Argentina!

Monday, January 21

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We arrived at the Cartagena bus station around 7:00 PM, after sharing a cab ride with some new friends from Germany.  One of them, Raphael, told us to look him up when we got there and he would show us around, and maybe even let us stay with him.  We waited for our 8:00 bus to Bogota, and practiced our Spanish by telling different merchants that we didn't want any sandles or sunglasses.



 

Our bus left right on time, and it wasn't even 10 minutes before we were stopped by the Colombian police for a search.  We all passed.  There isn't much to say really, about a 21 hour bus ride, beyond the facts that; It was freezing cold (the A/C was cranked up to the maximum), it was kinda boring (reading was making us both nauseas), movies are less interesting when they’re being shown in a language you don't understand, and Gravol actually helps you sleep for quite a long time.

 

Tuesday, January 22

 

We stopped at 5:30 am for gas, and got out to stretch our legs. We made one more stop at 11:30, where we had a bus stop sandwich and fruit for lunch.  The movies today were the dubbed versions of Final Destination 4, a Dolphin’s Tale, and one random one called Lottoman.

 

We arrived literally right on time, as we were told it would be a 21 hour bus, and we timed it.  Bogota wasn’t a particularily nice city to drive through, and it was a little chillier than what we had become used to, being that it is in the mountains.  We got off the bus and flagged down a taxi, and asked how much it would be to get to the airport.  He told us that it would be 12,000 Colombian Pesos (about $6), but as we had learned never to accept the first priced offered, we tried bargaining down to 10,000.  He wasn’t budging, however, and he did seem pretty nice, so we hopped in.  It turned out that his name was Lois, and his English was excellent.  He said he had made some friends in Canada after spending time with habitat for humanity, and he invited us over for an assado dinner (barbeque).  We politely declined, but told him if we were ever back in Bogota, we would look him up.

 

 

When we arrived at the airport Alice swore all that she kept getting wafts of something that smelled like garbage and kept on smelling herself and everything around her. David couldn't smell a thing and we weren't sure if she was going crazy or not. Either way, we were surprised to see how new and modern the airport was.  Some parts were still under construction, which would unfortunately play into the amount of sleep we were to get later on.  We sat down at "Kokoriko's", one of the airport restaurants ready to order dinner, and there Alice was again, smelling herself and everything insight. Sure enough we finally realized that she wasn't imagining things at all, the entire front of her bag was soaking wet and we realized it must have been sitting in garbage juice on the entire bus ride from Cartagena. She was completely grossed out and ran straight to the bathroom to wash off the bag and whatever else was effected. When she returned, we shared a 1/2 chicken and roasted potatoes (3 very small roasted potatoes) for dinner, and had a random midnight snack of cheese, deli meat, and fruit on a skewer.  We settled into our accommodations; the airport benches.  The two of us slept for a combined 8 hours, 6 of which went to Alice.

 

Wednesday, January 23

 

We had breakfast at 6:00 am at a nice (but expensive) café called “crepes and waffles”.  Alice had scrambled eggs with something that resembled a hybrid of beans and corn, and Dave had “huevos rancheros”.  We checked into our flight 3 hours early (out of the sheer boredom of sitting in the airport for 15 hours already), and did some duty free shopping, and had a wrap and fruit cup for lunch.  Our flight, which was supposed to leave at 12:00, didn't board until 12:30.  Once we got on the plane, we sat there for an additional hour, as there was some conspicuous looking baggage that the police were inverstigating.  Obviously our initial reaction was that someone had planted drugs in OUR bags, and we would end up in a Colombian prison, but we were soon reassured that all was clear for takeoff.

 

We met a few Aussie backpackers and got to chatting.  We asked them if they had paid the “reciprocity tax” that Canadians, Aussies, and U.S. citizens had to pay before entering Argentina, and they said they hadn't.  It said specifically on the internet that this tax must be paid and a receipt printed before entering the country, or else entry would be denied.  They didn't seem to be too worried, though.

 

We arrived in Buenos Aires around 10:00 pm, and saw the Aussies discussing the tax with the customs agent, and then being escorted away to another room.  We never saw them again, so we can only hope that this other room was a place for them to pay the tax, and not an exit out of the country.  We had to change some American money in Argentian pesos, so we went into the airport “farmacia” and found the Dettol soap that Dr. K had recommended to us in an earlier blog.  We took our pesos, soap, and bags, and headed to the bus stop.
 

 

We had read on the internet that the bus we needed was the “Ocho” (8), and that it would take about 2 hours to get to our Hostel and friends Jeff and Adina.  What the internet didn't tell us was that we needed exact change to get on the bus.  So we missed the first bus.  Alice waited with the bags while Dave ran back to the airport to make change.  Unfotunately, the 1 peso and 2 peso coins that were required were pretty rare, as no one (the farmacia, mcdonalds, the taxi stand, and 2 convenience stores) would give any away.  Frustrated, Dave ran back to the bus station to find out that they had missed another bus!  We decided that we would just beg the next bus driver to let us pay with the bills we had.  When we tried this 20 minutes later, the bus driver was not having it.  Fortunately, though, we found a friendly lady who happened to have enough change to help us out. 

 

The internet was correct, as it took us 2 hours to get to the hostel, but at least we got to see some of the city via bus.  We arrived just before 1:00 am, and went to our room where we were greeted by Jeff, Adina, and a few presents from home.

 

After a much needed shower ( and an actual hot one, for once), we were going to go out and have a bite to eat, but the guy at the front desk of the hostel told us it wasn't the nicest area to be walking around in the middle of the night.  So we decided to eat what little provisions we had left; broken crackers, peanut butter, and almonds, and went to sleep

 

Thursday, January 24

 

We had cereal, bread, and some nasty coffee for breakfast, all of which provided complimentarily by the hostel.  We had seen on the hostel bulletin board that there was a “historic walking tour” of the city at 11:00, and decided that would be a nice way to spend the first part of the day.  It was a sunny day, and a balmy 40 degrees!  We learned a bit of the history of Buenos Aires, mainly the neighbourhoods of San Telmo and Boca, and drank a lot of water.  After the walking tour, we had lunch with Jeff, Adina, and two guys; Chris from the U.S. and Tony from Australia, that we had met on the walking tour.  We had chicken, ravioli, and empanadas at a local café, and learned quickly that Argentina was not going to be as cheap as the other countries that we had visited so far.

 

After lunch, we walked back to the hostel, and after taking a quick break, decided to continue the walking tour on our own, and went to see more sights and monuments around the city.  By the time we had gotten back to the hostel it was close to 7:00pm and we were ready for another hot shower and quick cat nap.

 

For dinner, on Chris’ recommendation, we went to a restaurant called “El Federale” that specialized in “Piscada”.  We were served large platters of cheese, deli meats, sausage, bread and crackers, and it was all quite delicious.  The price here was pretty reasonable, as the four of us stuffed our faces and drank 2 bottles of (cheap) wine for a grand total of $50.  We ended up getting back to the hostel around 1:00 am and went to sleep soon after that.

 

Friday, January 25

 

We had the same complimentary breakfast as had been served to us the day before, and the coffee was no better.  As we all had a bit of a food and wine hangover, it was a bit of a slow morning.  We also had to change hostels, as the one we were staying at was booked up for that night, and we hadn't had anything else booked. Thankfully, there was another nice one just around the corner, and they had space.  So we moved our bags over to our new accommodations, and went over to speak to a travel agent, “Magic Mike”, who Jeff had rather resourcefully become friends with the day before.

 

We told Magic Mike that we had no money to offer him for prearranged tours, but wanted some inspiration on what to do next on our travels.  Naturally, he seemed not to like us much after that, but was still pretty helpful.  He suggested, after discussing many options, that we go to Uruguay and see a place called “Cabo Polonia”, in Uruguay.  We decided that was the thing to do, and thanked him for his time.

 

We wanted to go see a neighbourhood called “El Tigre” that afternoon, which required taking a train from the “Retiro” station.  After stopping for a quick lunch on Chile blvd, we hopped on a bus to the train station, but not before having to once again make exact change for the bus.  Thankfully, Jeff is a little more resourceful than Dave or Alice when it comes to these things, and made quick work of the mission.  When we got to Retiro station, we met a nice local guy named Thomas, who told us he’d show us the way to the Le Tigre train.

 

When we got to the turnstyle to enter the train station, we asked Thomas “how much does the train cost?”, and he said “This much....” and walked right through the turnstyle, without paying, right in front of a police officer.  So naturally, we followed suit, and he informed us that no one really pays for the train in Buenos Aires.  Interesting. 

 

The train took just over an hour, and we got to see a bit of the city on the way.  We arrived to a lovely riverside community just outside the city that reminded us of something you’d see in Venice.  We walked around, and visited a local casino, where we got a crash course in the game of craps thanks to Jeff.  On the way back, we couldn't help but stop by McDonalds, for a snack of a triple bacon cheeseburger, and junior McChicken sandwich.

 

 

We didn't get back until late again, which meant another 10:00 dinner.  This time, we went to an Asado restaurant, where we had different cuts of steak, sausages, and French fries.  For those who have been following our diet progress, please note that this was obviously turning out to be a bad week.  We asked for the bill, and the waiter, Javier (who had greeted us with hugs and kisses initially) told us that a “friend” had taken care of it.  It turned out that the friend was none other than Jeff himself, who said that it would be an early birthday present for us.  We turned on a Netflix movie, and this time made it about a quarter of the way through the movie before falling asleep.

 

Saturday, January 26.

 

We woke up a little later than usual, as things seem to go pretty late in Argentina, and for breakfast we had the now very common cereal, bread, and bad coffee.  At one point during breakfast, Jeff asked, "What time is it?".  This was a natural question to ask, being that we had a ferry to Uruguay for that morning, and had to be at the ferry port for 10:50.  Dave looked at his watch and replied "9:30", and all were satisfied with the amount of time needed to make it to the ferry.  We continued being lazy for a while, and were finishing our breakfast, when we decided to randomly ask someone else what time it was, to which the reply was "10:45".  We thought of how the last hour and 15 minutes could have possibly passed by so quickly, but soon after realized that it was in fact Dave's watch that hadn't been set to the correct time.  The next 20 minutes were pretty intense as we packed, called a taxi, printed our ferry tickets, and in the case of Dave, apologized profusely. 

The taxi arrived at 11:10 (real time), and we tried to inform him the best we could that we were incredibly late for our check in.  He must have understood, because he started driving away while Alice had one leg in the car and the door still open.  He yelled something in Spanish that none of us understood, and were all very stressed for the next 25 min.  Thankfully, we arrived at the ferry station just as our ferry was boarding, and all was well.  The ferry was pretty quick, lasting just over an hour, and we arrived in Uruguay just after 1:00. 

We arrived to a beautiful sunny day, and as we left the ferry port, glimmering in the parking lot we saw two shiny dune buggies!  We inquired inside the port as to how much they would be to rent, and we were told they would only be $12/hour.  This was an opportunity we would not pass up, as we had some time to kill before our bus left to Montevideo.  We were starving, however, so we decided to eat before renting the buggies.  We walked over to an outdoor café and ate the most ridiculous sandwiches we'd ever had.  They were called "Parrillas", and consisted of sausage, fried egg, mushrooms, cheese, French fries, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, hot peppers, spicy mayo, mayo, ketchup, olives, and mustard, in no particular order.  The picture doesn't do the sandwiches justice.



After stuffing ourselves, we went back to rent the dune buggies, and spent the next 56 minutes racing around the streets of Colonia, driving along the coast, and almost getting run over by busses. We got back just on time to catch our bus to Montevideo, which took 3 hours, and immediately got onto another bus to Punta del Este.  We arrived in Punta del Este (Which can best be described as Miami meets South America) at around 11:00, and walked around the streets looking for a hostel.  We didn't find one until after midnight, and ended up having to pay the ridiculous sum of $30 per person for dorm beds.  We weren't in the mood to argue, though, as we had had a very long, but fun, day.  We grabbed take out pizza from "El Horno's", and spent the rest of the night relaxing on hammocks.

Thanks again to everyone for keeping up with us,
With love from Miami, Uruguay (Punta del Este),
D'Alice