After our 2-month break in Europe, it was time to get to the next continent: South America.
We chose Argentina as our starting point – it was still a whole day of travel, but we managed to arrive at Buenos Aires.
The first bummer? Our luggage was left in Madrid (Spain), so we were stuck with what we had in our carry-on luggage – yay.
It was much colder than expected. After spending half a year in Asia and two months in Europe during the summer, this hit quite hard, so I fell ill immediately, and we had to take things slowly.
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is worth visiting – it’s vibrant, it’s colourful, and it’s easy to get around.
While I was ill the first time, we planned to visit it twice anyway, so I’ve done my best to capture the vibe of it:
After our time in Buenos Aires, we visited Neuquén – sadly, I don’t have a single photo of our time there, because all we did was recover.
We planned to visit the dinosaur exhibition there, but you need a guide and they only offer Spanish. I think they really don’t like tourists over there.
Salta
Our next stop before heading back to Buenos Aires was Salta.
What should I tell you – it’s nice, but there is little to nothing to do here – one quick trip in the city center and you’ve seen everything!
That was it, pretty much.
We were both very disappointed with Argentina – maybe we’ve been traveling wrong (having a car would have helped a lot), but there were a couple of things that caused our perception:
The Food:
We had one good Empanada restaurant, that was it.
All the other restaurants we tried were pretty bad (and we only picked one with good reviews) – greasy with tons of onions – no matter what you ordered.
The people:
Perhaps that was just bad luck, but after having numerous positive interactions with people in Asia (and even Europe), meeting so many stressed-out and unfriendly individuals in a short period was a real disappointment.
RANT: Thanks again to the fat woman at the airport who could not even speak a single word in English and refused to communicate at all – you work at a fuckin Airport – get another job.
Financials:
We travel with multiple credit cards for a reason, and Argentina was the first country on the planet where we had a persistent struggle to withdraw money from an ATM or use it to order food.
Given that Argentina is one of the wealthiest countries of South America, it’s a joke that you have to deal with these things – go check out some of the poorest countries in Asia, and you will learn a lot from them.
Wrap up
Alright, enough ranting about our trip here, on to Bolivia with high expectations!
SA can’t be all the same. I hope Argentina was just an exception.