A (Rough) Beginning to our time in Buenos Aires

Note to reader: As I share about my time in Argentina, I will randomly throw in spanish words I have learned. I hope you enjoy this and maybe you can pick up some of these words as well!

How did Buenos Aires Come to Be?

It was definitely a whirlwind getting ourselves to Buenos Aires (BA). For those of you who do not know, I put in my two weeks at my job (mi trabajo) at the beginning of February, and by week 3 of February, I was in a car, headed to LAX with my fiance, Tyler. We had plans to go live in Buenos Aires where Tyler will continue to work and I would take Spanish classes. I found an apartment in Buenos Aires typically rented as an AirBnb, but I was able to get in touch with the owner and strike a deal to work outside of AirBnb so that we would not pay extra fees. I then reached out to an old friend who I used to play field hockey with. She is Argentine and lives in Mar del Plata. She gave us a ton of helpful information (such as the international vs blue exchange rate).

After we waved goodbye to my mother (who was kind enough to brave Los Angeles traffic for us (it took us almost 5 hours to get from San Diego to LAX… a drive which, with no traffic, should only take 1.5 – 2 hours) we turned around to face our new future… which began with an almost 2 day, flight with two layovers in Lima and in Santiago, before getting us to Buenos Aires’ main international airport, Ministro Pistarini International Airport (EZE), at 2300hrs.

Arriving in Buenos Aires

Before leaving, we coordinated with a local taxi company in the city to pick us up. However, upon landing I messaged them, and they never responded. I messaged them as soon as we made it through customs and still they did not respond… I tried calling and to the best of Tyler and my efforts, we could not get a hold of them (the next morning they messaged apologizing and offered a free ride to the airport to make up for it). Anyways… we were stuck and so we had to take a taxi out of the airport… let me tell you… it was EXPENSIVE (carro).

We knew that when we first got to our apartment we would want to thoroughly check it out and ask our new landlord lots of questions, and so instead of heading to the airbnb that night and ask our new landlord to meet us there at 1am, we decided to instead crash at a hostel. We chose Play Hostel Arcos because it had good ratings, was close to the city (la ciudad) center, and most importantly, it had a 24/7 reception.

The taxi driver we got at the airport was super kind and offered lots of suggestions. We mentioned that we were sad we had missed Carnival (the celebration had been ongoing the week prior and that day we arrive, Tuesday, February 21, was the last day), and he told us that parties were still happening in the street. He then offered to wait outside our hostel while we checked in and dropped off our stuff, and then he would drive us to the party. We did this, but when we arrived to where the party should be happening, we found deserted streets. We were too late 🙁 Sadly our taxi driver brought us back to the hostel, at this point it was around 3AM so we almost instantaneously fell asleep as soon as we crawled into bed.

Moving into our Apartment

The next morning we woke up, packed, checked out and dragged all 5 pieces of our luggage for 30 minutes through the hot (90 degree) streets of BA. Why did we do this instead of, say, take a taxi? order an uber? or take public transportation? Great question. We did not want to spend any more big dollars on a taxi and as far as we understood uber was not a thing in BA, and in BA, to use their public transportation you need a Sube card; we did not have Sube cards. Yes, maybe we could have figured out how to get one but we just wanted to get in our apartment and lay down ASAP.

So, when we finally arrive (covered in sweat mind you), we met Jeronimo who brought us up the elevators (thank goodness there were elevators) and showed us what would be our home. It was one room that was our bedroom (la habitacion), living room, and kitchen (la cocina) all combined into one. Overall it is pretty nice, except that as Jeronimo showed us around, the knob on the oven fell off and he could not light the stove top.

Plus, as of now, as I sit here writing, we still have not figured out how to get hot water when we shower… but hey! It was ours. After Jeronimo left and Tyler and I took a moment to lay down and rest, we took an even deeper look at the apartment and noticed it was disgustingly dirty. Tyler had to start working so I pulled out all the cleaning supplies I could and got to work. At one point, we got hungry. Luckily for us our apartment is right across the street from a Supermarket (supermercado) named Coto that pretty much as everything. So we ran across the street and bought a couple of items for breakfast. As we went to check out, all we had were our credit cards. Argentina is still primarily a cash country, and so in order for us to use our credit cards, we needed to show our passports (real interesting being abroad and getting “carded” for my credit card but I can buy alcohol wherever and whenever and no one blinks haha). Anyway, on that note, at some point that afternoon we were able to meet up with a local who we were referred to, and he was able to exchange our USD for Argentinian Pesos at the Blue Rate (at that time it was 1USD=370 AR Pesos) which was double to official rate (1USD = ~180 pesos). If you want to know more about this “Blue Rate” exchange I keep talking about and how it works, read about it here in my General Argentina Information page.

Once we had the pesos, I promptly ran back to the supermarcado across the street and did a much larger grocery run. One of my favorite things when I travel is exploring the food in different cultures. Argentina is no exception. As I shopped this time around I went slowly, eyes wide as I try to figure out what these items all were and what their US equivalents were.

Some cool things in Argentine Supermarkets:

Bottles with spray tops that keep carbonated water/soda fizzy

Some things they do not have here:

Vegetable broth. If you want it, you’re going to have to cook it for yourself!

We ended our first day in BA by going out to a nearby restaurant, Las Cholas for Argentine Steaks. These steaks were very tasty (rico), but we have since learned that those were just the beginning of good steaks for us.