Or: That time I accidentally joined a social demonstration on the streets of Buenos Aires. Little click baity actually but let's nip that buzzfeed bs in the bud. After my tour of the city and some outlying areas, the bus couldn't make it through the streets to our hotel, so we had to get out and walk through the crowds annnd let's just say it was boisterous. So what was the day? Well, the previous night, I had mentioned that I had grabbed some tours so here's what's that about. We landed in Buenos Aires after the flight from Ushuaia and that was pretty much the official end of the trip. Of the 119 people who were on board L'Austral as passengers, I think about 20 were going on a Post Tour to Iguazu Falls, and another 10 or so were staying in Buenos Aires for extra days or something. I was one of the people in that 2nd group, the ones that were staying behind. The rest of the passengers though, they were staying at the airport to catch their flights home. It felt like the end of summer camp. I had been on a boat with these people for 9/10 days and I'd met with...just about all of them at least once. And a few of them I had really enjoyed getting to know and having meals and I consider them friends! I hope that we can stay in contact, but the summer camp feeling. It's bittersweet. But, so we all gathered around the carousel for our luggage, and we said our goodbyes and they went once more into the airport to finish their long journey home. My journey was to finish at the hotel. The tour company was nice enough to let me use the bus that the post tour group was using since we were going to the same hotel. So, hopped on board, and before too long we were back at the hotel I had stayed in that first night in Argentina. (It was a nice hotel, seemed silly to pick a separate one for a different night.) So for me, the hotel is where the trip with the tour really ended. Exceeppt. So my roommate on the ship, Cricket, she was one of the people going on the Post Tour. So we continue chatting during check in, and as much as we enjoyed each other's company, we're both so excited for our own rooms and big beds but we might get dinner together, or we might just pass out in our fancy new rooms. I go to ask the tour company person ( a lovely woman named Maria) if she might have suggestions for me to do something in the city. Cricket had told me about this tour of some underground tunnels in Buenos Aires, and I asked the concierge about that, but so, I guess Argentina has some covid policies in place. Or, perhaps they were starting to loosen them? Or maybe make them stricter? I don't know, all I do know is that when I asked the concierge from the hotel to help me book a tour, he told me they weren't doing tours because of Covid. He said he would check first thing in the morning. But, after bouncing around in the hotel checking with the concierge, Maria, my room barely keeping from passing out, I finally go to have dinner like a proper adult. Cricket and I had talked about grabbing dinner, but I took so long that she had already started without me (we also hadn't made any serious plans) . But I go to join her and I gotta say, I immediately missed the service from the ship. Alas, I have been spoiled. But during dinner, that's when Maria told me that one of the tours I had inquired about earlier was operating and they needed to know if I was joining. Me and a few others who were from the trip, but staying in Buenos Aires on our own. And we were all at dinner together, so Maria tracked us down and after some uhh....logistics issues....(like the other tour I signed up for at noon?) we all got signed up for the tour. And then that was scheduled, Cricket finished her dinner, and after starting to let my eyes glaze over at my dinner, I dragged myself to bed (where I made that blog post.) and slept SO GOOD. King bed baby. And just
ah.
bliss. Although, truth be told, as I was dozing, I thought I heard a rat scratching at the wall, and I Freaked.Out! It was the curtain rod against the wall, but you know the brain when it's like....half-asleep? yeah, besides that little brain moment, great night. Got up early because I had been all trip basically, and I packed my bag because, I was taking a flight tonight. So I'd have to check out. Although, I asked if I could have a late checkout, and the tour was supposed to end at 3, so the hotel let me extend my stay until 4pm. Which thank goodness. Because the tour was at 8:45, but they actually came to pick us up at 8:30. Or they got their early, and I happened to be in the lobby with the other couple because I was going to grab something to eat. And so the tour picked us up in a little bus and we grabbed another girl from a different hotel (also from Atlanta!) and we were off! The first part was a bus tour of some of the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and some surrounding like...cities? Kinda like, Marietta and Dunwoody and Sandy Springs are to Atlanta. It basically had their version of Piedmont Rd- a super long road that goes through several areas. It was nice, and a great look at how large Buenos Aires is and the different areas. I mean, we did see some of the....more rundown areas. (Like the full on slums that are practically ramshackle towers that "grow larger every year". According to our guide.) But that's every city. So we toured the area, saw some historical homes (like the home where the national anthem was first played) and the presidents home and other the stadium and etc etc. A nice church in the middle of mass and across the street from a school with a news station reporting about some vandalism. It was...that was odd, but life. We also saw a fruit market/port where it's a great shopping area. We hung out there for like, 40ish minutes, and me and the other girl from Atlanta walked around together and only got a little lost. Place was super cute and colorful and if I had *any* room in my luggage, I would have bought so much. Probably for the best then. And then we moved to the 2nd part of our tour! There was a boat cruise/tour that went down Buenos Aires's river, the Rio de la Plata. It's-according to the guides- the largest river in the world. It apparently doesn't mix with the Atlantic Ocean where it 'empties' so I don't know, sounds accurate. The thing is so large, it looks like a bay. But the boat was on a normal width of a river, but as we went further down, it opened wider and wider. And the river brings along sediment and stuff, and over the millennia, it has formed these islands that people have since moved onto and made communities. There's one island that has roads and bridges to the mainland, but everything else needs a boat to get to. The homes were, frankly, gorgeous. River homes on stilts, but just, damn. And! AND. At one point I started asking, "how do you move here? Like, do you just buy land and build a home?" and well, duh, that's an option, but you can buy a home on one of the main canals for.....
.....
it's.....
30,000-100,000 US dollars.
FUCKING WHAT. I could get a home on a gorgeous river for, even on the high end, 100000??? And then the guide was like, "Or you could purchase a cheaper home off of one of the side canals for less..."
I mean, it's island living, it comes with a host of expenses but holy moly. Y'all I need to learned spanish so I can buy a vacation home on Rio de la Plata in like, 20ish years. (I'm only a little kidding............) But yeah, so we toured the river, the homes, the one theme park in Argentina apparently (on the river btw) and then the boat took us back to where we boarded, and our little 4 person tour had a lunch break and had some fabulous empanadas at a restaurant on the river front.
And then we took the bus back to Buenos Aires to be taken to the hotels in downtown. That's where the demonstration comes in. The guides, Maria, the hotel, all of them were.....let's go ahead and say a bit on edge, regarding the demonstration. Part of it was...turns out, it's the day they celebrate democracy. On Dec 10th, Argentina celebrates the day they elected a president after they overthrew a dictator in the......year of 1983! I'm not going to get into Argentinian political history because frankly, I don't know shit, but I will say that the people who talked about it....
it was brutal. but, so that's why they celebrate so hard! It's maybe a too recent memory. But, so they celebrate the 10th, but it's also a day that other political groups will use as a marching day/protest day/demonstration day.... The guide made it seem like the majority of the people in downtown were part of the unemployment population that doesn't work. That they're asking for free handouts.... I don't know. I don't know what's going on in Argentina politically/economically....
etc. What I do know is that I mean, the US had a massive increase in the unemployment rate in the last few years because of Covid, and I was one of them. Without knowing the context, I cannot comment, but only relay what was told to me that day. That and there were a TON of people. The largest avenue in the world, Avenida 9 de Julio, like, the main artery of Buenos Aires, was JAMMED. People, cars, flags. So, many. flags. And we began to try and crawl to the hotel, but the bus circled the area twice, and each time the way was blocked by *hordes* of people. People were in the street making food, drinking wine out of sprite bottles, playing music on instruments....
it was nuts. So, eventually, our guide was like, "I think we need to walk." And at this point, we had dropped the 4th girl off so it was the 3 of us in the same hotel, so we were like, "sure." And then we got out of the bus, and crossed the largest avenue in the world, bursting with people, and walked through some of downtown. The bus driver actually got us as close as he could, and it was like, a 8 minute walk. But we weaved through flag wavers, scurried past before a march could envelop us, dodged demonstrators....
no one bothered us. we were just another group of people walking around. I'm not going to pretend I wasn't anxious. You know me, I'm like that. I had my backpack of very expensive camera gear (even minimized to two lenses....still.) and I had no idea where I was going. I didn't understand anything that was being said to me....well...*around* me. No one but the guide spoke to us and he spoke English so I don't mean to exaggerate. But then we were back at our hotel and it was only 3:20. Which, is great for me because I have some private area to be by myself before I have to travel tonight, but.
I kinda wish I had bought another night? Or like, half night? Cause then I could have showered, or just hung out, because after being out there, in that chaos, (because even though it was fine, it was NOT organized at all) I didn't want to explore anymore. sorry. I had thought about trying to do the tunnel tours- which I had found out at 11:30 am, that they were running, but they only had an english speaking tour at 12, but I thought earlier in the day, "Hey, maybe when this tour is over, I can go anyways, and just appreciate no context history." That plan went out the window. So, after checking out at the last possible second I just....hunkered down at the hotel. I wasn't going to walk to the tour, and I didn't have cash for a cab and credit cards are hit and miss with taxis so. There I was, just...enjoying the hotel, They had a lovely garden to sit in, which I enjoyed for a little bit until I could feel a sunburn (the boat had also not been kind either) then inside to their little lobby area by the tv. And there I stayed. I had agreed with a few other travelers from L'Austral to split a bus with them to the airport- we were all flying to Atlanta. Wellll I basically bummed a ride off of them. I paid them back though. But I hung out until it was time for us to leave for the airport. That's when we swapped stories of what we all did today....cause none of these people were the same couple from the bus/boat tour. One of the women, she had gone shopping at a leather outlet and in the surrounding areas and took a cab back when the crowds started getting excessive, and same with Kathy and Jim. Theywalked around and shopped, then got back when the crowds started getting too large. We all sorta nixed our late afternoon plans because we just.....didn't want to deal with everything outside. surprisingly though, by the time we went to leave for the airport, the crowds had dispersed. I had pulled up a news article saying things would end around 6 but I did not believe it. Proved me wrong. And then it was the boring stuff many of you are familiar with. Travelling through an airport. I got lucky, these other people, they were all first class seats on our flight, and even though I am a common Comfort Plus plebian (this time) a Delta agent saw me with them and let me use the fancy sky priority line. Which, WHEW. The normal line was backed waaaaayyyy the hell up and, I had gotten confused by a couple just....hanging out by the line, I had thought they were in A line, but they weren't, so like 20 more people had joined the main line in the minute I was a dunce. Bless that delta agent. Seriously. And then, they were nice enough to let me tag along through the rest of the airport. Even into the fancy lounges for Delta Skymiles Members (the gold ones right?) and THEN, when they saw there was an American Express Platinum lounge????
WOAH baby! They let me in there too! You need a platinum American Express card. y'all, I peaked behind the curtain. They were exceedingly nice to this random girl from....well I was gonna say Atlanta, but then Florida, but let's end it with they were exceedingly nice to a random girl. They'd really only known me for a little bit. I hadn't hung out with them that much during the trip. It was a great way to end the trip honestly. We chatted, then when it came time to board the plane, we went to our seats and I
had a
WHOLE
row!
to myself. Manage to sleep most of the flight....I think. It was not....restful. But my eyes were closed and time passed very quickly. And I was kinda able to lay out....it was a two seat row so
you know. and honestly, most of the flight was empty. Back where I was. I was not the only one with a row to myself. guy in front
guy across
lady behind
lady on the other side of the plane
so many empty seats! I don't know why. It's not like I saw a lot of international flights out of Argentina....
just something I was curious about. But when the flight was over, we all met up to go through customs again and I was done with my stuff before 9am. Our flight landed at 8 am. Less than an hour to get my bags, go through customs? Also they never checked my covid test. But I was happy it was painless and smooth, and we all said our goodbyes, and I got my uber, and before you know it, I'm home. Gross.
Kinda on my 2nd wind?
But home.
Nissan acted like he didn't miss me but he definitely was way more cuddly that night.
So that was my very brief time in Buenos Aires.
I want to go back.
With better spanish.
Explore more.
I think I'd like it. If I can skip the super large crowds. so, that was my trip. Blog was super late - my laptop died at the airport and I didn't charge it when I got home for like, 3 days. I have not....returned gracefully to normal life. It's odd, when I'm going home to Florida in a week. Seems a little pointless.....you know? But Argentina, Antarctica. It was a wonderful time. I hope I'm lucky enough to go back some day.
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