A Solo Travellers Mind

My journey to Argentina began at 3am driving from the beach in Chile to the airport to catch my 8am flight! You’d think on arrival to Buenos Aires I’d be super tired, but some how I was not. I got myself a bus card, hopped on a bus and got to my hostel when I was greated by Carley! Reunited after 2 years! The day was a semi chilled one, a super market shop, followed by exploring the town. Heading to Plaza del mayo and Casa Rosada, two super old and cool building representing the independence of argentina. We also checked out the museum of Bicentenario. And finally heading to Puerto Madero where we stumbled into a very cool bar on the water and enjoyed some reunion drinks!

The next day was a biggy! First exploring the north of the city and all its gardens, including the Botanical Gardens, the ecoparque (basically a free zoo which was very cool, seeing some capabaras, otters, bisons ect, intill we saw a very skinny and sad looking camel and then proceeded to leave), and the rosadal gardens. We then headed to Palermo, a super cool part of town, checking out Serrano and its bars/weekend markets, and also booking our dinner for nye! And finally heading south to Caminito where we saw more cool art work and buildings, before leaving to catch the bus home. We did nearly fail at this as the buses kinda don’t stick to one route, but we soon succeeded and successfully made our way home!

Our 3rd day in BA involved a train journey to Tigre, where we explored the islands of tigre on a small wooden boat, getting to see the houses of the locals (as well as the holiday houses of the very rich!). We wondered around the town for a little while and then headed back home, as unfortunately for us, the art museum was closed! A very tasty dinner of veggie stir fry was made, before a pamper evening, in preparation for new years the next day!

New years eve was a big day, starting at 12pm. We headed for our 9 course Asado tasting meal with paired wines. The courses were as followed…
Eggplant with lemon ricotta cheese and nuts
Cheese with roasted pear
The gland from the neck of a cow with tomato puree
Sausage and black pudding with apple chutney
Slow cooked (8 hours) asado beef, seasoned with salt from patagonia
Pork with chili sauce and tomato and pepper (capsicum) salad
Rib eye cauliflower puree and corn
Ribeye steak
4 years under the sun wine (the strongest wine I’ve ever had) and sweet pancakes
(Too sweet for me).
Post meal we headed to a bar in town for some beers and jenga, before we attempted to get the bus to the centre where there could be fire works. The bus took ages to come and once again had to go to another stop with the help of a French man and a local to get the bus into town. We found the square and watched the fire works at the oblisk. This was just a bunch of local people setting off random fire works but it was cute to seee.

The 1st was a very chilled day, with some time spent at the park relaxing and some time in the hostel. I was super tired after a big day yesterday and needed the rest.

The next day we were up at 3am to head to the airport to catch our flight to Iguaza. I had a nap in the airport and in the plane so was rejuvenated by the time I arrived to the hostel. We had an explore round town and then headed for an arvo at the pool/hammocks in the hostels very nice garden.

Our first full day in Iguaza was actually not even in Argentina, as we got up early to head to the Brazilian side of the Falls, after hearing that this is the busiest and more “annoying” side to do. The border was incredibly stress free for us, so the other travellers we met must have picked a bad day! The waterfall itself is crazy big, with an unbelievable amount of water going through it. With some really cool scenes and some even cooler animals (some south american Coatis) spotted along our walk, it’s was a nice day out! The Coatis were super cute and there were lots of babies running around the place, maybe stealing the show for me. On return the hostel it was a pool evening!

The next day was another day at Iguaza falls, this time on the Argentinian side. On arrival we headed to Devil’s throat No.1, which is a cool walkway above the water fall, most people apperently get soaked here but we were clearly blessed with good wheather and no wind! We then walked the other trails through different sections of the Falls, before heading to devils throat No.2. A 7km trail into the jungle, which came out at a really cute, small waterfall, with the perfect swimming hole at the bottom. The best way to end the day! We saw lots of animals on our walks today, including turtles, a plush crested grey (a bird), more Coatis, including a wee tiny baby, some fish, some big lizards, and some cool spiders and caterpillars. A busy one!

A big travel day from Iguaza to Mendoza, flying via Beunos aires. The 2nd flight was cancelled, meaning we had to run through the airpor, to change out flight and magically made a new flight for free. Met our Aussie friend on the flight who shared a room with us briefly in BA. Shared a ride to town, made plans for wine biking.

The next day I went for a run in the morning, really nice veiws around the park, and then we headed for our wine bike trip, me, Nic, Carley and Omri (a new friend from the hostel). A really fun day with nice wine too! Stayed up way too late to talk to a wee Aussie human across the pond (time zones RIP).

A slow morning after 4 hrs sleep. Booked some bus tickets to a cool lake. Abandoned the Aconcague  hike plan as it was soo far away and was going to be very spenny, and the logistics were becoming a little annoying. Went hiking in the park, around a really cool area with lots of trails and trail runners. A super early night was had because i was super tired.

A super nice, and relaxing day at the lake in Potrerillos followed the next day, a cool town outside of Mendoza, some swimming and a little walk around the lake. Super nice vibes. Really cool veiws of the Andes mountain range with the lake in the forground. Bus home, managed to get on earlier bus then booked (the wind got very windy), we had a seat however had 20 people with no seat and thus they were left standing the poor souls. Clearly lots of people have the same thoughts and got an earlier bus lol. Unfortunately on return to the hostel i discovered someone had stolen my new tennis skirt, which I’m still very sad about to this day!

Another travel day, from Mendoza to Salta followed, a pretty chilled journey. On arrival to the hostel in Salta, we found they had a gym which was very cool for me! We met our roomies and all organised to go on a road trip a few days later in the south. We then cooked some dinner and headed to our beds.

A chilled but stressed day, attempting to organise USD for Bolivia, had to send money via Western union (a forgiven concept) for us, mine got stuck in space coming from aus however we managed to get money to carleys Western union and then had to exchanged peso for usd with a random man in the street with a bag on the black market, kinda insane. A afternoon hike up to San Bernard’s Hill, 1000 steps up a big hill with very cool veiws, carley kinda died but soon recovered at the top. Return to make dinner with out roomie Felix. Attempted a curry, no curry seasoning, basically a veggie stir fry.

The next morning was a veryy chilled one including a gym session with felix. I finally managed to get my money, and once again it was back to the men with bags to get USD, this time going to the office of one man, the back room in a cafe and thus sitting next to alot of bread as we made out trade. The world is crazy. We booked our bus tickets to the border (no way to book the bus on the other side so this is a hope and pray sito). We all headed to a cafe for some sweet treats and a hot choccy followed by a “steak” dinner with veggie rice, the steak was not meant to be steak, and thus is was kinda like eating rubber, with everyone’s comments about the food subsequently causing us to have fits of laughter. So it might have been a bad meal but it was a good time.

A day tour to the Northern towns of argentina, including Paramamaca, where the hill of 7 colours are, Humahuca, and Tilcara. Very cool cute towns, lots of markets, and cool hills/mountain ranges. We came back and cooked with Felix and Matis, our hostel friends. But not before me and carley got kicked out of a shop while collecting food supplies because I’d stepped on wet concrete on the shop floor. We made a very nice creamy pasta and then made the boys wash up (winning).

Our final day in Argentina was a really busy but sweet one. We hired a car with felix and Matis and headed south to Cafayate, seeing some crazy veiws along the way and hiking up devils throat. Carley was strongly encouraged up devils throat and made it up the top (some serious progress made). We saw donkeys, goats and a coyote on our drive along the way too! On the way home we got stopped at 2 police check points which was an interesting experience, and also crossed a very deep river crossing/road flood and subsequently had a panic as Felix believed we had infact stopped moving and started swimming lol (luckily we had not). We got home in one piece and then made a steak dinner (this time far more successful with the correct cut of meat) and all enjoyed a final meal together before we all departed to go our different ways!

Argentina has been a really cool place, the south for me, was the high light (this was visited while in patagonia last month), but the north has been very pretty too. And we’ve met some very nice humans along the way! 2/ 11 countries down…