Feeling Lucky in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Left Uruguay: Arrive at ferry terminal at 4 PM and check in. I walked eight blocks under some sprinkles to get here. Just a minute after I walk into the ferry terminal it starts pouring and storming outside! Lucky! According to Google, the ferry from Uruguay arrives at Tigre, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires. I arrive at the port, disembark at 5:30 pm. I think I am in Tigre. I am in Argentina! Feeling Lucky! I pick up my backpack, head out of the terminal, and look for a currency exchange kiosk: it is closed. Not Lucky. I withdraw 300 pesos from cash machine, the machine charges 52 pesos for the withdrawal. My effective exchange rate is 7.33 Argentinian Pesos per Dollar. (Note, Argentina has an official exchange rate and imposes limits on currency exchange by its citizens. However, there is a flourishing black market offering an informal exchange rate. The informal exchange rate: 13.00 Argentinian Pesos per Dollar.) Not Lucky. I ask taxi drivers which bus takes me to Escobar. They think it is bus 60, and I have to walk about 18-20 blocks to the bus stop. I ask how much they charge to take me the 20 blocks. One says $1000. They tell me to get a taxi on the street. Not Lucky. I proceed to walk instead. Everything looks like I am in downtown. Wow, Tigre is pretty developed for a suburb! Or I must not have a good notion of the size of Buenos Aires; maybe Tigre is much closer to the center of town than that it looked on the map. I cross Av. 9 de Julio--this is the really, really wide avenue that I have seen in pictures. I am in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Or at least this huge avenue goes all the way to Tigre; I had no idea.) I made it all the way here by bus and boat. The rain stopped long before we arrived. It is a beautiful day and I am in a beautiful city. I am feeling Really, Really Lucky. I ask for the bus again from someone on the street. I ask if I can pay cash on the bus. No, I need a bus card or coins. I ask in a shop if I can get change for the bus. No, we dont have any change. Here, look how many coins we have. They open the cash register and show me a few coins in it. Not Lucky. I ask in a second shop. No, we dont have any change. A third shop. No, and you would need a lot of coins to pay for the bus, and it will cost you double what you would pay if you had a bus card. Not Lucky. Where can I get a bus card? Hmm, not sure. Walk back 5 blocks from where you came to try to find a kiosk that is open. Everything around me is closed and the streets are pretty deserted. Not Lucky. Where can I get a local phone SIM card so I can use my cell phone? Next corner. I walk to the next corner. Nothing is open. I return back to the way I was going to get the bus card. Not Lucky. I do find the kiosk and buy the bus card. Can I buy credit for the card? No, we only sell the card. Go to this store on this block to add credit. I go to the store. Their machine to add credit is broken. Not Lucky. Where should I go? Go one block down. I go another block, they dont have a working machine either. Not Lucky. They tell me: go to the subte. The what? The subte. Whats the subte? The subway. Oh, OK. I walk another block and go down to the ticket office in the subway. I tell the guy working at the subway ticket office: I want to take a bus to Escobar, how much credit do I need to get there? I have no idea, it varies depending on where you are going. OK, well, what would the maximum be? Well, how should I know, maybe 1000 pesos? 1000 pesos? Come on, give me a reasonable answer. How should I know? 1000 pesos, theoretically possible; I dont know. Not Lucky. What if I put 50 pesos on my card, you think that would be enough? Yeah, 50 will be more than enough, you will have credit left over. I put 50 pesos on the card. I return back to my 18 block walk. I ask another person where I get bus 60 to Escobar, and they say I only need to walk 6 blocks to Libertad. Lucky! I find Libertad and the bus stop for bus 60. Lucky. I wait. And wait. And wait. The bus has not come after about 20 minutes of waiting. Not Lucky. I walk over to an open kiosk and ask about the bus. The guy says that the bus stop where I was waiting is in fact bus 60, but that bus wont go to Escobar. I have to go to a different stop for another bus 60 another 8 blocks away. So the directions for the 18 block walk were correct the entire time. Not Lucky. I walk 8 more blocks and find the other bus stop. The bus comes and it says Tigre / Escobar on it. Great! Finally, I am Lucky. I have found the long sought after bus to Escobar. Maybe it is the Tigre-to-Escobar bus? I get on, and ask the driver to charge me what it costs to get to Escobar. (A brief moment of suspense while I wait to find out how much credit I will need to get to Escobar.) He tells me: No, no, get off this bus and wait for bus 1. But your bus says Escobar. Yes, but I wont go all the way to Escobar. I am going to Tigre. I get off the bus. Not Lucky. Why does he say he is going to Tigre if I am already in Tigre? It is now 8 pm and it will be dark real soon. I am ready to give up now. I walk across the street to Burger King, get on the free WiFi, and send messages via FB, e-mail, and Skype SMS to my friends telling them that I give up, I cannot figure out how to get anywhere and can they come pick me up here in downtown? After that, I look up my location on a map. I am not in Tigre, I am downtown just like I thought. This entire time that I have been going around looking for buses I was actually not far from the Retiro bus and train station; the central place where all the buses and trains originate. I ask Google how far it is from here to my friends neighborhood. 1 hour driving time. Via public transport? Google cannot find a route. Not Lucky. Not surprised either after Google told me I would arrive in Tigre and I actually arrived downtown. I write my friends another message, again via all the channels, to tell them not to come look for me here; I am going to Retiro to look for a train. I get a taxi to the train station. I tell him how I have been going around in circles downtown trying to figure out a bus out to Escobar, and that is just where I need to go to get a connection to Los Cardales. We arrive to the train / bus stations and he says, Good Luck! We will see. I walk into the train station and ask at the ticket counter: Which train goes to Los Cardales? That train isnt here. Walk over to the next train to the left. I head left. There is a wall, and a bathroom. I walk back to the ticket counter. He says: You have to go back out to the street and go a half block down to the left to the other train station. I go a half block and find the other train station. I ask two policemen inside which train goes to Los Cardales. Oh, its not here. You need to go a half block down to the other train station. But I just came from there and they told me to come here. Where do you want to go? Los Cardales. Ahhh, yes, I think so, lets go see the map. Yes, see, Los Cardales is a small suburb way out there; you take this train to Victoria, and change trains there. But the train that goes out there is very irregular, it runs maybe once a day. Go to Victoria and see if there is any train still running tonight. Or ask for a bus to Los Cardales from there. Not feeling very lucky. There probably wont be any connecting train. There probably wont be any connecting bus; maybe I should go look for a bus here. But this train is right here; leaving any second. I get on the train anyway. We leave a few seconds later. Lucky? I ask some strangers on the train if they will do me a favor: can you send a text message to my friends letting them know that I am on this train, and I will get off in Victoria to see if there is a connecting train, or a bus? They kindly send the text message. A few minutes later, they get a call. They tell me it is my friends asking to talk to me. I get on the phone. I learn that I am, in fact, on the wrong train. Not Lucky. But keep going; go all the way to the end. The last stop: Tigre. Wait there and we will come pick you up. I finally arrive at Tigre where I thought I was six hours ago. I wait at the train station for 20 minutes. Hermann arrives! Very Lucky! Big hugs all around; we load up the car and drive. And drive. And drive. Wow, how embarrassing! He came all this way to pick me up because I couldnt figure out where I was or how to get anywhere close. We call ahead to the house: heat up the leftovers; we are on our way. We arrive at the house, walk in, and head straight to the kitchen. It is 10:30 PM. We sit down, and they serve me steak, potatoes and rice. I had been all through Brazil and Uruguay eating steak and sausage pretty much every day. I even had steak for lunch today. But this steak...this steak...was the best steak I have ever had. LUCKY! I am at home with the Zapps: the most amazing traveling family who inspired me to travel. This is only the second time in 14 years that they have been home for early January holidays. I am Very Very Lucky to be here with them!
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 15:04:37 +0000
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