This blog post is massively overdue, I'll be the first to admit it... But Argentina has been so difficult to write about because so many strange things and then normal things have happened. But mostly weird things, osly. Let me tell you a tale...

To reach Buenos Aires, our first stop in Argentina, we took the ferry from Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. We attempted to get tickets the day before our departure only to find out that the only tickets left were in first class. f*** it, we think. There's not enough to do it this small ass town for any longer. We booked two nights in the cute colonial town but one could see the city within an hour or two. Can you believe it's actually listed as one of the top 15 things to see in Lonely Planet's South America on a Shoestring book?! Go home, Lonely Planet, you're drunk.

Anyway, we bought the first class tickets cause no way were we staying in Colonia for the rest of time and the next day we woke up for breakfast early enough to also have time to hit up a few ATMs in time before our boat. You see, the inflation in Argentina is so extreme that there is an official exchange rate for money and then there's the blue market rate for a dollar. The former is around 8 pesos to a dollar and the latter 13 to 1, so if one travels on the blue market rate through the country it's about half as expensive. The best part about the whole shebang is that one can take out US dollars directly from Uruguayan ATMs, you just select US dollars instead of Uruguayan pesos. Granted you can only take out a maximum amount of $300 each time and you're charged $5 for each withdrawal but you're still saving so much money in the process. In any case, we ventured around to the various ATMs to take out some dollars where at some point stray dogs proceeded to stalk us. It was one dog to begin with who then howled and called all his matezos to accompany us to the various banks. These weirdos followed us around the whole town and then waited outside our hostel for us to leave for the ferry. Luckily they found other tourists within a half an hour and stalked them all the way to the ferry because we then saw them at the ferry terminal. What weirdos.

Anyway, once boarding the ferry after having passed through both Uruguayan and Argentinian border control (they were seated next to each other at a desk before boarding) we found our business class seats. Yeah, these b****es put us in business class after we had paid for first class. The nerve. That being said, we notice there's free champagne laid out for the guests. I take two initially. One for you, Allison and one for you, Negar. We proceeded to get hammered - had about six each before the end of our hour long journey. Morons.

We arrive in BA without any pesos because we solely intended on changing money on the blue market to get the best rate possible, but somehow we thought we would manage to make it to our hostel without directions or pesos. I don't think we've ever been so unprepared for a hostel location in our time in South America - yet I lie because Foz de Iguazu was pretty pathetic as well... In any case, we show up in BA hammered and peso-less. We ask the first taxi we see how much it would cost to get a ride to Palermo (a neighborhood of BA). US$20, chicas. Bro, I know it costs less than AR$50 - US$4. You can go f*** yourself with your US$20. So osly we decided to walk a bit to sort out our peso/directions problem. We needed to find pesos ASAP to be able to take any form of transportation so I gave Negar what I thought was US$5 to go into a shop for a chocolate bar and use the change in pesos for transportation. She comes back with two chocolate bars and AR$3. What are you doing?! Why did you buy two chocolate bars and why do you only have three pesos in change?! As we're locked she says I only gave her US$2 and she wanted to get one for each of us. Such a lovely, generous drunk person Negar is ;) love her for that.

But now we have two chocolate bars, AR$5 including my two pesos I had as change from Iguazu Falls and no idea how to get to the hostel in Palermo. We sit down on a bench in what seems to be the middle of the financial district and have a ponder as to what the f*** we're going to do to get to this damn hostel. I steal some wifi from somewhere (?) and manage to find a map and the general location where the hostel is and what I think to be the closest metro stop (so wrong, you moron). So I go into the closest shop with my US$5 to buy a water bottle and come back with about AR$35. Dolla dolla bill, y'all. That's what it felt like to finally have Argentine pesos anyway...

As my wifi has disappeared (someone must have copped on) we ask some nice stranger for directions to the nearest metro stop. After walking through the financial district all gross with our massive backpacks we finally reach the metro stop and take it to what I think to be the closest one to our hostel. We get off and inquire after the street we're looking for - "Ouch, that's a ways walk. You're best bet is to walk about 7 blocks to the museum and get a bus." Shoot me in the face. Negar, will we just get a taxi? We only have AR$30 left so we tell the man to let us out as far as that takes us. Alright, so get out and walk six blocks in that direction. Ughhhhh, OK. So eventually we find the hostel after about two hours after having docked at the harbor and after having taken nearly every form of transportation in existence.

After that we were too exhausted and hungover to attempt the walk to Calle de Florida to change money on the blue market so that we accepted the hostel's rate of AR$11 to a dollar and changed US$100 to get us by for the day until we could manage to get downtown the next day. Food shopping was all we could manage along with a bit of wine shopping because we were meant to see our English friends that evening for a bit of a catchup and hangout.

We somehow managed to find their apartment after getting off the Subte and walking through a bit of a drizzle and then it was time to fill them in on our shenanigans in Punta del Diablo. Can you believe it had been that long since we had seen them?! We also felt we had told the story WAY too much to others that maybe it had gotten boring? Maybe we've gotten annoying? Anyway, we kinda wanted to see what they thought about the whole thing and they pretty much agreed with us that the boys were bizarre. Let the tale rest here, I say. In any case, wine was consumed in their lovely Buenos Aires apartment and they shared with us what they had been up to the past few weeks in BA.

After a bit of shopping and exchanging of money the next day we took a nap around 6 pm and never woke up again... I don't know what it was about this hostel but the beds were so comfortable and the weather not beautiful so we didn't feel like getting up too much. The next day we attempted a walking tour but we abandoned it after about an hour because our guide was so annoying - Negar will be the first to tell you. Then we met up with her friend Monica, who is crazy and fun, at the cemetery. I know, eerie right? We got a beer across the street and then took a taxi to the neighborhood of Palermo for some coffee and ice cream while she told us of her recent sexual encounters and we of ours. That night, surprise surprise, we were in bed early again at around 8 pm and didn't wake up till the morning. I don't know what our deal was in BA but we couldn't hack anything. I suppose we had just slept so incredibly little in Uruguay that we were trying and needed to recharge our batteries and we did so indeed.

The next day we moved into an apartment we rented on AirBNB as we had wanted to treat ourselves belatedly for our birthdays and renting a flat between the two of us wasn't much more expensive than a hostel. We did f*** all in the apartment. At some point while traveling long-term you get tired (Negar informed me this is what I was feeling) and all you want to do is curl up on the couch or in bed and watch TV and have a lazy day or two - a day similar to what you would do at home. We had been going for nearly two months trying to experience culture and people endlessly and a some point you need a break, so break we did indeed. We had brunch, went to the movies, watched endless Law and Order: SVU episodes on the couch and generally did nothing else. On our second day, after a massive brunch with mimosas, I took a nap on the couch before we were meant to meet up with her friend Monica for a tour of a pretty palace in the center. After about a half an hour into my nap I felt chills coming on, which was quite strange as it was incredibly warm outside and the apartment wasn't cold. I'd felt it before and I knew immediately it was a fever. How strange, I thought. Except it's not, Allison... You've been drinking and smoking nonstop and sleeping very little (in Uruguay especially) so it serves you damn right for getting a bit ill. I thought it was just a slight cold that I would get over quite quickly but at the time I had no energy to do anything at all. I eventually mustered up enough energy to go meet Monica with Negar at the palace and we went for an asado afterwards. Lovely! But I was falling asleep right after dinner. She even asked if we wanted to go get one more drink at a bar around the corner and normal Allison would never, NEVER, say no to another drink, but this time I physically felt I couldn't hack it, so we grabbed a taxi home and I went straight to bed.

Sadly the next day we had to move out of the flat, but because we felt like we hadn't experienced any of the nightlife in BA, for which it's so famous, we decided to book into another hostel for two nights. The only problem was that my condition worsened. I felt exhausted constantly, my head was aching and I couldn't be asked to do anything. I would sweat an insane amount and then be freezing in the next instant - I don't think I'd honestly ever felt so ill in my entire life. I eventually gave into Negar's protests to go to a pharmacy (her mother, who's a doctor, told us to go straight to a doctor but I'm quite hardheaded) and the pharmacist gave me something to help with the fever and told me to come back the next day if my condition didn't improve.

After taking a shower and the meds as the pharmacist said to do, I went to sleep for the night but the next day didn't feel much better, so I went back to the pharmacist and she gave me something stronger... Nothing was helping but we had booked our tickets to leave BA the next day for Rosario so I decided to rest the next day as well in hopes of being well enough for the bus ride.

I became delusional during the illness. Little tasks became so difficult and I started making concessions with God to make it stop. I also felt so horrible because Negar was completely fine despite being in my presence and I felt like I was holding her back from truly experiencing all that BA had to offer. Granted, we both know we'll get back to Buenos Aires one day and probably more than once, so we weren't completely devastated that we missed out on the nightlife. We also went a bit too hard in Uruguay... It was probably for the best. Turn down for what? For your health and sanity, b****.

The next day we took the bus to Rosario (Messi's hometown!!) and found our hostel without too much effort. It's a cute enough town and the 3rd largest city in Argentina, so the next day, after getting hostel guy's recommendations, we set out on a bit of a walking tour. It's a very pretty place and way smaller than BA which we appreciated, but sadly my illness hadn't alleviated. I always felt fine in the morning but then throughout the day I would grow very weary and tired and this day was no different. While out on our walking tour I had to stop every ten minutes or so to take a rest - I felt like some old person. And I felt incredibly cold in the shade so I wanted to stay in the sun which only contributed to my fever... At one point I told Negar that I couldn't walk any further and she asked if I wanted to get a taxi back to the hostel. I've never fainted in my life but at that point I felt like I was on the brink of passing out. I could hardly muster the energy to stand up and once we got inside the taxi I could barely keep my eyes open. Our plan was to go to the pharmacy but when I asked Negar if she could go inside the pharmacy and get the meds for me because I didn't have enough energy she said we should call a doctor to the hostel.

After she explained what was going on to the hostel guy he called a doctor while I went to pass out in bed. The doctor showed up about 45 minutes later and asked what my symptoms were and took my temperature. Turns our my temperature had reached 40 degrees celsius (104 Fahrenheit) so dangerously high. She prescribed some medicine and told me to take a cold shower immediately and drape myself in wet, cold towels to bring down my temperature. Turns out I had tonsillitis without having any throat pain as she said my throat was inflamed with lots of white bumps. Gross. But how did I not notice?! And that's exactly why Negar didn't get sick being around me - cause she had gotten her tonsils out a few years ago. Freaking genius...

So eventually my sickness went away with proper antibiotics... I never actually told my parents what fully transpired as I didn't want to worry them. I'm pretty much an idiot. Had I heeded both Negar and her mother's advice I wouldn't have found myself on my death bed... So Negar and I have no come to the agreement that when one of us gives the other medical advice we have to take it, even just to humor the enough person. We ended up staying in Rosario another night so I could recover and in hopes of catching a train to Tucuman the next day which we later learned sells out months in advance. It's so much cheaper than taking the bus, about a 700 peso difference (US$50) Sweet.

The only silver lining was that the next day was a horribly rainy day and the hostel had Netflix and the new season of House of Cards had come out only a few days before... Would you like to have a guess as to what we did all day? You bet your ass, watched sexy Meechum be sexy and the rest of the characters be bats*** crazy.

We booked tickets to Salta on the bus as our planned next stop, Córdoba, was apparently flooded following much rain, and the region up north was meant to be quite beautiful. More on that in the next post :)

So BA wasn't very eventful nor Rosario... Can you believe it?! We desperately wanted to get back to some sort of normalcy and maybe kiss some cute, nice boys after what had happened in Punta del Diablo but that was just not meant to be. Maybe I was meant to rest a long while and not drink wine. Calm yourself, Allison, you're going to Salta and Mendoza - the major wine growing regions of Argentina! You'll have your fun there. In any case, we were boring in these two towns but in many ways I'm not even sorry for it. We needed rest, we needed to recharge our batteries and I think now we're back on track. To be fair though, and as I said to Negar while I was on my deathbed in Rosario after having heard that I had a 40 degree temperature and resigning myself to death, even when we're not doing anything it doesn't mean this traveling thing gets boring or less eventful. The Gringa Motorcycle Diaries will continue and more craic will be had! Everyone needs a rest every once in a while... ;)