I met a girl in the hostel in Foz do Iguacu who told me she 'got stuck in Buenos Aires'. At first I thought she was just enjoying the nightlife too much and one day blended into another but I didn't realise that I too would get 'stuck in BA' for longer than intended but for ever so slightly different reasons.

BA has a few very distinct areas but basically divided between then north, centre and the south. Palermo is very cool and relaxed during the day and a pleasure just to walk around but becomes the centre of all the action at night. San Telmo is also a very calm but more bohemian/arty area, which has great markets on Sundays and a little rough around the edges. Boca lies further south and is even rougher round the edges but is famous for its colourful houses and of course Boca Juniors football team. Recoleta is also very nice with its huge green spaces and lots of people roller blading and jogging. The centre of town though is a different story. I usually like big cities and enjoy strolling around them but I did not get a good feel for downtown BA. Chaotic, polluted, noisy, stressful and there seemed to be roadworks everywhere which didn't help. Apart from some classical landmark buildings and monuments it made London look like an eco-city. I'm glad I did not choose to stay in this part of town.

Most of the days have been spent just hanging out in different areas and trying to get errands done. I say try as this was the main reason for my extended stay but I also met a good bunch of people in the hostel and most evenings were spent out together which contributed to me staying a bit longer. No fantastic club nights yet but a couple of us ended up in a tango music bar one night where lots of locals were getting up to sing different songs...very nice!

I have also met up with the lady from my Machu Picchu trek (she lives in BA) and we ate a popular steak restaurant called La Brigada in San Telmo. Over 2 floors, this place was huge but had an amazing collection of football paraphernalia. Shirts from all over the world, a lot of them signed by the players, it was actually quite impressive and didn't seem tacky at all. The food too was, well, what do you think(?!), but this wasn't the cheapest place in the world. However, this was splurge night!

Having US dollars in BA makes life a lot cheaper as you can get a good rate when exchanging them here (although it may not always be totally above board)! The downside to getting cheap cash is you no longer want to use cards but working out my budget for the next couple of weeks, I realised I would need more money. My plan was to go to Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay (a 1 hour ferry ride away) and get some US dollars there. I wanted to visit this place anyway, as it is supposed to be a beautiful colonial town but now I needed to go sooner rather than later. As I hadn't bought the ticket during the week, I would need to go down to the port to buy a ticket in person on the weekend. So instead of staying in BA until Saturday, I was now staying until Monday.

This bit of self imposed stress did have it's reward in the end as upon my return from Colonia de Sacramento, I got to dine out in one of the best steak restaurants in BA (La Cabrera - which unknowingly was right below the place I stayed!). Not only did the prices now seem very cheap initially but they had a happy hour as well, where your bill was discounted by 40%. So the most amazing 400gm rib eye with a half bottle of extraordinary Malbec with all the trimmings cost me 12 pounds. The place i stayed for one night also messed up my booking price but let me have my room anyway for the discounted rate...this day was a good one!

BA is a lively place and I look forward to coming back to explore it again in a couple of weeks but the combination of a few too many nights out, being a bit lazy with the planning and getting obsessed by wanting to pay for everything in cash, led to me getting 'stuck in BA'.

After this week though, im actually looking forward to going down to Bariloche and enjoying some outdoor activities again.