It's been a really long and tiring three days.. so this post is a rant of sorts. It's long. :) I left Indonesia in the afternoon on Saturday (Jan 8) and because of the time difference, landed at LAX Saturday night. I got very little sleep and watched six movies instead. Six! I also ran into a friend, Tiffany Sin, at the Hong Kong airport (there's something to be said for up-to-date statuses.... her gchat status said something about waiting for a flight at HKG and we happened to be in the same gate area, flying on the same airline and equipped with the same cameras! So random!
While in LA, I spent time with family who stayed up all night with me (thank you!!) and then dropped me off at the airport at 5am. At this point, it had been about 36 hours with only 2.5 hours of sleep. I slept on my flight to DC in preparation for my 8 hour layover. Then, Tami came--totally out of her way--to spend a couple hours with me at IAD. Thanks Tami!
Next came a 10 hour flight to Buenos Aires. It was now Monday. I was feeling really excited... this is it! the start of my trip! I paid the $140 entry fee, got my passport stamped, collected my baggage, went through customs, and was on my way. *About the entry fee: This is not a visa. Rather, it is a reciprocity fee that you only have to pay if you are from Canada ($75 for single entry or $150 for multiple entries for 5 years), Australia ($100), or the US ($140 for multiple entries for 10 years). Also, you only have to pay it if you fly into Ezeiza, not if you cross into Argentina overland or arrive in another airport.
Originally, I planned to stay one night in Buenos Aires and then head over to Mar del Plata, six hours away from Argentina. Instead, i decided to skip Buenos Aires (and just see it later for a week in March/April) and head straight to Mar del Plata. There was even a company, Manuel Tienda Leon that would take me straight from the airport to Mar del Plata. I thought it was going to be easy but I landed at 11am and the next bus wasn't until 6pm. Crap. But I had a back up plan! I knew I could take a Manuel Tienda Leon shuttle ($50 pesos) to Retiro and a bus from there to Mar del Plata. I felt savvy-ish because I had pesos (thanks Ben!) and was all ready to go whereas these other Americans looked a little confused and definitely lost on the exchange rate.
All confidence pretty much disappeared after that. The bus to Retiro stopped at the Manuel Tienda Leon station where half the bus, including me, was unaware that you have to get off the bus and board another to your final destination. I finally got to Retiro which, for me, was a super overwhelming mess. A "hot mess" if you will. There were long lines for all the different bus companies that service Retiro with no signs to indicate which companies were going to which destinations at which times. Some companies listed destinations on their signs, but no departure times. So to find out, you had to stand in a long line and ask. I picked a shorter-lined kiosk that listed Mar del Plata departures every 30 minutes. Looked promising. But then the lady said there were no departures until 2:30pm, an hour and a half away. I asked if there were other companies with earlier departures, and she said she didn't know, go ask around. So I did.
I stood in another long line for someone to tell me 2:30pm, and another long line for someone to tell me 3pm. I went back to the first lady who said that now, there are no longer spots for the 2:30pm, now 3pm. I go back in line for the other 2:30pm bus but now there are only spots for 3:30pm. Gah!!! So I go back to the lady again hot, frustrated, and tired, and get a seat for the 3pm bus. But this lady spoke super fast so it was hard to understand. I was really confused and pretty much felt like an idiot. I also havent had to use the Spanish alphabet in about 8 years so spelling my name was a really hard! I ended up with something like Kimberli Wiesprock. Pretty close I guess. Perhaps the worst part is that different bus companies sell tickets for each other, so I shouldn't have bothered standing in those other lines and just gotten that first 2:30pm bus ticket. I ended up with a ticket on the 3pm Mar del Plata bus ($148 pesos) on the Condor Estrella line, bought from the Dumascat kiosk. Are you confused? I was!
Now I had a bus ticket with more than an hour to kill. I was super hungry and decided to get lunch. At this one place, I didn't know whether you order at the cash register or if you just sit down. So, stupidly, I tried to order something at the register and the guy looked at me confused and told me to sit if I wanted to eat it there. I didn't know they had a menu, so I picked something off the wall: milanesa con papas fritas and a 7up. It was okay. I think milanesa is a chicken-fried steak which i would pretty much never knowingly order. It was about an $11 meal. So I'm sitting there eating my not-so-good food and in walks this couple - they are American. I immediately dislike the girl because she gets to see a menu, she has a spanish-savvy boyfriend who is making everything easy for her, and she's painting her nails in the restaurant. What a bitch! To be fair, I was tired, grumpy, and alone, and she seemed to have it all..
Once on the bus, I had a Cama-Ejecutivo seat which was actually really comfortable. Of course, I was in the wrong seat, but a quick switch and we were on our way. They passed out little snack packs with a bunch of baked goods. I didn't end up eating any of it because I slept most of the bus ride. The bus stopped at a place that could have been Mar del Plata but wasn't (= more confusion), and then I finally arrived in Mar del Plata. I went to a kiosk to buy my next bus ticket to Puerto Madryn ($262 pesos - Don Otto). This experience was painless! Success!
I had looked up online how to get from the bus station to the hostel... it was about 1.2km away and walkable. I started walking. I didn't recognize any of the street names though and I felt like a target with my big backpack and foreign face. It was also close to 9:30pm and dark at this point. I walked back to the bus station and took a taxi. As I sat there, I was hoping I communicated my destination correctly because the taxi ride was much longer than I was expecting. So I'm wondering if he's either cheating me by going the long way or if i told him the wrong place. Turns out, all is good. It's just that there are two bus terminals in Mar del Plata and I didn't come from the one close to the hostel.
I arrive at Hostels del Mar and Patricio at the reception desk kisses me on the check. Oh right, they do that here. But as he's checking me in, the hostel doesn't have my reservation. Awesome. Lucky for me, they have an open bed (70 pesos). Patricio carried my bag upstairs, I locked away my valuables, and finally felt like I could breathe again.
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