DSCF4710 The last 10 days of my journey to Argentina ended in Buenos Aires. I spent my remaining time with Marcelo and his family as well as exploring on my own and revisiting places that I didn't get enough time seeing the first time round. I really enjoyed spending time with Marcelo's family as well as Kari's family where I spent Christmas. I got to meet Marcelo's brother and parents and Kari's sisters and parents too. It was really nice to see what it is like to be in an Argentine as they made me feel like part of the family. We had dinner together and visited relatives together, saw where Marcelo grew up, met old friends, it was really neat.

DSCF4708 DSCF4878 DSCF4895 I also explored on my own now that I was a master of the BA subte! I went back to San Telmo for the sunday market where I easily spent a few hours. I met up with Marcelo and visited an old theatre that was converted into a book store and also saw the house that he grew up in. We went for lunch and ice cream with his family and I went back to Recoleta to take some more photos.

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DSCF4779 I also went to the Buenos Aires zoo which was nearly deserted as well as a return trip to the Teatre Colon which was just as good the second time round. On one of the days, we took the family on a boat ride to the Tigre Delta. Tigre is a trendy neighbourhood that has a huge market plus all of the houses are on the delta and only accessible by boat. It was really interesting to see the beautiful houses along the water.

DSCF4993 DSCF5029 DSCF5040 DSCF5066 DSCF5111 DSCF5113 My last experience was probably one of the best ones I had in Argentina. Marcelo's brother Steve has a house in a small beach town south of Buenos Aires and he invited everyone to come down for a few days. So Steve borrowed an extra truck, picked up Marcelos parents and drove the 3 hrs down to the town of Pinamar. It wasn't high season but the town was still busy and quite a few people on the beach. I can only imagine how busy it would be in actual high season. We spent an hour or so on the beach before getting groceries for dinner. The house was fantastic with a proper asado in the back. We fired up the bbq and had an awesome Argentine asado. Good food, good drink and good company, what more could you ask for?

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The next morning, we loaded up the truck to head to a secluded part of the beach where the 4x4's go. I borrowed Steve's ATV and would follow them out to the beach. Unfortunately, I lost them driving through town and now I had to try and find where they were going on my own. I had no money on me but I did have my phone which meant if I could find wifi somewhere I could send text. The beach was supposed to have wifi zones in selected areas so I set out to find one to try and send Marcelo a message. I drove up and done the beach until finally I found a weak signal that connected if I stayed in a 4ft radius. Marcelo gave me directions to the beach and off I went. It was a fun and liberating to ride up the beach and along the dirts roads. I finally came to a hill that unfortunately was too steep for the ATV I was riding. It just wasn't powerful enough to make it up the hill in the deep sand.  So I hopped off and trudged up and over the hill to the beach. There was a restaurant on the beach and trucks to the left and right of the restaurant that all looked the same. I really didn't want to search up and down the beach on foot so I tried to use the wifi in the restaurant but I couldn't connect to it. So I walked a little bit in each direction of the restaurant trying to find Marcelo. I had no success, and at this point I probably should have turned on my international roaming and just paid the extra money but I decided instead to walk back to the ATV, hop on and ride all the back to where I found the wifi connection before. After a few tries, I was able to connect and send a message to tell Marcelo to come and get me. He came to pick me up and I finally made it to the beach with everyone else. The beach stretched for as far as the eye could see and 4x4s dotted it up and down. Everyone had their own little private spot to ride dirtbikes, atvs, jetskis, or do whatever they really wanted. It was great and is something that it difficult to find back home, at least with scenery this nice. It was a beautiful day until the wind started to kick up and the weather started to change. We could see the storm clouds on the horizon and they were getting darker and closer quite quickly. The wind really started to whip up and we could see everyone else starting to pack up. A storm was moving in and we needed to also start packing up. It was amazing how fast the storm moved, we were just finishing putting things away when the rains started. We hopped in the truck and just beat the heavy rain. We joined the mass exodus leaving the beach and headed back to the house. For dinner, we decided to go out to a popular local restaurant. There was quite a line up to get in and there was quite a few of us but we stuck it out and it was worth the wait. It was a simple restaurant but really good food and a good way to end the day and my trip. 

617 DSCF5124 DSCF5138 DSCF5156 The next day was my last in Argentina and I was heading back on the bus with Seb and Patri while Marcelo stayed to spend more time at the beach with his family. We caught an early bus as I had a plane to catch and Patri had an appointment in the afternoon. It was a good thing as well as the bus was late and arrived in Buenos Aires a couple of hours behind schedule. Luckily I had a couple hours buffer but now I was going to be cutting it close. I didn't have any cash left to take a taxi so after some frantic scrambling and help from Seb and Patri, I found an airport bus that I was able to pay with visa. So after saying my goodbyes to Seb and Patri, I finally able to relax as I was on my way to the airport with a little time to spare.

 

So three weeks in Argentina and I think I managed to squeeze in quite a bit on my own as well as with the help of Marcelo and family. Argentina is so big though that it is impossible to see everything in one trip unless you have a couple of months. 

Hopefully I will be back one day...