Argentina

A bit of a sad post about a trip to Argentina

Posted by Dmittr 2nd Apr 2024

The problems with this trip started way in advance:

Problem 1 - Exit permit. For those who have a temporary residence permit you need to get a separate permit to re-enter the country, so that the "counter" of days lived in the country is not reset. In general, this is not a big problem.

Problem 2 - For children you need to get a separate exit permit. To get permission to leave the country - you need a birth certificate. Here it should be clarified that in my home country it is enough to get a birth certificate once in your lifetime and it remains valid for as long as you want. In Uruguay, the issued birth certificate is valid for one year, then if necessary you need to take a new birth certificate. Thus, the birth certificate that was brought a year ago and translated into Spanish is no longer valid. I have to order a new birth certificate in my home country and translate it again. Hopefully this year I will be able to get a Uruguayan birth certificate and this problem will also go away.

Problem 3 - My daughter and I got sick a few days before the trip, so this problem came back to me later.

It took us 5 hours to get to Argentina - cab to the train station, almost 3 hours bus to Colonia del Sacramento and an hour and a half ferry to Buenos Aires. On the ferry you can shop in duty-free so the time flies by. Then hotel and evening walks with dinner. On the first day I somehow feared for safety and even carried a pepper-spray after this incident.

On the second day an under-treated cold struck back at my throat. So instead of walking around the city, I relied on the strength of my immune system. After a couple days of this, my wife successfully completed the quest to "buy antibiotics without a prescription" and it got much better. I'm against self-medication, so it's best to follow your doctor's advice if you can get to one.

To leave the block of pictures for dessert, I will tell you about prices. There is an opinion that in Argentina for one dollar you can buy a cruise ship and still have a villa in the suburbs. It's not like that anymore. Branded imported clothes cost the same as in Uruguay, and sometimes even more expensive. Electronics are not cheaper either. For example Samsung S23 FE 256/8 in Argentina costs 1000 dollars (1160 at the official exchange rate), in Uruguay 790, in Brazil 620, 750 in RF and 575 in US. Sort of until recently it was as cheap in Argentina as in Brazil, but those times passed as recently as last year. Relative to all this, food seemed quite inexpensive. If it got interesting, you can compare at numbeo.com.

In general, the impressions of Buenos Aires are very cool - it's like coming to an amusement park, especially after the small, quiet Uruguay. You can find something to do for every taste. The city is very big, comfortable and not even at all dirty. We were told we were settled in the most unsafe area of the city, but even night walks could only be interrupted by the occasional beggar.

And what makes this post sad is that you still have to go back from a big beautiful city to an equally beautiful city but smaller. There are no perfect places on earth that are comfortable, beautiful, fun, accessible, cultured and safe, and there can never be one.

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This is what 100 dollars looks like in the largest local bills

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The city looks very modern

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Or even futuristic

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Sometimes even too futuristic. This is Bank Headquarters in Buenos Aires by Clorindo Testa

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But on the other side there are many buildings with old interesting architecture

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It's all very unusual for me

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You can spend hours looking at the decor on the walls

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But on the whole the town has comfortable wide streets and is quite spacious

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Virtually all of Latin America loves boiled condensed milk so much that any product with this flavor is on sale.

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And this is a concrete bench. At first it looked like someone just threw away old furniture.

Also a viewable airport within the city limits is a huge plus