First stop, Buenos Aires

I’d wanted to go to Buenos Aires forever. I had a lot of Argentinian professors in college, who fed us plenty of Argentinian literature and cinema. I swooned over Borges, Cortázar, etc. When the captain announced that we’d arrived in Buenos Aires, I broke into a massive grin, hardly believing it, and into another when the Argentina stamp landed on my passport.

I regret to confess that I didn’t make the most of the great city (I guess that’s fine, since it was my throwaway day in case of an airline fuck-up, and I'll be back once I figure out a way to get to Iguazu). I explored around my hotel before I could check in.

Later in the morning I showed up to a meet a walking tour that wasn’t there, and I didn't have a working phone. I tried to get a SIM card, but the Argentinian government doesn’t make it easy (I did get a SIM but was unable to use it).

I ended up going to explore Recoleta on my own. The walk there was through a neat part of town.

Recoleta was fascinating; the pictures don’t do it justice.

From Recoleta, I popped into the Museo de Bellas Artes.

Then, back through town

to the Plaza de Mayo and San Telmo.

By the time I turned in—after all, I had an earlyish flight to Ushuaia the next morning—I’d logged 16 miles from all that walking across town.

Onward to Tierra del Fuego.