(Temporary) Home At Last

The last leg of our roundabout voyage to Argentina finally ended at 7:40PM on Tuesday evening when our plane touched down in Mendoza. After clearing customs, we Ubered to our accommodations downtown, checked in with our Airbnb host and promptly hit the sack. I was so tired, I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and I didn't get out of bed until 8:00 the next morning. I can't remember the last time I slept ten hours in a row.

Despite my reservations about coming to South America due to safety concerns, we both feel very safe here, but are still always aware of our surroundings. Unlike Brazil, everyone here walks around with their phones in their hands and unafraid to wear jewelery. Apparently, pickpocketing is the most common crime committed here, so I'm grateful for the zippered pockets in my travel clothing.

Once we had unpacked and showered, we went off for brunch at Govinda, a vegetarian restaurant only a stone's throw from our apartment. Govinda is a pay by the kilo eatery and has a vast array of delicious looking, and tasting, choices on offer. After stuffing our faces, we headed off to get local SIM cards for our phones. Now, here is an example of Murphy's law at it's finest: Exceptionally, Claro the local internet provider, closed all it's branches from 1:00 until 3:30PM this particular Wednesday. Of course, we arrived at the store at 1:01.

We decided to just walk around and explore our neighborhood until it was time to get connected. Of course, we had to get some groceries so we went to Carrefour, a French grocery chain that has a large presence in Argentina. We were pleasantly surprised by the prices of most items, particularly those with an alcohol content. Beer and wine is so inexpensive here, one has to wonder if the government doesn't overtax those items in an attempt to placate the disgruntled population. I'll talk about Argentina's very sad economy in another segment.

In any case, at Carrefour we bought an Argentine Pinot Noir that Brenda wanted to try, some almond milk and some very delicious looking glazed croissants (known as medialunas here). By that time, Claro had reopened and we picked up our FREE SIM cards. We loaded them with 500 pesos each ($2.65 CDN), enough to buy 1 Gig of data for 30 days. OK, we can't make phone calls, but we can make unlimited use of Whatsapp to communicate with others. Why do we have to pay ten times that amount in Canada for similar products?

For dinner we went to the Burger Bar and Cafe and I had a beet and pearl barley burger that I literally couldn't get my mouth around. Brenda had a quinoa burger with mushrooms, caramelized onions and arugula.
We both left the restaurant with very full bellies.

Our internal clocks are already adapting to South America. At home we usually wake up at around 6:00, lunch at noon, dine by 5:30 and are in bed by 11:00. Today, lunch was at 3:00, dinner was at 8:00 and bedtime was around midnight. When in Rome.Read more