Cash is king, and other musings from Argentina

Its been nearly 3 weeks since we arrived in Argentina. We flew in to Buenos Aires, spent about 5 hours sleeping at an airport hotel, and then drove south to Mar Del Plata, the second largest City in the country. Its not known for any famous architecture or museums or anything of crazy cultural significance. Its just a non-touristy beach town where we found a nice, affordable, dog-friendly apartment.

The beach here is like nothing I've ever seen. While there are some open public beaches, most of the prime real estate houses a beach club with rows and rows of weird looking tents, perpendicular to the ocean with plastic chairs inside. People rent this space for their day at the beach. The nice ones have pools built in and the really nice ones have really nice pools, restaurants and great service.

Cash is king. We got here and used our credit card for the first purchase and the guy at the store seemed legitimately confused. We come to find out that the exchange rate for USD on a credit card is HALF of what it is if you use cash. So we started sending ourselves cash at western union. And now we carry around wads of cash all the time which is a bit jarring and kind of funny.

And lets talk about the World Cup! What a special experience to be here as Argentina fought its way to the top of the pack. We watched the first game on the couch where we promptly realized that our TV had about a 30 second delay from the rest of the neighborhood. The screams post-goal were a dead giveaway. We then watched the qualifier for the quarter finals at a cafe (not a bar - see below about tea), and then got stranded at the airport in Patagonia at the quarter finals because the workers straight closed the office despite our reservation. That game was an absolute squeaker with Argentina beating Netherlands in penalty kicks while the entire airport went nuts.

And this week, we watched them school Croatia on the big screen on the beach with thousands of others on the beach. At half time, much of the crowd ran in to the ocean and chanted the team song. We are gutted to be leaving Argentina one day shy of the big show. But we will cheer them on from our airport hotel in Mexico City.

We only truly ventured out of Mar del Plata once to El Calafata, Patagonia. Patagonia has been on the bucket list and I'm so grateful Tyler made it happen (b/c frankly I was exhausted from all the travel). We took a boat tour through el Parque Nacional Los Glaciares and it was absolutely spectacular.

On our second drive, we drove to to the mountains, stopping to admire wild flamingos and got up close and personal with some small coyotes.

I was really looking forward to seeing the night sky without light pollution, but sun doesn't set until 11pm in summer so here is my midnight dusk picture.

A few other musings...

Argentina Spanish is soooo different than Spain or Mexico Spanish. I tried to buy strawberries (fresas) only to be met with a blank stare. They are called frutillas here. And you may think it is a fru-ti-ya because two lls in Spanish (e.g., pollo) makes the YA sound. Well here, anything that looks like YA is SHA. So going to the beach is going to the PLASHA...a chicken is a POSHO. And that is just the beginning.

Grocery stores, like where you buy all the stuff you need to make a meal? Seems like its an American thing. Nowhere in Europe or South America so far have we found it normal to shop at one place. You go to the fruit/veggie stand, the carniceria, the fish monger, the farmacia...you can't even buy chicken and steak at the same place (both for the dog). I quite like it for the small business aspect. But it does make prepping for dinner a bit more of a challenge.

Argentinians are SERIOUS about their mate tea. They carry around huge thermoses of hot water, huge bags of dry tea, special cups and straws, another bag for the old tea, and they drink it all day and all night. Hot day on the beach and we are having a beer...they are drinking tea. Watching the World Cup at a restaurant and we are having drinks...they are drinking tea. In fact, there were hardly any bars even open to show the game. People were at cafes, restaurants and at the beach....drinking tea.

Oh, and there are no stop signs. We are in a really busy city and cars just all arrive at the intersection at the same time and each side takes a turn. Pedestrians just make it work in between. When we rented a car for a few days and tried to let a pedestrian go, we were met with honks from behind and confused looks from the pedestrians. You don't stop...you frogger.

Our landlord's niece Lara has been Presley's part-time nanny who has been a Godsend.

Its a bittersweet goodbye today. We've really enjoyed our time here. We established a nice routine, my Spanish improved significantly and we experienced a region that will never be the same with climate change accelerating. At the same time, we are so glad to be in the home stretch. Tomorrow, we head to Mexico to share Christmas with our bestie Sarah. Counting the days until home.

VAMOS ARGETINTA!!!