We had a little bit of an ordeal getting to Buenos Aires. After multiple flight delays our prearranged taxi went to the wrong airport to pick us up, and our booked apartment decided we were very rude for trying to show up at a different time than arranged and told us to find alternative accommodation. We quickly found another apartment not too far away so we weren’t homeless for long, but I did get flashbacks to 2022 when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Christmas Eve and discovered our apartment had cancelled on us last minute due to overbooking and we truly were homeless for Christmas. Fortunately this time we were checked in at our new apartment within about 45 minutes. We still had a few hurdles – the shower didn’t work, and we were missing some towels and kitchen essentials. The owners were very responsive but couldn’t send anyone to fix things as no one was working for the whole Christmas week, so they sent us to an alternative apartment. It seemed like the entire building was empty because we actually ended up with 4 different door codes before we found a room that had towels, a working shower and a TV. This apartment actually seemed like a bit of an upgrade because it was bigger with a bigger bed, so we moved in, we collected kitchen implements from all 4 rooms until we had a full set, and finally we were ready for a relaxing Christmas in Buenos Aires.

We filled our week with lots of cooking, movies, calls home and only a little exploration. Buenos Aires feels very European, and there aren’t too many tourist sites, the appeal comes more from just witnessing life in the different neighbourhoods. So we wandered the barrios – the colourful buildings of touristic La Boca, the cobblestone streets of historic San Telmo, the cafes and restaurants of trendy Palermo. We saw the sights of Puerto Madero, Plaza de Mayo, the Obelisk and the Floralis Genérica. It sounds like a lot, but over a whole week it felt like very little.

We also managed to meet up with some of my friends from school who are currently on a huge South America trip. I hadn’t seen them in 4 and a half years, so it was great to catch up, and swap travel tips, our Patagonia suggestions for their Bolivia suggestions.

Our intention was to stay in Buenos Aires for a little while, at least a month, to take some time off from travelling. We both have some work projects we want to put some time into, and it’d be nice to create some sort of routine, and hopefully make some friends. Creed also needs to renew his passport, which could take up to 6 weeks. But, after travelling Argentina for about a month, we realized Buenos Aires isn’t the place we want to do that.

Part of the reasoning is money. After visiting Chile before the cruise, known to be one of the most expensive destinations in South America, we were excited to spend some time in Argentina, known to be the cheapest on the continent. However, the economy here is a little crazy at the moment – here’s an explanation from our resident financial advisor, Creed.

The value of the Argentinian peso has plummeted in the last two years, including a decision from the government to devalue the currency by 22% in one day in August 2023. Due to the crazy inflation, there was a black market for USD that hit almost double the published rate. People and businesses were more than happy to buy US cash at a premium in order to preserve the value, as Argentine pesos were halving about every  5-7 months. This meant travellers in 2023 and the first half of 2024 could exchange $1USD for the equivalent of what the bank said was $2USD worth of Argentinian pesos. Near the beginning of 2024, a surplus of “off the books money” or essentially all of these stockpiles of American currency as well as some new regulations from a new president started to get the inflation levels under control, and the black market rate topped out in July 2024 at about 1600 pesos to the dollar while the official rate was around 850. Over the next six months, the black market rate came down to 1050-1100 pesos to the dollar while the official exchange continued to come up to 975-1000. So while prices on menus, at hotels, for buses, national parks, flights, groceries, bars, taxis, and more continued to increase by about 10-15% a month, the exchange rate for the dollar was decreasing from 1600 to 1050 over just a few months. A sandwich that in July cost 10,000 would have been about $6USD, in December cost 18,000 or $19USD. Needless to say, the Argentina budget hit way harder than we ever expected, than it ever should have, and more than it would have any other time in the last several decades. A McDonald’s combo started around $16. A two hour bus was $40. A 15 minute cab to the airport was haggled down to $26. A load of laundry was $12-16. A bar of 80-100g of cadbury was around $8. We still spent about a month in Patagonia. We saw the sights we wanted. We did the activities we intended. We had to budget a bit more on hotels and self-cater more than we anticipated. Our restaurant experience of Argentina was more limited than we had hoped, but otherwise we did not skip anything that we will regret. But this was not the time to stay on longer in Buenos Aires.

So, we made a last minute decision to book a ferry to Uruguay. It’s only an hour on the boat, and is a popular weekend trip for people living in Buenos Aires, so it was always something we wanted to do before leaving. We then discovered that flying out of the capital Montevideo is significantly cheaper than flying out of Buenos Aires, with more direct connections to places, so we turned the trip into our exit route. We arrived in the port town of Colonia, a very small town with lots of history. It’s incredibly scenic, with lots of trees and colourful flowers, cobblestone alleyways, open squares, hidden courtyards, patterned walls and antiquated buildings. It’s very touristy, especially on the Saturday after Christmas in the middle of summer, but the many cute cafes and restaurants and quirky shops and artesian stalls all added to its charm. We climbed to the top of a cool lighthouse built on the ruins of an old covent for views out to sea, and walked all the way along the yacht club jetty talking about how cool it would be to sail here. After wandering the town for a few more hours, we caught an evening bus to Montevideo.

Montevideo is very similar to Buenos Aires, but smaller and rougher around the edges. Lots of the old imposing buildings are abandoned and in need of renovation, and lots of new buildings are half built. The markets are full of stalls of secondhand books, clothing and kitchen essentials, and are therefore packed with locals and are a real example of city life, as opposed to the photogenic and touristy artesanal markets that were recommended in Buenos Aires. Here we finally both bought sun hats, long overdue after the past month travelling through increasingly hot climates on our way north from Patagonia. We wandered from the outdoor market to the port, where the old indoor market has been converted into a food hall of meat restaurants. In the evening we took a stroll along the coast, which is much more scenic than Buenos Aires’ industrial waterfront. Our walk ended at a park that is currently hosting an end of year festival, with more market stalls and food trucks. We finished our day with sunset on the beach followed by a loop of the park and its lake.

On our final day we had a beach morning, heading out to one of Montevideo’s suburbs for a beautiful stretch of sand, our first beach since Malaysia in May (excluding Scotland in the rain). We got too much sun, even with our new hats, and took a long walk back to the hotel, stopping half way to go to a 22nd story viewpoint at the top of a government building. One final loop of the old town to visit a church, a plaza and a library, and our visit to Uruguay was complete. Uruguay is my 75th country and Creed’s 90th, and we toasted these milestones with the local wine, Tannat, at the airport lounge on our way out.​

Thanks for following along on my crazy adventures!

 Ros ♥

If you’re interested in how I got here, or where I went next, check out the rest of the story!