Day 57:
| Non-vegetarian Buffet | 277 |
| Galletas | 36 |
| Empanadas | (50) |
| Beer | (150) |
| French fries | (90) |
| Vodka and mixers | 448 |
| Total: | 761 ARS (89.7 RMB) (USD 12.82) |
I thought I was going to a vegetarian buffet, and went a little nuts in dishing up some hearty food (nearly a kilogram altogether). Despite that, I still popped into a bakery for some cookies to accompany my afternoon coffee. In order to prepare for a late night clubbing with a group from the hostel, I picked up a bottle of vodka (paying an extra 7 pesos to the the Sky brand with an anti-trump message on the bottle). The figures in parentheses were payback.
Day 58:
| Jay’s American Diner | (380) |
| Toothpaste | 98 |
| Vegetables | 160 |
| Avocados | 100 |
| Groceries | 216 |
| Total: | 574 ARS (67.7 RMB) (USD 9.67) |
After a pretty brutal hangover only waffles and bacon could fix, I had to buy a new tube of toothpaste because mine had gone missing. Who steals toothpaste? It’s quite expensive here (as in the United States), but I remember it being cheap in the UK for some reason. Apparently, I had gone around promising everyone to cook dinner, so in the evening I spent a few hours tracking down ingredients to make some fajitas. It’s always a pain to cook in a new country when you don’t know if the things you need are even available. I fed about six people with my dinner and I think that settled the karmic debt.
Day 59:
| Subway Sub of the Day (Italian BMT) | 195 |
| Sugar drink | 30 |
| Ideal Social Hostel (2 nights) | 1260 |
| 2 Beers @ HH @ TCB | 200 |
| Ravioli | 105 |
| Total: | 1790 ARS (211.1 RMB) (USD 30.18) |
With Christmas coming up, it was time to move to a more central hostel to rendezvous with some other backpackers I had met (in Cordoba). I had to buy a small bottle of drink to bring the leftover vodka with me. I wasn’t too impressed with the new hostel, and my “friends” were busy with their own things, so I found the only craft beer bar in microcentral (technically, Montserrat) which is devoid of life on weekends and cooked a sad plate of ravioli from the Carrefour Express (don’t trust the discount pasta!). It was a fun evening as I stumbled upon a free dance lesson in the hostel.
Day 60:
| Coffee | 70 |
| Alfajores | 250 |
| Sangrias | 330 |
| Tango buskers | 10 |
| Taxi* | 60 |
| Beer and water in supermarket | 150 |
| Sube recharge | 100 |
| Waitress tip* | 10 |
| Drinks (1 rusty nail) | 430 |
| Hot dog | 40 |
| Cab home | 150 |
| Total: | 1600 ARS (188.7 RMB) (USD 26.97) |
An insane day of walking the San Telmo market and day drinking, which should have stopped with the day drinking. I really regret going back out to Palermo for clubbing, especially when once again it just involved stopping at a series of increasingly expensive bars, which was completely unnecessary as I had already chugged the remained of the vodka with an energy drink and just wanted to dance. I didn’t drink at the first bar, but left a tip for the waitress because these Germans and Swiss people are cheap (in a different way from me).
Day 61:
| America Del Sur Hostel (3 nights) | 4.01 + 22.72 USD |
| Key Deposit* | 100 |
| Ice cream and coffee | 215 |
| Choripan | 80 |
| Bet | 100 |
| Bad money* | 200 |
| Total: | (269 RMB) (USD 38.45) |
I finished off the other half of the unspectacular ravioli in the morning before heading the a third hostel for the real Christmas action. I have to write down the key deposit as an expense because I never got it back (there was chaos on the day I left with power outage and no water). It was a quiet recovery day and started to meet a range of people outside my predetermined group of “friends” who were feeling less and less like friends.
Apparently the taxi from the day before passed me a bad note (protip never sit in the front seat) and I had passed it on to a German who wanted to buy a tab on her card. I had to step up and eat the cost even though the whole sequence of events was a group activity and I had suggested taking a bus in the first place (5 minutes slower than a taxi, one third the price, no fraudsters).
Day 62:
| Lomo Sandwich | 575 |
| Wine | 415 |
| Champagne and “OJ” | 190 |
| Meat for BBQ | (2115) |
| Meat for BBQ | (690) |
| Meat for BBQ | (823) |
| Veg for BBQ | (140) |
| Lemons | (57) |
| Pizza sauce | (170) |
| Collections for barbecue | (-5700) |
| Total: | 1180 ARS (139.2 RMB) (USD 19.90) |
Having talked to a lot of people in the hostel on the previous night and confirming that the hostel was not taking an active role in organizing anything for Christmas Eve or Christmas, I took the initiative to put together a barbecue. Originally estimating definitive interest from about 10 people (with my “friend” group expressly choosing to do their own thing), I estimated 300 pesos a head should cover all the expenses. By the time the food was ready, I squeezed in 20 people (including myself). It was not quite enough food, but the people were satisfied. Having learned my lessons of going clubbing in Palermo, I stayed at the hostel enjoying oh so much wine and having an early night of going to bed at 4am.
Day 63:
| Breakfast | 250 |
| Printing | 15 |
| Coffee | 100 |
| Bread & Olives | 42 |
| Indian dinner | 450 |
| Total: | 857 ARS (101.1 RMB) (USD 14.45) |
I was happy with my decision to “stay in,” but did not enjoy waking up at 6 as the club goers filtered back into the hostel. It was a very quiet day as everyone slept and repeated attempts to nap did nothing to ameliorate the 2 hours of sleep I got. I enjoyed the hostel breakfast and waited around to crack open the champagne for mimosas. The hostel had their regular “free tango lessons” night (which was good) and a group of us went out to Christmas dinner afterwards. I was a bit suspicious of the Indian restaurant, but it turned out to be reasonable value for money. The tango club which we wanted to go to afterwards was closed for Christmas and I took it as a miracle and an excuse to go to bed early.
The barbecue creates a bit of a dilemma for my bookkeeping as I made a profit on it. To make things easier, I’m just not counting it. Maybe I should make a habit of it as a side hustle.
This ends the Argentinian leg of my travels, as I head to Uruguay tomorrow. I do pay a bit of money to top up my phone credit, but since that was to activate international roaming in Uruguay, I can fold that into my Uruguayan costs.
Update: I originally forgot to add in 4.36 of credit card fees for international processing (from the monthly credit card bill), so that ups the daily average by 6 cents.
Running Total: 10741.9 RMB (USD 1539.84)
Daily Average: 170.5 RMB (USD 24.44)