“Travel” Weeks 74-76
It was a long wait until the day to leave finally came. I realized I have a pattern of overindulging when I realize I am on my way out of a country and not sure when I will be able to eat any of the things I like to eat there.
Days 428-458:
| Rent | 12000 |
| 3 pints | 500 |
| Hot dog | 150 |
| Total: | 12650 ARS (USD 90.55) |
Though I had ended the beer fast by eating the food, that didn’t exactly mean I was done drinking beer. I’m going to miss the panchos in Argentina, not like I ever really ate them, and it bothered me that they were so common in Mendoza while choripans were hard to come by, but who could resist a restaurant called Los Panchos de Villa.
| Ribs | 1320 |
| Carrefour | 1076 |
| Produce | 290 |
| Firewood | 170 |
| Total: | 2856 ARS (USD 20.44) |
I did my shopping a day early for an Easter barbecue, I decided to go all in on ribs–lamb, cow, and pork. Apart from the pork ribs, I went to the Carrefour for coffee, dulce de leche, medialunas, bread, and one of those Easter cakes (rosca de reyes). I was really committing to my Easter weekend indulgences to celebrate the end of Lent. Unfortunately, I didn’t have another diet lined up afterwards, so this is going to get embarrassing as I keep listing all the unhealthy stuff I buy.
| Vea | 312 ARS |
| Total: | USD 2.23 |
No one joined me for my Easter BBQ, and I basically filled up on salad and bread before the meat was cooked. I did, nobly, manage to eat all the pork and beef ribs, but that gorgeous rack of lamb ribs in a Xinjiang-spice rub was completely left over. So, I decided to make a shepherds pie. I kept the bones (in the freezer) to make soup stock later in the week. I used a whole carton of cream to make some really rich mashed potatoes for the bottom of the pie.
| Don Humbolto Vegetables | 470 |
| Snacks from Vea | 570 |
| Total: | 1040 ARS (USD 7.44) |
Don Humbolto has good prices when you buy in bulk. They’ll have prepacked 2kg bags 100 pesos for vegetables, 150 pesos for fruits. I believe I bought corn, acelga (chard), garlic, scallion, and ginger to make hot pot/Chinese soups. At the Vea, I splurged on some cookies (on sale), peanuts, and bananas.
| Ferruccio Soppelsa Gelato | 500 |
| Booze (Atomo) | 870 |
| Mandarins, Onions, Peppers | 120 |
| Total: | 1490 ARS (USD 10.67) |
Fancy helado is expensive, 500 pesos only buys a half kilo. I picked up my last bottle of whisky and two bottles of wine at the Atomo.
| Vea — Beer and cookies | 880 ARS |
| Total: | (USD 6.30) |
I didn’t need to go to the store for anything. I just wanted to buy more cookies on the last day of the sale, all crackers/cookies were on sale. There was also a good price on Imperial beers, so I picked up four liters. The subtotal was 1200 pesos, as I said, a good deal. The Cookies & Cream ice cream gave me a hankering for Oreos, which were not available, but I got some packs of assorted cookies. Eating the entire package in a sitting was not a good idea. Doing it again on Monday, a terrible idea.
These last few “days” look bad, but I have a fridge full of veggies that I am slowly eating my way through.
| Fruit (6 kilos) | 450 ARS |
| Total: | USD 3.22 |
I’m not sure what day I bought the fruit (apples, pears, and bananas), but it was somewhere during the week, maybe Thursday. On another note, I had been planning to use Ramadan as an excuse for a third dry month in 2021. However, given that I will probably not be drinking in Florida, it would be foolish to waste my last opportunity to enjoy the price-quality ratio of beer and wine in Argentina. So, I split the difference when I was suddenly reminded of the start of Ramadan on Monday. I decided to enjoy coffee, water, tea and fruit during the day and just have one dinner after sunset and no prohibition on alcohol at night.
| 2 Pizzas & 1 Dozen Empanadas | 1050 ARS |
| Total: | USD 7.52 |
Somehow I only got 2 meals out of this enormous takeout order.
| Helado Lomoro | 500 |
| “Garbage bags” | 100 |
| Total: | 600 ARS (USD 4.29) |
Back to a cheaper gelato place to get a full kilo this time. I did not wait until sundown to eat it, but did split it into three distinct servings to be eaten throughout the afternoon and evening. I got caught right outside my door on the way back and was guilted into buying a couple of kitchen garbage bags by a peddler. They were really out in force in the neighborhood this day. Usually, you only see the walking vendors if you are in the restaurant and bar zones.
| Mate | 590 |
| Carrefour | 1350 |
| Total: | 1940 ARS (USD 13.89) |
I hadn’t drinking any mate for over a year, but now that I’m leaving Argentina, I suddenly have the urge to finally get around to buying my own mate cup so that I can pick up the habit. I also needed to get my fix of steaks, so I bought a package of bife de chorizo (and some wine of course) at the Carrefour along with more coffee and the hierba mate. “A mate” refers to the drinking vessel and stainless steel straw.
| Wine | 340 |
| Veg | 80 |
| Deli | 370 |
| Total: | 790 ARS (USD 5.65) |
I went by the old Chinese grocery store, which still sells insanely cheap wine (3 bottles for 340 pesos!) Of course, I can definitely taste the difference these days. I had a craving for tabla/picada so I grabbed a pack of salami, ham and cheese with some bread at the butcher shop (which is also a deli). By this point, I had basically given up on the Ramadan-inspired interval fasting. Although I really enjoyed the focus it gave me during the day, the growing desires for snacks in the afternoon were no longer sated by a piece of fruit, and I chowed down on the picada as soon as I got home, a good hour before the allotetd hour.
| Vea | 700 ARS |
| Total: | USD 5.01 |
After several days of steaks and cold cuts, I have a burst of cooking inspiration. First up is the remains of the giant bags of apples and pears I bought. I now have the habit of turning them into pies, but I still don’t want to learn to make pie crust, so I make do with the ones that are designed for savory pies. Second up, I bought a pumpkin at the Carrefour many days prior and with a bit of ginger left in the fridge decide to make a curry. It turns into a Thai-style curry with cream and coconut flakes. It was delicious, but I wasn’t expecting it to provide three gut-busting meals, especially when I run out of rice with the second meal.
| Vea | 1289 |
| Chicken Wings | 240 |
| Total: | 1529 ARS (USD 10.94) |
Beer is still on sale, so I pick up four bottles of Andes Origin. The final bit of ginger and a sale on chicken wings inspires me to try to make Korean Fried Chicken. The results were not so good, but I am confident it will be amazing next time I try. I also pick up black beans and tortillas because I decide I want to have huevos rancheros for breakfast my last few days in Mendoza.
| Eggs and Cabbage | 150 |
| Milanesas | 255 |
| Wine (@ Carrefour) | 530 |
| Total: | 935 ARS (USD 6.69) |
Another Argentinian meal I will miss is the milanesa. The butcher advertised a sale on veal and pork milanesa cuts, but by the time I rolled in on Sunday, I could only buy pork. The plan was to mix and match “a caballo” (topped with a fried egg) and napolitano (tomatoe sauce, ham and cheese). I’m finishing off pumpkin by attempting to make pumpkin fries (also a failure). The cabbage is to make sauerkraut. One of the wines from the Carrefour is a relatively good one (Trapiche reserva) that I will save for my final asado.
| Mailho Gelato | 320 ARS |
| Total: | USD 2.29 |
They increased the price of the 1/4 kilo by 20 pesos since my last visit. 🙁
| Beer and cookies from Vea | 1060 ARS |
| Total: | USD 7.59 |
Okay, I guess I decided I would miss the giant one liter bottles of nice beer more than the Malbec, so I took in my four empties for one more round and bought cookies from the grocery store bakery (as opposed to the packaged shelves).
| Leather wallet | 750 |
| Soccer kit | 950 |
| Ice cream and coffee | 370 |
| Alfajores | 450 |
| Carrefour | 3398 |
| More Alfajores | 480 |
| Jackhouse Hamburger and Pint | 920 |
| Total: | 7318 ARS (USD 52.88) |
I couldn’t put off the gift shopping much longer with only two full days left in Mendoza, but of course, I make sure to buy myself some presents too, like the wallet. I had to go to Western Union to get more money, and then spend it all within 24 hours.
| PCR Test | 6000 |
| Souvenir shop | 1930 |
| Salad | 80 |
| Butcher | 2660 |
| Drinks and dessert | 445 |
| Cash back for asado | -3500 |
| Total: | 7615 ARS (USD 55.18) |
I finally get some people to join me for an asado on my last day. Of course, I have to do all the work, shopping, and cooking. That may be a good thing since it forces me to learn the Argentinian way of making asado by not being able to rely on help. I may have made a small mistake when adding up the costs for the asado (also including about 300 pesos of pork ribs from Carrefour the day before), but maybe I should count my labor when we are splitting the bill.
| Uber to Airport | 408 (credit card) ~ 4.50 USD (?) |
| Airport Transfer Bus | 780 |
| Cafe con Leche y Alfajor (Havanna) | 290 |
| Half bottle of wine & 2 empanadas | 708 |
| Candy | 30 |
| Total: | 1808 ARS + Uber USD 17.60 |
It was a long day of traveling. The flight from Mendoza to Buenos Aires took less time than the bus ride between the two airports in Buenos Aires. It was nice that it took the scenic route in order to pick up more passengers at Puerto Madero so I could get another look at the Pink House and the obelisk (from a distance hiding behind the radio building/tower with Evita’s smiling face).
I couldn’t enter Ezeiza airport until about 4 hours before my flight, but fortunately there is a green space with shade and food trucks outside the exit for international arrivals. I was able to sit there until dusk when the mosquitos started eating me alive. It would be somewhat ironic to get malaria right now. It took a line time to queue to get into the airport (each airline has its own lane), then queue to check in. The visa overstay thing ended with a whimper. The ticketing agent was shocked that my visa expired, and I tried to explain that it was reportedly alright. He needed confirmation from the airport Migraciones office, which was achieved by sending someone with my passport while I waited two minutes. When I got to passport control to leave the country, the officer didn’t even comment on it, just stamped me like normal and wished me a good trip home.
Somehow I managed to perfectly spend down the remaining cash, helped out by dropping a 2 peso coin in a tip jar and keeping 2 25 centavo coins as possible souvenirs. Of course, I still have fistful of Chilean pesos and 30 bucks worth of Uruguayan pesos.
Last Running Total: 7236.77 USD (RMB 46854.5)
Daily Average: 13.04 USD (RMB 84.4)
So time really has lost all meaning in pandemic. I’ve been roughly counting the weeks and days for the past year of lock down, but as I am about to leave I actually did a check based on my entry and exit dates. It has been 555 days in South America, though I was only traveling for under 150 of them. So these means the daily average in the past 10 posts has been seriously under counting the denominator.
I am not counting my flights into/or out of the country in the total, but I think the lost luggage compensation basically paid for both of them. Pro-tip #1: have the airline lose your luggage. Suffer for a week, then enjoy a free vacation! Pro-tip #2: experience a once in a century pandemic that shuts everything down, find a cheap rental, and cook for yourself every meal.