A hassled finish

With an 1100 checkout I had the choice of waking up early and going for an early exploration, then coming back to pack and checkout … or just having a lazy morning then checking out. I opted for the easier option.

Leaving my luggage in storage with the hotel, I had my full carry-on pack on my bag with plenty of water. I opted to go to the new part of town Puerto Madero which is just between Casa Rosada and the water.

It was a very nice modern area, but it is no different from other docklands in various cities. Even though there was a pedestrian bridge in line with Casa Rosada, the walk was a little convoluted due to a railway track and highway in between.

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I had my final lunch at La Junta 1810. The afternoon went quickly exploring new parts of town. I downed my remaining fruit for dinner before summoning my Uber taxi to the airport from outside the hotel.  Little did I know that I was up for a hassled finish to my trip with theft, traffic and queues.

There were more protests tonight which played havoc with traffic. Standing outside the hotel and checking on the status of my Uber ride on my phone, someone rode past on a bicycle and snatched it off my hand. It wasn’t possible for me to chase someone on a bike.

I waited at length for Uber to turn up but with no luck. Protests meant that traffic into the small road on which the hotel was located was very slow. I was starting to get concerned but knew I had plenty of time still. I decided it would be best to walk to the main road a block away and hail a black-and-yellow taxi.

Once we got out from the city centre, it was a fast ride which cost me AR$480 including tolls. It was about the same as the Uber estimate but double what Kim had paid three days ago in different traffic conditions.

The check-in staff for Air New Zealand were very pleasant and I managed to get not just my boarding pass immediately (on a standby ticket) but also my paid last-minute upgrade.

I searched out for a police station but the office was PSA (airport police, which is more like Aviation Security). With the language difficulty, lack of interest on their part and time ticking away, I couldn’t get anywhere lodging a police report.

I had about AR$240 to change and there was a Cambio nearby. The queue was long and frustratingly slow moving. I don’t know what they have to go through just to do a simple transaction. I gave up and gave the money to some people from New Zealand behind me and took NZ$20 in exchange. I managed to get some time in the lounge before boarding the 13h flight to Auckland departing at midnight. We had a shallow climb giving me a final overview of the awesome city by night.

Strangely the loss my phone didn’t dampen me. I had had an awesome time and was looking forward to coming back. A few parting thoughts on Argentina though. It is a lot more developed than Peru and Bolivia and has the mod cons that are available in developed countries. However, there are just reminders that it isn’t quite there:

• Metro breakdowns.
• Lift breakdowns.
• Street protests.
• Queues for banks and ATMs.
• Low limits on ATM withdrawals while not having widespread acceptance of card (even some flash places in Puerto Madero didn’t take card).