BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - 1st February 2010
continuing from Parts I and II...
After around 28 hours, it's still the 1st of February, and I've now been on the ground, directly or indirectly*, on every continent except Antarctica.
Buenos dias from Argentina, and my first experience of a non-English speaking country since leaving England's green and pleasant land back in September. First experience was amusing enough - out of baggage reclaim I immediately seek out an ATM for some local currency, and find a massive queue for the two HSBC machines near the airport entrance. Asking an airport attendant if there are any other machines, he directs me over to Banco Nacional on the other side of the forecourt, where another long queue winds past the out-of-order ATM and into a Bureau de Change. Not an issue, thinks I - I'll just take money straight off my card. An issue, says they - no cards; only cash. And back to HSBC I go.
The primary need for cash was to get straight onto the internet to book my Buquebus ferry over to Colonia in Uruguay this afternoon - a matter of increasing urgency after the internet-driven farce in Sydney Airport. Much to my chagrin, however, the same problem persists here - and it is only after several fruitier words of my vocabulary are muttered at the computer screen that I think to use the phone to make a local call to the company. On this line they speak English, and while it may have taken the best part of 15 minutes to get everything confirmed and reconfirmed (my surname ending with a Portuguese S, rather than the Spanish Z, being a major issue), I am now safely booked on the 4.15 ferry this afternoon, and have the next few hours to grab a cab down to the port, and have a couple of hours to wander around Buenos Aries' major shopping streets which are in the immediate vicinity. Come evening, it'll be country #4 for today...
Why the rush out of BA today? Come 2 weeks time I'll be meeting up with Anna - who featured in a couple of The Daily Rod's Mumbai editions - for Carnivale, and our subsequent travels will see us take an inland route back down to the south of the continent, passing through BA en route. With an extended stay guaranteed then, I've got no time no waste here and now!
* Africa doesn't really count - my sole experience was an hour refuelling stop in Cairo in January 1997, where we never left the plane.
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