Don’t Drink The Water In Argentina

Being a SEO guy, I’m trying to optimize this post for people who might be asking “Should I drink the water in Argentina”. Well, the answer is no!

If you read my week one and week two posts, you’ll know that my stomach was not pleased with being in Argentina. I had assumed it was the food. I was wrong as I so often am!

I’m positive I found the culprit! Well, not me but my new roommate.

Within a couple minutes after meeting him, I told him about my stomach issues. He asked me if I was drinking the tap water. I had been and he suggested that was probably the cause.

Surely enough I started buying and drinking bottle water and magically my stomach issues went away. Thanks Nico! After my stomach troubles went away I really started to enjoy myself.

Get Me The Fuck Out Of Here

That was my thought before I moved into this new apartment on St. Patties Day. I was so busy with work and not really enjoying my time here in BA. I needed to move out of my current place as I only booked for a week. There wasn’t much out there for me but I found a cool spot in an area of Buenos Aires that I really liked so I booked for a week. What was better was that it was priced very well but I was still had thought hard about leaving after the week was up.

One slight drawback is that it has a single bed but I didn’t know how small it was until I got there. I don’t think I’ve ever had a single bed before!

So I caught another cheap taxi (taxi’s are really, really cheap here) to my place. It was a three bedroom place and as my landlord walked me to my room, I asked if anyone else was living there. She said there was a German guy Nico and English girl Sophie.

Ok great I thought, they probably know some english! My Spanish sucks and being so busy with work, I’ve had little time to learn more.

I met Sophie briefly when I got there and she was really nice and friendly. But I had some work to get done so I retreated to my room.

I got sidetracked from work right away. An idea came into my head a day earlier and that was to cut my trip short in BA and head to Miami to check out the Miami Open Tennis Tournament and WMC Electronic Music Festival. I love tennis and electronic music. It would have been a chance to see my favorite tennis players and all the DJ’s who’s mixes I’ve listened to for the last six years in one week.

Hernan Cattaneo and Guy J on a boat cruise was the biggest reason for this. I have listened to their mixes and productions constantly for the last six years. Seeing them play on a boat cruise would be one the most amazing experiences I could think of right now.

So I went to work trying to make this happen.

Switching my flight was possible but for a cost of $700 though. Ok I said, I could deal with that. Next up was finding accommodations. I put the feeler out there with my good friend Graeme who I’ve connected with this past year and now lives in the Greater Miami area. He was going to be in town but wouldn’t have a room for me to stay.

To AirBnb I went looking for places under $60 a night in a 50km area outside of Miami. The results, very sad. These places make anything in Esquimalt look like 4 star hotels. There was really NOTHING out there. Even 2 star hotels in the area wanted close to $90 a night.

I had spent way too much time on possibly cost scenarios that my brain was pretty fried. So my dream of heading to Miami to watch world class Tennis and to see Hernan, Guy J and Nick Warren on a boat cruise fizzled. Seeing the pictures and videos on Facebook was crushing in some ways.

It’s funny because doing the Miami Tennis and WMC thing has always been a trip I’ve wanted to do. The moment this trip to Miami fizzled, I was filled with regret and pissed off I didn’t do that.

But I changed my thoughts around. I work for myself and I have the freedom to do those trips far more often then I had working for a company.

With that mindset, I was no longer pissed off and filled with regret. My mood also got better as I started to chat more with my new roommates.

Connection

My mother and I always talk about connection. Connecting with people is what both makes us feel alive and kicks starts the positive vibes. But we want to connect with people we know or don’t know on a deeper level.

For me I was excited about meeting my new roommates. I can be isolated at times and comfortable on my own. So basically an extrovert. But outside of meeting Pablo and a few other friends Gustavo introduced me, I was 10 000 miles away from any connection I have on this earth. Sure, I’ve used non verbal forms of communication to talk to some of you. It’s not the same though. I needed to feel connected.

For the first two weeks here, I was feeling flat and needing energy.

My vibe was getting better here after the first few days with my roommates. Although I had lots of work to do, I was able to chat with them a fair bit and knew they were open and easy to talk to. Sharing accommodations with two people you don’t know can be great or awkward. Thankfully it’s been great so far.

We’ve gone out for quite a few dinners and spent plenty of time in the apartment chatting. The topics have been diverse and we seem to share a lot of common interests and values. We had quite a long night on Friday where we went out for dinner and came back to the apartment and started talking about the media, world problems and how much we care about the Earth and are sad to see it being ruined by greed.

It’s been a really good experience for me and I’ve enjoyed their company a lot. I had only booked this apartment for another week as I wanted to leave my plans open. But I liked the vibe so much that on Tuesday I booked for another month.

Nico is probably leaving at the end of the month to travel around before heading home to Germany. Sophie is here until the middle of April which would leave me alone or with new roommates and if so, it’s been great connecting with them.

Location, Location, Location

This city is massive. What’s cool though is each neighbourhood feels like a city inside a city.

The other reason I booked for a full month was the location of this place. The 4th night here Pablo and I had dinner in an area called Los Canitas. I knew after one night this was the neighbourhood where I wanted to stay for a while if I wasn’t going to travel around. And here I am.

It’s close to Polo fields, lots of great restaurants and the Race Track so I can go Gamblor mode. Seriously, I’ve been there once and only spent $10. This neighbourhood is also a little more quiet and upscale so it’s safe.

Empanada’s Count

Now is a good time to interrupt you with an empanadas count. I think I am at 28. They’re like a mini pizza pocket but with more options. I will likely break a 100 as Empanadas Gourmet is 50 steps from my front door and they have cheap empanadas.

Adventures

What did I do this past week? Well last Tuesday was St Patricks Day and I spent that with Pablo at an Irish Bar in his neighbourhood of Belgrano. It was fun to see how much the locals support an event. Maybe it was the fact they could drink on a Tuesday until 2 Am, who knows. They had a great Irish band bearing the heat and playing some Irish tunes on bagpipes and drums.

The next night I met up with girl from Tinder who has from Colombia. We had a nice night and ate some Mexican at a great restaurant named Taco Box in Palermo. Once again this was another restaurant that had great ambience.

The next few nights I joined my new roommates for some dinner and drinks.

Thursday night was Nico’s birthday. We had drinks at the apartment with a few of his friends from school. He had friends in the program from Holland, Wisconsin, Austria and here in Buenos Aires. We enjoyed some laughs and exchanging things about each others countries. Felt kind of like a hostel in a way.

At 1 AM we made the walk into Palermo to grab a beer. Not much was open but we made last call at this tacky place called the Tiki Bar. We chatted for a bit and we got on the topic of drinking and driving. The guy from Wisconsin, Herman, was only 20 and it came up that when he goes home, he can’t drink legally. But he’s been driving for 4 years now and I thought this should be implemented in Canada where you can’t drink until your 21 to give kids more time to mature before drinking so they now their limits better.

Friday night Nico, Sophie and myself try some Arabian cuisine. The meal was cheap and half decent.

Afterwards Nico and myself got the craving for some late night ice cream, very common here in BA, and headed for Persico. I got a Dulce De Leche Con Brownie. Dulce De Leche is a right caramel type syrup that the country is addicted to. Here’s some Google Images you can look at.

Afterwards we continued talking and our discussion turned to world problems. I mentioned to Nico the next morning that it was really great to stay up and chat on a deeper level like we did the night before.

We had such a good time Friday night we went out for dinner again on Saturday night just down from our place at a restaurant called La Colorada. With it’s high ceilings, red walls and chairs, it was a cool spot. Very loud and busy but enjoyable none the less.

The meals are very reasonably priced and extremely delicious! I’ll be heading back here again.

Sunday night I joined Pablo for some cerveza’s at this place called Anatares which is a chain of brew pubs. Monday and Tuesday were holidays here and the place was busy. Like every other restaurant or bar here it had a great ambience and nice lighting.

They had lots of photos and beer memorabilia including a Big Rock Brewery Grasshopper poster! None of it was on tab though.

The next day Pablo offered to drive me outside of the city to visit San Isidro and Tigre. The drive out was very nice and the area looks beautiful but expensive. Something cool they have out on the street lights is a timer letting the drivers know how long the light will stay green for.

One the drive we also came across this cathedral. The one thing I haven’t noticed in any cathedrals here which is much different than Europe where there tons of them.

Past San Isidro is a small city called Tigre which is supposed to be beautiful. We got there late in the afternoon and the city streets were packed. Since it was a holiday everyone had the idea to head out there. After 30 minutes of moving 1000 meters, we decided to head back in BA.

And that was week 3 down here! Not a lot of the adventure front but some good conversation and meals. had a couple of bigger work things which are virtual complete and I’ll have some free time to do some more exploring!