Day 1 - Argentina 2025: My arrival to Buenos Aires

I spent the night at Zoe and Jack's, in Redwood City, and the following morning had an Uber pick me up at 5 am to drive me to the San Francisco Airport. The place was a zoo! I thought I was the only fool who would travel on December 31, but I was wrong. I imagine a lot of people were taking the Early Bird flights to get home, unpack, and then go out for a New Year's party. From San Francisco a 4-hour flight took me to Miami, where I had a 6-hour layover (not as bad as it sounds because I took the opportunity to stretch luxuriously on the carpet and take a long nap), followed by an 8-hour flight from Miami to EZE (Buenos Aires), where I quickly got through immigration brandishing my Mexican passport. A friendly native advised me to buy the Carta Azzurra at a kiosk (US$1.50 plus a $8.50 initial charge), so I could ride all public transportation in the area. I much prefer solving challenges on the ground, but I had checked the exchange rate ahead of time, so I didn't faint at the total cost of 10,000 pesos for the Carta Azzurra (US$1 = 1,000 ARG pesos).

When I came out of the airport, to wait for bus 8, I realized that coming into a country on January 1 is not a very good idea. Everything is closed! After waiting for 20 minutes I started to wonder if the buses were running at all, but just when I was going to start looking for plan B the number 8 pulled into the stop. Now, Buenos Aires is one of those cursed cities where the airport is a long ways from city center, and of course it would be to easy to have a dedicated bus route or light train, so after covering half the distance with bus 8 I had to get off the bus, walk a kilometer or so, wait for another bus that never came, and walk another half a kilometer to the (very slow) train to bring me into the town. To me it is all part of being a tourist, and I enjoyed looking at the small neighborhoods I was walking through. Folks here love their dogs and they take seriously the task of taking them out for a daily walk; they are not very good at cleaning after their dog, however, so you have to walk carefully and from the size of the poop I concluded there are dogs the size of Shetland Ponies out there!

Fabiola gave me this wonderful travel vest that has many pockets and secure places to stash money, but it is a bit of a liability on a warm day, particularly when there are no open kiosks where one can get a drink. But eventually I made it to the city in the very slow train (whereI didn't have to pay because the gal at the cashier took a look at my white hair and informed me that as a senior I didn't have to pay - score!). A short walk took me to the first of the metro stations, and from there it was but a matter of minutes before I was in my new neighborhood and checking into my 9th floor penthouse (a very modest penthouse), where I will spend the next five nights. After settling in I went for a walk around town, enjoying very much the cleaner and much more attractive inner city. Buenos Aires has many parks, and the locals enjoying using them for sun bathing, jogging, walking their dogs, or just shooting the breeze.

Finding a place to eat was a bit of a challenge because it is January 1, and because I have not found a suitable ATM to withdraw a half million pesos. Eventually I found a place, which at 6 pm gave me the breakfast menu. Upon inquiry I got the dinner menu, but with a disapproving look the waiter frostily informed me that Argentinians don't normally take their dinners until 10 or 11 pm! It is going to be a whole lot of lonely dinners for me.