Time for a good, long moan! When reading the rest of this post, please bear in mind that it's 33 degrees today which is not a good environment for a Scandinavian.
Before leaving Montevideo, I had researched online how much a taxi fare should cost from the boat to my hotel. It should be around 60 pesos. The taxis inside the perimeter of the terminal asked for 180! I was told however that if I went out on the street, it should be much cheaper. So there was another taxi driver waiting just outside - he wanted 240 pesos! This was during rush hour so taxis were not plentiful. After about 10 minutes I managed to flag one down - 200 pesos! I told him to f off. Another 10 minutes later I finally got an honest one who was happy to charge the metered fare. I told him about the offers I'd had and he was shocked. Always a pleasure to meet honest people who don't take advantage of tourists! And thank goodness I did my research! And indeed, the fare came to 56 pesos. Quite a lot less than 240!
It was impossible to buy Argentinian pesos before leaving, and during my layover at Buenos Aires airport a week ago, the cash machine refused me point blank. Luckily I had some Uruguayan pesos left so I changed those for Argentinian ones, so I could at least pay for the taxi to the hotel. Before leaving Montevideo, I found a discussion board online that made me very nervous. Since the new President came to power, they have started rationing the cash you can withdraw per day in Argentina. But this being Latin America, no one of course knows the limit! One person had managed to get 2400 pesos in one go, but most of them had only managed 2000 (there are 20 pesos to the pound FYI). After arriving at my hotel (more about that later), I went to three ATM's in the neighbourhood which all rejected my attempts. I then went out with a friend for a couple of drinks, and as it was happy hour, a caipirinha was only 55 pesos so I could just afford that! And believe me, it was strong! After that, my cash had run dry.
This morning, I searched for an HSBC branch, which was the bank that saved me in Uruguay. And sure enough, I got my 2400 pesos no problem! I asked a lady at the bank who confirmed that there was indeed a daily limit, but she couldn't say what it was. She said I should try again tomorrow. I'll raise the stakes and go for a higher amount tomorrow! Fingers crossed. If I'm having this much trouble in the capital, I'd better get plenty of cash before I head down to the wilderness in Patagonia.
So about the hotel. I can't for the life of me understand why it was rated 7 out of 10 on booking.com. Now, I have nothing against basic accommodation on a trip like this, I certainly can't afford to stay at the Sheraton everywhere. Bearing in mind that it's unbelievably hot, I do need good a/c however. This hotel was supposed to have a/c, but in fact, all they had was some kind of ventilation system that made no difference what so ever. Plus the dreaded ceiling fan. I made an executive decision to find something else, and this morning I moved over to an apartment instead. Costs a bit more of course, but it's a matter of survival.
The fact that I had to go to three different places before I could buy a plastic card to use the public transport system, and the fact that I landed right in some communist revolution with thousdands of demonstrators blocking the streets around the Parliament when I got out of the metro, well, what can I say. This is Latin America. Don't ever expect anything to work or run smoothly.
I'm glad that I've been to Buenos Aires before (in wintertime), so I've pretty much seen everything already. In this kind of heat, I won't be wanting to be very active. I'll make a careful selection of some places I might want to visit and plan how to get there, as in this heat it's not pleasant to just wander around which is otherwise a nice way to see a city.
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