Buenos Aires - musical heights and bureaucratic depths

We flew about 3 hours northward to the vibrant, huge, and bustling capital of Argentina from the southernmost city in the world. Buenos Aires has developed into a multicultural city over centuries under the influence of various immigrant groups. The porteños, as the city dwellers are called, are proud of their diverse culture, excellent meat dishes, and impressive colonial buildings.

On the recommendation of an Argentinean, we visited the Bomba del Tiempo, a percussion live show. It was fascinating to see drums, timpani, xylophones, and many other instruments being played by the musicians. The special thing about it was that they improvised the whole show, and we enjoyed a unique performance as a result.

The next day, we realized that exchanging money in Argentina is quite a complicated matter. After walking 30 minutes to the nearest currency exchange, we realized that we wouldn't achieve anything here without our passports. So back to the hostel. To avoid having to walk the whole way a third time, we wanted to look up the best bus connection on the city's public transportation app. But this plan also failed because the app's response was: 'This way is too short. Walk!' So we walked. After about 45 minutes of waiting at the currency exchange, the best part came: The printer had stopped working. And since the bureaucracy for exchanging money in Argentina is really very complicated, nothing works without a printer. We had no choice but to walk to another currency exchange, where we could actually exchange our money after some waiting time. This action once again showed us that whenever we think that nothing can surprise us anymore after 6 months, we are proven wrong.

And then our last evening together was already on the program, which we of course celebrated with a proper Argentinean grill plate. After almost six unforgettable, eventful, and unique months together, our paths diverge. Carole will spend the next 2.5 weeks with Reto before returning home. Julia's journey continues a little further and will take her to other parts of the Americas.