Bus, boat, B&B

Until the checkout at 10, I had enough time for a little yoghourt with fruit, to pack my things and app with some contacts of Dragon Dreaming. An Uber brought me to the busstation. In the bus some doubts. Maybe, I should have choosen to go up north in Uruguay. But I hoped, the appointment with Raquel would work out. On the other hand, for a real conversation is my Spanish too limited, and – as I understood – although her English. Maybe, we see each other, when she travels to Germany, where a colleague of her also works. Time to practice languages 🙂

We keep contact, anyway. 

Moneywise, I wasn’t sure what to expect in Argentina. Because of economic troubles, three exchange rates seems to exist: the formal one of the banks… it’s a kind of robbery, you could say, then the official one at exchange offices (both between 1:1100 and 1:1300). Already better. And the third, on the street, with a kind of fair rate (mostly equally to what international currency apps would say: 1:1750). Shall see. 

The procedure at the boat terminal was easy. Things got through a scanner. Couldn’t see somebody watching the screen. For the boarders: Uruguay gave a stamp for leaving the country. Aregentia gave a stamp on the ticket: you are allowed through. And the register you in a central system, I learned later. Once you was through the checking… everybody could go on every boat, no further checks at all. 

At the boat I found a good spot with a view on the travelline. The wind kept the boat a bit rolling, but who cares? At the Argentinian side, we had to go through customs, no passport controle, nothing. 

For the ride naar the guesthouse, I had a bit trouble with Uber. The first kept circeling and not coming, though I changed to another one. The one came quickly. Afterwards, I had trouble to pay the ride: seems, Uber is illegal in Argentina and payments got blocked. The service desk of Uber is in such a case not useful at all. 

The guesthouse is a brilliant, little cosy place in a big city. Lina introduced me to the place, in Spanish. Went quite well. Later, it seems, she also spoke Dutch! At the terminal I couldn’t find an ATM (€7 – €13 per transaction, just you know) of exchange office. A bit strange at a boarder point. And in the welcome-app of the guesthouse stood, that I could exchange my money here, but that wasn’t quite the case. Anyway, Lina lent me some pesos for my evening groceries, for the breakfast tomorrow morning. Self service, at the guesthouse, with a nice, minimalistic, little kitchen in the lovely, little courtyard.