Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Today was a really stressful day. I was planning to buy air tickets to Ecuador but the booking site had terrible reviews so I headed down to Avenida Cordoba to TAME Airline’s office.
The guy managing the counter was a younger and more handsome version of Javier Bardem. If I wasn’t as stressed out about my airtickets, I would have secretly fan girled more.
Anyway, I had many problems with the tickets to Ecuador:
- The booking office does not have a credit card machine
- The only way to pay was in Argentine peso at a bank around the corner
- I will need to get money out of the ATM 3 times because of the 1,000 peso limit (My bank might think it’s a fraudulent transaction.)
- The ticket was S$700
- I need a ticket out of Ecuador or Javier Junior cannot sell me a ticket (This can be easily solved though.)
I went straight back to the hostel, forgoing the English tour for Recoleta Cemetery. (I’m rather sad about this.)
I decided that instead of going through the 6 problems I have with buying tickets to Ecuador, I should just head to Chile instead.
So that was how I decided my next destination: Out of stress.
Buying the ticket to Chile
When I first bought my tickets for South America, I bought a flight into Buenos Aires and a flight out of Lima, Peru.
I was worried that the ticket agent might refuse to sell me a ticket because I don’t have a flight out of Chile. I was also worried that the people at the airport might stop me from buyiboarding the plane (horror story from Javier Jr).
What is a person to do at times like this? Book a flight out of Chile. Well, virtually. I’ll explain more after I land in Chile.
After getting all the documents I need, I went for lunch with the Taiwanese girl from the hostel. We had an amazing Peruvian meal which I’ll share sometime later.
After lunch, Iheaded back to Av Cordoba to buy my ticket.
The lady didn’t even look at my air tickets and swiped my credit card for 2,400+ peso (S$600+). There was a second in which I thought about heading back to Javier Jr but thought that it’s too much of a hassle paying for the ticket to Ecuador.
Despite having my Chilean ticket, I was still stressed. Now I have to worry about currency, transportation, accommodation and pronunciation.
It’s very scary leaving a familiar place for a strange land. I feel sad that I wouldn’t be able to go to the Carrefour where the security guard knows me by sight, or buy empanadas from the Downton Abbey Thomas lookalike.
Luckily, I know someone from Twitter who’s now in Santiago. She helped with hostel recommendation and we’re meeting up for dinner. (Hurray for the internet!)
Tour of Palacio Barolo
I still had some pesos with me so I decided to go for the afternoon tour of Palacio Barolo. Even though my language school was in the building, I never got the chance to visit the rest of it.
Palacio Barolo was designed based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. (Don’t ask me what it was about.)
The best part was the view of Buenos Aires.
YQtravelling 