South America Posts

I don’t know why, but I’m excited that it’s a new month. Maybe because I’m fully booked for my trip to Igauza falls in 17 days, or possibly because it’s a trip to Machu Picchu is probably on the horizon. Either way, I’m feeling fine, and today is a new day in a new month. I left Vancouver on January 4th, so that means I’ve been here nearly a month now. Time flies. I have a little widget on my phone with my rough itinerary in it, and it says I have 57 days left in Buenos Aires. I fly out on March 30th for New York City, where I’ll be meeting my business partner and his girlfriend for a few days of site-seeing, and hopefully some deep dish italian pizza for my birthday! It won’t technically be my birthday until I arrive in Ireland, but it’ll be close enough […]

I’ve spent the last month taking in the sites in Buenos Aires, and am now starting to make plans for viewing a few sites outside of the city. The first location I’m probably going to visit is Iguazu Falls. If you are planning a trip to Iguazu Falls, then this post is for you. Iguazu Falls Iguazu Falls is a massive set of cascading waterfalls right on the border between Argentina and Brazil. People who have seen them say it’s one of the most impressive natural wonders in the world, and it’s something I’ve been anxiously awaiting for since I found out about them approximately six months ago. There are two ways to get to Iguaza Falls from Buenos Aires, by bus or by plane. Unlike North American busses, busses here are very comfortable and posh, often containing DVD players, hot meals, champagne, and the ability to put your seat […]

I’m one month into what could very well be a one year travel adventure, potentially longer, depending on how things go (don’t worry mom, I’ll come home for a visit). My plan has always been to give monthly updates on costs to help those people budgeting for trips such as these. I’ve been told that one of the greatest myths about world travel is the belief that it’s only within reach of those who are very rich. My goal over the next year is to help dispel some of those myths. While I’m not expecting to always save a pile of money while traveling (although I expect in some destinations I probably will), I am interested to see just how different a full year of exotic travel is in terms of costs from my lifestyle back in North America. In terms of flights, I’ve decided to only include the one-way […]

I’ve been here three weeks now, and have most of the basics figured out. But definitely one of the hardest problems I’ve had to solve in Argentina so far was how to get a SIM card in Buenos Aires and ultimately top it up with funds. Why Movistar? There are two large GSM cell carriers in Buenos Aires: Claro and Movistar. Having investigated them both prior to moving to Buenos Aires, I came to the conclusion that Movistar offered the best deal for pay as you go plans. First, why Pay As You Go? Unfortunately unless you’re a local and have a DNI card (a local resident card) you can’t get a phone on any type of contract. That means the only option is a Pay As You Go plan, such as the Movistar Prepago one. The main benefit for the Movistar plan is that they offer a 3G data […]

About a week ago, Gus, Russ and I were talking about how we would all like to visit Uruguay at some point on our adventure. There are two options that most people consider: a trip to Colonia, or a trip to Montevideo. Due to time constraints, most people end up taking the trip to Colonia, since it’s not very far from Buenos Aires. Getting to Montevideo takes more time, and is generally more expensive, so most people choose not to do it. Since it is the capital of Uruguay, we decided that it was the place that we wanted to visit the most. The ferry company that handles transportation from Buenos Aires to Montevideo is called Buquebus (pronounced “Bu-kay-bus”). It turns out that they were offering a Day Tour of Montevideo for only 640 pesos (around $160 CAD), so we decided to do that. The fee included the ferry in […]

I have a lot to write about this week, but was in front of the computer so I recorded another quick and dirty video regarding the weekend. Enjoy. Video Update 2: Thoughts on Montevideo from Duane Storey on Vimeo.

I’ve managed to do a weekly update on the past two Fridays of the month, so I think going forward that’s going to by my goal for the rest of the trip. First off, I’ve been here a little over two weeks now. The total length of my time in Buenos Aires is about 12 weeks, so that means I have around 10 left I think. My first week here was a bit challenging, mostly for the language barrier. I spent a bit of time brushing up on my spanish, and week 2 definitely was a bit easier. Spanish This week I finally found a private spanish teacher and have been meeting her for two hours a night on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so that’s an extra six hours a week. We’ve mostly been reviewing old content, so I wouldn’t say I’ve learned too much new during lessons, but I […]

The country of Uruguay is just a short ferry ride away from Buenos Aires. It’s always been on my list of things to see while I’m down in Argentina, but I didn’t have any definite plans in my mind for when I would go over. Usually people go over to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, since it’s just a short ferry ride away. However, an even greater adventure is the city of Montevideo, which is at least a 2.5 hour ferry ride away from Buenos Aires (if you take the fast ferry, longer if you take the slow ferry). So this weekend I’ve decided to head over to Montevideo with Gus and Russ. We’ve paid for a full tour, which includes both ferry rides, a lunch, and a full day of walking. Here’s a rough itinerary. 5:45am – wake up! 6:15am – head to the ferry port 6:30am – check […]

Obtaining money has little idiosyncrasies in every part of the world. In the Caribbean for example, it’s easy to obtain money in US dollars, but hard to get anyone to break any of the bills the ATM machines give out. When I was in Costa Rica, we had issues because many bank machines only allowed 4-digit pins, while some banks in Canada (notably Royal Bank at the time), used five digit pins. So we had to drive nearly 60 minutes out of town to find a bank machine that would take five digits. Buenos Aires is no different, although the situation is slightly better. I commented on another post how it’s hard to break a 100 peso bill here (not impossible, but difficult unless you’re spending 60 pesos or so). That’s the equivalent of around $25 in Canada. Imagine going to 7-11 back home, handing over a $20 bill to […]

Had you asked me a few months ago about what language they speak in Argentina, I probably would have just said Spanish, assuming (erroneously of course) that all spanish speaking countries all speak the same form. Now that I’m here, I know what a lot of people in North American probably don’t – in Argentina they speak a fairly different form of spanish based on Voseo, and also have some very unique pronunciations. The main change in voseo that the second person singular (equivalent to you in english, i.e. you are) is changed from tu to vos. Unfortunately very few books even make mention of this change, and it’s only something you’ll be exposed to in voseo speaking countries. The problem is that very few books talk about it, so none of the conjugation tables show you how to properly conjugate verbs for that form. Pronunciation is quite a bit […]