The nerves set in after touching down in Buenos Aires and I explored Argentina's Blue Market as a first time solo female traveler!
I can still remember sitting on a bench at the Buenos Aires airport and having the thought slip into my mind, “what would life look like if I boarded on a plane back home? Maybe I am not cut out for traveling?” I quickly decided that was not an option… I was alone in a foreign country for the first time in my life; I was scared and completely frozen. I don’t know how long I sat there in my anxiety. As my brain slowly started to function again I realized I needed to get to the hotel room… which meant I needed transportation which meant I needed a taxi which meant I needed cash. I had my US dollars, but I had a plan to use those later 😉 I needed some Argentine Pesos to get started. Step 1: get enough cash from the airport ATM to afford a taxi, Step 2: order a taxi, Step 3: make it to the hotel, Step 4: check into the hotel. This might sound silly but when I panicked, I seemed to forget my whole plan that I had before the plane touched down.
I am happy to tell you that the trip to South America was a turning point in my life. I fell in love with traveling. It was one of the things that I always felt destined to do but I never really did it. There was always a reason not to travel. I thought I had to travel with someone. The buddy system had been imprinted in my head relentlessly by society, but my friends never seemed to have their finances in order or always had a difference in opinion of what the ideal trip looked like. My partner at the time had zero interest in traveling. I was in school. I had debts to pay off. I didn’t like to take time off work. What do I do about language barriers? Is it safe? Any of these sound familiar? I had every excuse in the world as to why I couldn’t embark on an adventure. Eventually spurred by an annual ritual of moving my life forward (a story for another time), my need to travel became more important than my excuses to not.
I am not sure how everyone else chooses their trips. I normally make up my mind based on seeing an image that calls to my heart. I can’t explain it, but I see a photo and I think “that’s it, that is the one.” It is probably how other people feel about their life partners, but I choose mountains instead. I really thought my first trip was going to be to Peru; I have wanted to hike into Machu Pichu for as long as I can remember; this one is still on my bucket list. Then I looked at New Zealand so I wouldn’t have a language barrier. I saw a photo of Torres del Paine in Patagonia and my mind was made up, regardless of language barriers or any other excuse. The pictures do not do this gorgeous place justice! Nor any amount of me rambling on about it so I will just leave it at that. I researched all about the area. I looked through various travel websites and started making lists of everything I wanted to see in the area. This is one of the awesome parts about planning a solo trip. I get to plan a trip specific for me, 100% selfish, not taking into account anyone else’s needs or wants. If I want to hike and explore for 20 days straight, then I can plan a trip with hiking and adventure for 20 days straight without negotiating or compromising.
Here is my final itinerary for my first trip! On the spectrum of underplanner to overplanner, I typically err on the side of overplanning. A good plan executed well increased the opportunity for success. The measure of success for this trip was fitting in as much exploring as possible.
Day 1: Fly from Billings, Montana to Buenos Aires, Argentina
Day 2: Fly from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Calafate, Argentina
Day 3: Explore Perito Moreno Glacier; Bus from Calafate, Argentina to Chalten, Argentina
Day 4-7: Hike Huemul Circuit Trek
Day 8: Hike: Laguna Torre and Laguna De Los Tres, Bus from Chalten, Argentina to Calafate, Argentina
Day 9: Bus from Calafate, Argentina to Puerto Natales, Chile
Day 10: Rest Day
Day 11-15: Hike Torres Del Paine W Trek
Day 16: Bus from Puerto Natales, Chile to Punta Arenas, Chile
Day 17-19: Whale Watching in the Strait of Magellan
Day 20: Fly from Punta Arenas, Chile to Billings, Montana
I was a little nervous leaving home, but the real nerves didn’t set in until I boarded the plane in Texas that would actually be taking me outside the United States. I remember the plane being the largest I had ever been on and there were so many people, many of which were speaking a foreign language. The flight attendant was the sweetest and offered me a complimentary glass of red wine and I tried not to think about how big of a deal this felt like. It worked for the most part until I landed and that is when the real panic set in. I am not a medical professional but I am pretty sure I had my first ever panic attack sitting in the Buenos Aires airport by myself. As you know from the intro, I survived this episode. I used my debit card that I had called ahead of time and informed them that I was traveling and pulled enough money out for a taxi. I flagged down a Taxi and told the driver what hotel I was staying at along with the address off my itinerary. The driver spoke enough English that we were able to carry on some conversation. My hotel clerk was from Europe; checking in was a breeze. He gave me some tips for my first activity that I had planned.
Argentina’s Blue Market. Let me start by saying that I am a pretty straight laced person so this was way outside my comfort zone but so was this whole trip. I did my research beforehand, I looked up rates, I looked up the risks, and I made my decision. Haven’t heard about Argentina’s Blue Market? Argentina’s currency has collapsed quite a bit over the years and become a bit unstable. A peso was close to 1:1 exchange rate back in the early 90s but at the time of this trip in 2015 the legal exchange rate was closer to 1:10. The instability in Argentine peso has driven residents to save in other currencies that hold their value better. When Argentinians started saving in other currencies, the value of their currency plummeted more so it became illegal for residents to save in other currencies. Thus, you can sell your US dollars on the Black Market. It is not really enforced though so it is called the Blue Market. This is the very first time that I started questioning the worth of money and just how fluid it is. Maybe I am a little naive but this really had not crossed my mind before.
Off I went on foot to Florida Road which was probably close to 10 blocks from my hotel. I left everything of value in my room and took one $100 US bill with me tucked safely in my bra. I walked up and down that street for probably two hours watching people and overthinking the situation. I read the posted signs that it was illegal to exchange money. I watched police officers walk the street. I watched how close people were willing to exchange money in relation to officers. I watched a few negotiations. People were spaced out all along the street repeating “cambio” (change in spanish) which implied they were there to buy currency. I finally chose my broker to buy my $100 US bill. He was short and round and I figured I could outrun him if this didn’t go well. He had a small note pad and he wrote his offer on it. He started a little lower than I was expecting. Something like $13. I just kind of stood there shaking my head no and he read my body language until he got up to $15 which I had read online was the standard blue market rate. Looking back, standing there shaking my head is not the best negotiation tactic, but it worked at the time. Once I agreed, he asked me to follow him. We walked down an alleyway known as a cueva (cave in Spanish) towards a tall, fit man that I definitely wasn’t going to outrun. He smiled and seemed nice, but I was sweating from nerves and maybe the heat too. He had a fanny pack that had all different currencies in every pocket. My short, round broker told the guy that we had settled on 15:1 and asked me how much I would like to exchange. I told him I had $100. The fit man opened a pocket of his fanny pack and counted out $1500 pesos and handed it to my broker who recounted and handed it to me and said “count it.” I quickly glanced through it, pulled the $100 out of my bra, handed it to the man, put the $1500 in and turned and booked it! I could hear him trying to finish his sales pitch letting me know I could come back if I had more dollars to sell as I ran out of the alley. I briskly walked all the way back to the hotel looking behind me with “guilty” written on my face. I would be a terrible criminal.
I spent one night in Buenos Aires. I picked up some snacks from a convenience store for dinner. I really wish I enjoyed cities, but they put me on edge. In hindsight, I wish I had been brave enough to actually go out to a restaurant and interact with some people and eat what I can only assume would have been amazing food from what I read online. When I woke up the next morning, I wasn’t sure if this traveling thing was for me. I was committed and figured if I felt this way throughout the whole experience then at least I tried it and I didn’t have to book another trip. I got a taxi to the airport mid morning the next day to catch my flight to Patagonia. As soon as I made it to my terminal, that feeling of anxiety dissipated. I was so relieved when I went to board the plane and was surrounded by a bunch of my people! They had hiking, climbing, and biking gear. It was the first time since I left the states that I actually relaxed! The plane was underbooked so everyone had their own row. As soon as we started to descend, I knew I was in the right place when I saw wide open landscapes with mountains and rivers!
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