Thu 3rd 1136 Not very happy about the SWISS/Edelweiss flight situation with respect to online check in and choosing my own seat but am attempting to find an alternative before I just pay (and try to avoid flying with them again), so won't write much here now.
Sun 6th 2006 Online check in been lingering round my mind and ruining my mood but slowly working through it. Won't say more til it's resolved.
Had a quick poke on web re vaccinations; as I thought Argentina and Chile mostly seem to be a subset of Guatemala (though some travellers are recommended Hep B vaccination for Argentina/Chile and this isn't recommended for most or some travellers in Guatemala). Peru is similar. If I do go outside Argentina/Chile I need to check but think this is fine. Didn't get rabies vaccination over Christmas due to limited time but it is not essential and I will try to get it before next big trip if it does last 10 years. I already had yellow fever vaccination and that lasts a lifetime AFAICT so not worrying about that. Colombia and Brazil also similar. Basically I think I'm good.
Wed 9th 2203 Been massive lax about trip prep. Been studying a teensy amount of Portuguese and a teensy amount of Spanish. I feel pretty shitty right now, I think mostly because I have a dental check up tomorrow - it will probably be fine but still not happy. Anyway, I have had a poke on booking.com re Buenos Aires accommodation for start of trip (following a brief poke on hostelworld.com a few days ago); there are certainly half decent (no doubt a bit tatty, like the places I stayed in last visit) options at the £10-15 a night level in hotels for a private room (with or without a shared bathroom). However, I was vaguely hoping to stay in a hostel - bearing in mind I arrive on Friday morning, i.e. it's the weekend and some night life might be good, plus I have never had any success at finding anything in BA on my own - but I am not staying in a dormitory at this point - the flights and airport connection and so forth are crappy enough that I want to be able to look forward to collapsing on a private bed when I arrive. My 2007 vintage "South America on a shoestring" guide book (I haven't got round to investigating buying a newer one yet; this is a chunky physical volume so I won't be taking that one with me) does make the observation that private rooms in hostels (and even dorms in hostels) can be more expensive than private rooms in hotels. This seems largely borne out; there are many dormitories cropping up in my sorted-by-ascending-price list of options between the private rooms in hotels, and although I may have missed something I haven't yet seen a private room in a hostel yet.
This isn't the end of the world - I don't plan to be in BA at the start of the trip all that long, I may well end up returning mid-trip and of course I'll put in at least a night or two there at the end to reduce the risk of missing my return flight - but it's a bit of a shame. My rough plan in BA is (if possible) to socialise with fellow travellers a bit and try to have a few beers over the weekend, probably wander over to Lezama Park (sp) because I have strangely fond memories of it from the end of the 2014 trip and otherwise just wander around a bit. If I can - and I haven't yet tried to book a ticket over the web or checked prices - my gut feeling is I will leave by train for Mendoza after 3-4 nights in BA. If I can't get a train I'll probably look at buses but going maybe a bit less direct.
I don't want to be spending 3-4 nights in places routinely, I hope to spend a bit longer in most places, but as I say I've been to BA before, 3-4 nights is not negligible and this won't be the only visit even on this trip. Also, if I can't find somewhere where I might have a chance of meeting fellow travellers with an affordable private room for this initial stay, I can possibly compromise on a hostel dormitory e.g. when I'm in BA at the end of the trip - but as I already said, I'm not putting myself through the awkwardness of this immediately after the flights.
I suppose I do need to remember that although it's not necessarily ideal, I may be able to go visit the bar in some lively-ish hostel (even a "party" one where I wouldn't be inclined to stay) and perhaps meet some other travellers there. All else being equal it would probably be easier if I were staying on site, because I could hang around in common areas, but worth bearing in mind. I'm reluctant to pay through the nose for a private room in a hostel at this point.
2245 Maybe I'm paying more attention than before, but the reviews on both hostelworld and booking.com (I think the two sites are affiliated now, though they don't seem to list exactly the same properties - hard to be sure really) are massively inconsistent. I guess in part most people just leave scores and not textual reviews, because some places seem to have pretty good scores and only three or four reviews which all give really low scores - presumably because people with complaints leave textual reviews. But within a few days of each other you'll get one person saying the place was filthy and another saying it was great. I guess this is in part down to people having different expectations.
I'm going to sleep or at least mull for a few hours over this. I've got a couple of possibles (cheap hotels which seem OK and are in decent locations which might have shared areas so some possibility of meeting people) but I don't think anything I've seen is so great I'm going to be gutted if it sells out, as long as not everything sells out. I probably need to book tomorrow if I can though.
Thu 10th 2015 A quick poke on the web re trains from Buenos Aires to Mendoza is not very promising. It's not at all clear but they may have been suspended, or they may just have a very very poor web presence. I was thinking it might be helpful to book in advance and in particular that if they only run on certain days I might want to take that into account with my initial hotel booking. However, (from memory; I've now closed all the web sites as they were generally unhelpful in terms of actually booking and possibly simply outdated) there were at one point 11 trains per day, so that's probably not an issue. I could obviously ask on some kind of travel forum but I'm reluctant to do that. It might just be better to toddle over to Retiro and see if I can ask someone; I suspect I'll struggle, but that will at least give me some free Spanish practice. And of course if there's no train I'll get the bus somewhere, probably heading vaguely west but not necessarily direct to Mendoza. I think in the absence of anything else (which might be something pretty minor, like a random conversation or though) my initial plan will be to move (possibly slowly) over towards Chile and try to visit Santiago and Concepcion (not necessarily in that order) and put in a week or two in each of them (assuming I like Concepcion of course).
2106 Been looking at hotels with a view to booking tonight (in part just to "get it over with"; I think putting this off is preventing me getting on with other things like studying Spanish/Portguese). Spoilt for choice. I had half picked out an acceptable cheap-ish hotel on booking.com (at about £13.75 a night for double room with private bathroom) and while searching for reviews I found the same place was on airbnb at £8 a night for single room with shared bathroom. But looking on airbnb there seem to be entire apartments available (some in pretty central locations) for £10-£13 a night. I'm a bit tempted by that, but the cheap hotel does at least have some shared areas and I might meet people, and if I go for the £8/night option that is at least saving a little bit of money so might grate less than paying £13.75/night for slightly crappy hotel when I could have a (crappy or maybe not) apartment for the same money. I need to try to socialise more and right at the start of the trip I don't really think I need the comfort (In part the ability to just bum around comfortably at home in the evening, which can be a bit miserable in a small hotel room) etc - that sort of thing is more likely to be tempting if I make a long-ish stay somewhere and/or as an attempt to recapture some of the comforts of having my own place in London if I start to get a bit "tired" mid-trip. But £10-13 for an apartment! No, I will be strong.
I definitely need to make more of an effort to check airbnb, obviously. It wasn't super attractive in Xela (perhaps because I had such a good deal via that rarely available Spanish school apartment) but it may be that in larger cities and/or perhaps more in some countries than others it is a serious competitor. There is also a minor social angle if (and it is an if) I do stay in someone's home rather than a hotel or flight which merely happens to be listing in there.
Fri 11th 0001 Had a quick poke around to see if I have any Argentinian peso notes (beyond my "souvenirs" which I'd rather not spend) and I think I do. Web is a bit vague on the bus from the airport - it may be you need a SUBE card (which I don't have) instead of cash these days (before the problem was it only took change and change was like hen's teeth), but apparently you can usually persuade a local to take cash (5-10 pesos) and pay with their card for a small profit for them, as you can't buy a SUBE card at the airport. This may not be right. Maybe if/when I buy an up to date guidebook it will say something useful. I do plan to get the bus (number 8, I thought, though one website doesn't mention 8 but does 86) as it's cheap and I'm in no rush. I've done it before.
I couldn't get a SUBE card last time I was in BA (I think there was a shortage; in theory newsagents etc sold them but no one would sell me one and I stopped trying) but found an official looking site saying you can get them at kiosks and at Subte stations, so we'll just have to see - in any case, that's something for after I arrive and not critical.
I thought I would have had a Santiago metro card but I don't seem to; not a big deal. I do have one for Valparaiso but I won't take it with me, in the unlikely event I go there buying a new card will be another small souvenir.
I will take any non-souvenir notes for South American countries with me, I don't have a lot and they're not terribly high value in most cases but they may come in handy, and if they're not souvenirs I might as well spend them if I can.
Incidentally, I've been watching (chunk by chunk, because I'm lazy) Chinese Takeaway, which someone recommended to me when I was in Guatemala. I didn't realise it was (presumably) an Argentinian film, but it happens to be (maybe) good practice with the Argentinian accent. I happened to read something on Wikitravel while trying to find information on buses from the airport and their article says something like how very difficult the Argentinian accent is; I suspect this is a bit hyperbolic, but who knows (although I have been there before and got by fairly well).
0403 Yes, I am having a few quiet beers at home. Not very many, but yes. Anyway, a random recollection which I thought I'd put down if I haven't already. One afternoon when we were going out to the volunteer English teaching thing, the long-term volunteer woman organising it asked a colectivo driver (in Spanish, of course) if he was going to "San Martin Chiquito" (let's imagine she said "¿Usted va a San Martin Chiquito?". And (quite reasonably) another student who hadn't been there before asked afterwards "Did you call that driver 'chiquito'?". :-)
Fri 11th 2105 Need to look at booking BA hotel. Frankly I'm taking ridiculous amounts of time over this. I think it's mainly procrastination. But I also need to realise that no way will I take this long to make a decision what to book when I'm actually over there and booking subsequent accommodation. It's not like this first weekend is absolutely critical and the whole trip succeeds or fails based on getting the right accommodation for the first few nights, FFS.
2209 OK, was on the verge of booking something on airbnb and then I realised I (apparently) hadn't put any dates in. Suddenly most stuff is unavailable. Also on looking more closely not only is there a service fee but also a cleaning fee on some places. It also seems the "total price" shown on the search results page underestimates the service fee compared to actually clicking on the result, which doesn't inspire me with much trust.
That plus the lack of a sort by price being annoying notwithstanding, now I know the "trick" is to look at the total price shown (which is approximately correct) I am tempted to book a room in someone's house via airbnb. This is a bit of a gamble, perhaps, but it may give me a bit of Spanish practice (or maybe not,if host wants to practice their English) and be an experience.
2246 OK, I've booked on airbnb. I have 48 hours free cancellation if I get the screaming heebie-jeebies about this, I think it will probably be OK and even if I end up writing off the entire amount I've paid it's all experience. My host is unusual (for BA, according to airbnb) in offering breakfast and possibly even (it's not clear) all meals; I nearly decided to go with someone else because of this (I don't need the stress of having someone present me with meals I find potentially repulsive), but I just wrote that I'm fussy and don't need any meals.
Not saying I wouldn't go for any of the whole apartments on airbnb under other circumstances; obviously this was largely ruled out on cost/availability in this case, but also the cleaning fee (some) hosts charge is less of an issue if I'm making a moderately lengthy stay, but here it's just four days and I'm unlikely to extend given my current attitude to BA is that I've been there before, I'll be there again and I'm not currently looking to spend an extended period of time there. Not saying I never would, just that right now this isn't the plan.
A small advantage of airbnb is that I am paying for the booking by credit card, which means I can take advantage of my n months' 0% interest offer.
You know, I've just realised that what it means when it says checkout is at midnight. That means I thought I'd booked for four nights, but I've actually only got three nights, which means I'm paying way more than I thought. Fuckdusters. Now I've got to contact the host to check this, then cancel and book somewhere else if it turns out I'm right. What a fucking rigmarole and excellent way to drag the booking process out even further.
Sat 12th Jan 0119 OK, host has replied to my (polite, of course) e-mail and apparently I do have accommodation for the Monday night. I will sleep on it and reply tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I just need to say "Thanks" (she has also given me some advice re getting from airport, she is suggesting colectivo 8 (I think 'colectivo' in BA means what I as a Brit would consider an ordinary bus, not the minibus kind of things in Guatemala) which is probably what I already intended to do, but it's good to get a kind of confirmation) but I am feeling oddly shitty and it's late here anyway and I want to re-read her reply tomorrow when I feel fresh.
I feel I've been terrible at doing all the prep work I want to do for the trip (especially studying), of course this is largely my fault/problem, but still. I did go out this afternoon to run some errands but all the same I'm feeling in this horrible unsatisfactory limbo somehow. Have been wasting way too much time on Youtube as a means of procrastinating on some mildly unpleasant chores. Meh. Maybe I'll do better tomorrow.
I really do need to just put this post on the damn blog instead of accumulating it for so long I'm having to write full dates inline instead of just weekdays or times.
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