Cordoba, Tuesday

[E-mailed to blog submission address out of order, but was written on Tue as per timestamps below.]

Tue 2152 So woke up this morning with phone batt down to about 4% due to use in bed. Tried to charge it and really struggled; this plus failure to use the USB OTG adapter last night despite balacing tricks (which had prev been completely successful) made me flip out slightly and I decided the connector had finally died. I did manage to get it charging again after a few minutes and to jump ahead I also managed to charge it this evening, tho powerbank went dead when got to 78%ish (remember it charges super slowly now plus I forgot to put it on during couple of hours was out this afternoon).

But I was also thinking it was on its last legs and looked up a phone repair shop on smart TV  browser and mulled while watching shit on YT as phone charged.

I thought I'd see how I felt at phone repair place - did I get a good vibe, did they have cheap smartphones I could buy to get me through the last few days instead, blah, blah - but when I got there maybe 4ish it was shut, despite their web site IIRC and Google Maps saying they were open til 9pm and were open then.

So I had a quick look on GM and natural history museum (full name in a photo) was nearby so went over there - free to get in despite sign outside saying it was 50 except Wed. Not huge but quite a nice circular building. Despite happening to tell Z (based on Wikitravel memory from skimming article few days ago) I wasn't going to see the large spider fossil I ended up in that museum by sheer chance. As it turns out while it is a damn big "spider" there's actually a board next to it pointing out it's actually IIRC a sea creature more related to sea scorpions.

Checked phone repair place after hour or so at museum and still shut. Popped in another place nearby which seemed more computer repairy (but kudos for trying) and asked if they repaired phones but they didn't; guy told me about shop which was shut and another down the road which I think was also shut if the place I saw was place he mentioned.

In a way I feel I "accomplished" stuff today rationally or otherwise. I think in part there's this lingering idea that "doing shit" means I'm using my time productively. I'm not saying going to the museum wasn't fun in a quiet way and yes the mobile phone shop query and supermarket experiences were a tiny dollop of real practical Spanish experience and I sort of got to "be here" etc, and I'm not saying lurking in flat excessively is good/better, but need to be careful not to fall into that "busy is good" mentality.

Came home to pick up my returnable beer bottle and went to supermarket near flat, queues from hell again tho not quite so bad as weekend, perhaps as it was getting on for finishing-work time. Turned out I should have handed the bottle in at some mysterious machine in the body of the shop which would have given me a discount ticket for my shopping (and you only get two days to return the bottle?! so you're not allowed to buy a beer on Mon, drink it at the weekend and return it next Mon? maybe I misunderstood) but the cashier sort of let me get away with it and I had bought a new bottle (the brilliance of the returnable scheme is that it "traps" you on a particular brand) and will go back tomorrow and see if I can return that. Also got some alfajores (with dulce de leche, if there are diff types, which I think there are, ISTR buying some more jam-ish ones on prev trip but mem may be bad) and have gorged on those tonight after cooking

Done some laundry (last night when clothes will have time to dry) and had most of beer and watched way more crap on YT.

Wrt phone going to have to be careful but will try to keep batt over 50% so I have some headroom for eg airbnb comms if it does become unchargeable, have jotted some passwords down on paper (and made a note I need to do a practice "I've lost my phone, how painful is it and what do I wish I'd done in advance" when I am back home; I *had* briefly thought about phone being stolen but I either didn't or wouldn't allow myself to think through the fine details - I guess I need to do a kind of DR exercise to shake out the problems) and unless it becomes totally unchargeable tomorrow am prob going to not even try to take it into shop tomorrow, because what if I have a train on Wed as I do and shop is shut when I go to collect or they've got it in pieces and are busy and refuse to give it to me.

Once I get to BA I'd *like* it working but it becomes a bit less critical (I have to go to a net cafe to print boarding pass and as long as I know an hour or more in advance that phone is knackered I can more or less equally well do online checkin from net cafe) and I'll probably continue to nurse it along and deal with the problem once I get home and having a working phone is less critical. It does occur to me repair *may* be cheaper here, but far from guaranteed plus as a foreigner (and a Brit in Argentina at that) an unscrupulous repair guy may take advantage and if I really have to argue there's a potential language barrier, so may be better to take it to a shop back home, plus if I check YT and/or web and when I'm back home with tools like soldering iron and/or ability to buy tools off web I may well be able to have a go at repairing it myself.

In case it's not clear, things are more critical until I get to BA because I have an airbnb reservation and I can't quite just assume "I know the address, I simply turn up on the day after checkin time" as I could with a straight hotel booking, so if my communications go out I could be stuffed. Once I'm settled in BA this issue mostly goes away.

Oh, I never checked again but with one thing and another the possible English lang practice thing tonight just totally fell by the wayside. I'm far from sure it is even here in Cordoba but anyway I just didn't even think about going, not that bothered and bit distracted by phone and supermarket tonight.

(Actually just checked Wikitravel and they say the spider fossil is at university museum, I was at Illia museum; maybe WT is wrong or it moved or there is a true spider fossil which is huge at university museum.)

2359 Bed. I'm on 21st floor (UK style numbering in this building) of a tower block in the second largest city in the country and yet I hear that chirping cricket (?) noise now I've turned the TV off. Weird and slightly cool.

Cordoba, Wednesday

Wed 2343 Phone batt 87%, not sure should be wasting power on blog but if don't write this now may not get chance for ages.

Slept surprisngly well, got up 1145ish IIRC. Then massive panic as unable to charge phone, really losing plot embarassing levels of panic. Did manage to get it charging but now having to resort to weighing it down with half litre of water in a bottle to keep pressure on - and this evening had to add a couple of hundred ml extra to charge, so clearly this cannot end well.

E-mailed BA airbnb and have told them phone playing up and arranged to turn up at the address at 1030, so as long as train not too late should be OK and worst case have to find a net cafe.

Went out 3pm-ish with view to IIRC going to city museum but it was closed for renovations - have photo. En route one of mobile phone shops which was shut yday (is Tuesday just "don't open your shop" day?) was open, went in and after brief queue managed to speak to someone over sound of pneumatic drill in street outside. They said they could fix it for ARS1k and I could collect it tomorrow afternoon but said I had to get train and they couldn't do it there and then. I was dithering over going in at all since just putting huge pressure on re collecting before train (eg if they just decided not to open at all tomorrow) but torn towards going in on offchance they said they could do it while I wait and given huge panic every morning re toping up. Kudos to shop they did suggest getting it done at other end of journey.

After finding museum shut went on to original intended phone repair shop before going into another museum saw nearby on Google Maps a bit at random. Other shop open as well but they wouldn't do anything with a Blackberry.

I feel a little better about the repair prospects now, I have been given an acceptable price as a baseline and at least one shop has seemed willing to do it, so this gives me hope I can find somewhere in BA to do it. I may go and try this Friday after I check in, tho maybe reluctant to risk being without phone over weekend if they don't open weekend, and in part this is why I am writing this now since I may just poss be without phone almost immediately on getting to BA and won't want to burn batt on train writing this; tonight there is at least a chance of a top up tomorrow before I check out.

Nearby museum was (from mem, not faffing with maps) Tarrini (sp!!) architecture museum in bank building nearby - gorgeous stained glass ceiling and murals, real "Bank of Ankh Morpork" level stuff, and a small but nice collection of paintings - easily standout for me was a near-photo-realistic scene of slightly run down street with an old car parked, something about the way it wasn't quite photo realistic really appealed to me, some of the colours (eg the sun reflection on windscreen) really intense. Free to get in, staff member I asked a bit taciturn but OK, he told me ground floor only so maybe there was another floor I wasn't able to see today. But at least I did something today and it was quite fun.

Packed tonight, except bits and pieces re cleaning teeth and charging phone. Quiet evening in with YT. Bit stressed about tomorrow, prob mainly due to phone power issues, which is a shame as had been looking forward to this train journey. See how it goes.

Oh, I popped out maybe 2pm (leaving phone charging in flat) to supermarket to return the Iguana beer bottle and get food to cook tonight. I found the automated machine which accepted my bottle and gave me a coupon worth ARS6 (I'll ignore fractions) even though I knew (I had kept the receipt handy) I had been charged an ARS25 deposit. Not super great behaviour but I cursed out loud to myself about this, then decided as an experiment I'd see if I could find a customer service desk to ask about this. And I could, and I did. And MoS was quite helpful in an uncommunicative way, disappeared for a minute or two, then came back and gave me ARS25 cash (in extremely ratty notes) after I signed the receipt. I actually got stiffed out of a tiny fraction of a peso as desposit was a TFOAP more than 25 but still chuffed, even tho amount not huge. I then got screwed over in typical supermarket style by buying what I thought was a cheap tin of sweetcorn which scanned at double the price, but decided not to argue. Pretty quiet in supermarket as I was there 2pmish.

OK, think that's the key stuff. Batt down to 84%, gonna send this now as better that than forget.

Cordoba, Monday

Mon 2158 Pretty quiet day. Woken up about 8am by what I think may have been fire alarm (not very like those in UK) but it had stopped by time I realised what it was/might be and had pulled clothes on.

Had a WhatsApp msg (voicemail!) for me from BA flat about internet being out and offering to provide me with a SIM for phone to tide me over. Felt irrationally crap but felt I needed to reply immediately since they asked if I understood or needed in English so said I had just been woken up by fire alarm and felt tired and needed to reply in few hours.

Must have gone back to sleep for hour or two but not sure. Got up. The few museums I checked online all shut Mon - why do *all* museums shut the same day? Seems like it would make more sense to scatter the shut day if they all must shut one day a week. It's not presumably like all the museum staff are married to each other and need the extra day off together.

Power bank hardly charged again overnight. The USB/power situation is getting a bit fraught. Have been taking more out of power bank than I can get in - think it actually died on me while topping up phone tonight. Phone hasn't been above about 75% for days. I honestly don't know what's going on.

Yes, the new USB cable is cheap and may not allow a large charge current so power bank charges slowly. But it seemed to be charging slowly via the "good" cable before it went dodgy too - maybe it was slowly dying. Could my charger or the power bank also be on the fritz? The phone charges at the rate of about 1% every three minutes from power bank while I can maintain it propped up so the dodgy USB connector and dodgy short old yellow USB cable work - is the phone broken beyond the USB connector, or is the poor connection/poor cable just limiting the charge current? Maybe a hard reset of phone would fix things but maybe it wouldn't and I really don't want to lose my data etc while can't conveniently back it up. I can't be sure but I think the phone simply won't charge (it shows connected but the battery level gradually goes down) from the charger.

Been massively overdosing on Youtube because I have (v sluggish) smart TV which runs off mains which I can use while phone charges very very slowly; no way can I use phone while it charges, both because it gets so little charge even with no in-use extra power drain and because of the dodgy USB connector/cable.

(FWIW the new cheap USB cable doesn't seem to cooperate very well in terms of balancing the phone to work round the dodgy connector; I can get the charging indicator to show briefly but not had any success propping phone up. Maybe just not tried enough. Whether it will actually charge through that cable if I can do this is another matter.)

I went out for a walk about 2pm (?) sort of round the "ring road" around the river and through the centre of town. Nice enough (though overcast and light rain) and getting out of flat felt good but hardly felt like I was really getting "value" out of being here. Did see a few bars round Plazoleta Not-Named-On-Google-Maps-At-Least-Offline nearish to Obispo Trejo tho obviously all quiet at that time of afternoon and most shut.

In hindsight I "should" have looked eg in 2010 guide book and gone out Fri/Sat night even if just sat alone to feel a bit of "life" . I think the location of this flat is a bit suboptimal from this perspective, need to get taxi back plus fairish walk to get out there doesn't help. Could in principle make an effort tonight or next few nights but don't expect much night life early in week (intuition + wikitravel says that too, FWIMBW). Have to kind of hope I can improve my "activity" in BA. Keep telling myself I "should" be doing more and socialising more, but why "should" I? How is this going to come about?

I cooked at flat again, I did see a few OKish but nothing special restaurant/coffee bar places but after feeling I "ought" to eat out I laughed at myself and thought that really there's nothing super exciting about eating chicken+chips in some small half-empty cafe.

Cunt on street almost certaintly barged into me as I stood peering at a menu (admittedly perhaps blocking narrow street by accident, but he made no effort to tap me on shoulder or ask me to move) and shortly after another cunt pushed in front of me at queue in supermarket (not my usual one). Meh.

Been having quiet afternoon/evening in since got back from that maybe 1h45 walk. This is hardly living the dream but I need to stop making myself feel shit about it.

Oh, before I headed out for walk BA flat got back to me to say internet should be fixed before I arrive anyway so nothing to worry about there.

Oh, I also had a quick look on web and meetup.com re language exchanges here but AFAICT there's no group language exchange, there are web sites which act like kind of dating agencies to pair people up for 1-1 conversation but not really looking for that right now (eg I might end up with a long-term commitment to carry on via Skype and I don't want to walk casually into that). There is *maybe* an English-only event tomorrow night (though no location given and since meetup.com apparently won't let me change my location from Santiago, though I can search within say 50 miles of Cordoba, which I did, so it may be in Santiago or some small town 10 miles from here) which says native speakers can come and help others with English but apart from uncertainty over location it has a name like "English Mate" or something and maybe that's like Yerba Mate or maybe it has some weird dating vibe, it really wasn't clear. I just may try to check that page again tomorrow to see if a location is specified and just *may* go if it's in Cordoba but I'm not super excited to.

While I can see why I was tempted to get an apartment after a relative surfeit of dorms (mostly non-social too), in hindsight I should perhaps have  paid more attention to where the bars are and gone for a ho(s)tel private room in a more "happening" location and then I'd have been more tempted to go out Fri/Sat night. To some extent I try not to drink too much etc but that also stops me going out in the evenings in a way which is perhaps a bit dull; even if I *don't* get chatting to anyone (and I'm often nervous about that happening) it's still a chance to see some nightlife and feel I'm "experiencing" the country/city in a way I'm not squatting in my apartment here. The location of the apartment isn't bad but for me the taxi thing is a major buzz kill. Especially the first night or two when I hadn't got the feel for the city layout and flat location I do now after a few days walking around.

Obviously being able to cook for myself is an advantage of having a flat and it does probably help me eat more healthily (esp wrt fruit and vegetables), I am not sure this is enough of an advantage - especially when I knew I would have an apartment in BA so could cook for myself then and I had done a modest amount of cooking for myself not all that long ago.

Meh. It is what it is, I don't feel terrible, I just kind of feel I have/am wasting my time in Cordoba - this is the second largest city in the country but to me it's feeling kind of dead because of how I'm spending my time.

And though it's not a huge thing the power drought also makes me reluctant to go out much at night; I don't have that much power to burn to allow me to read on phone if I am alone at a bar/cafe (obviously not always a good idea from socialising POV but still a habit of mine) and I'm also worried the thing will go dead or at least scarily low before I get home.

FWIW now 2225, was writing the above mostly continuously.

2230 I am semi-enjoying my YT binge but I'm definitely overdoing it. I should maybe be getting some quality time in with my own brain, but I'm not, partly because I don't want to start ruminating unhelpfully about random shit. I have no entertainment other than the phone (web browser, e-books, music) and the smart TV, which is painful enough for YT and virtually unusable for web browsing.

As mentioned other day been mixing up the very nerdy stuff with some survivaly/campingy stuff and verging onto the whole prepper scene. While I don't feel myself being drawn into the prepper stuff (though OTOH a lot of the guys I'm watching don't seem to be as stereotypically crazy as I'd have expected; I kind of think what they're doing is not a great effort/reward trade off - in theory this stuff might save your life, but you spend half your life preparing and the odds of the disaster happening are maybe 10% tops, so is it worth it? I can see some value in an 80/20 rule kind of way of being prepared for eg a few days of temporary utility/medical/law-and-order failures after a natural disaster or localised riot, but to my mind prepping for n months or indefinite post-apocalypse-ish stuff doesn't seem rational - but ultimately if it's their "hobby" and they enjoy it (which helps get rid of the "waste half your life" aspect of my trade off calculation above) where's the problem?), the continual talk of disasters and bugging in and bugging out has a vaguely corrosive effect on my peace of mind and I start to visualise myself holing up in my London flat alone with no power or water for days with scammers trying to get me to open the door and it's a scary prospect; I'm not saying it's likely or that I intend to take serious action to "guard against" it, but it has that "reading creepy stories in bed" vibe. But it is vaguely interesting and as waffled the other day I have picked up one or two small tips which might be useful in my everyday life or when travelling; I've discarded a ton of (to me) useless (if sometimes entertaining and/or corrosively disturbing) information to pick up these tips but that's kind of fine, because really this is just a YT binge and it's not like I have a lot else to do right now.

Cordoba, Sunday

Mon 0037 Pretty quiet day, about to go to bed. Feel am perhaps not making most of my time here but it is what it is.

Got up maybe middayish, had mild hangover but not really. What with one thing and another (including longish Mother's Day Skype call home) didn't leave flat til about 1630, had no real plan but just went for a walk (down Maipu and back up Independencia). A handful of people on street (quite a lot of cars) but not remotely lively. Came back via supermarket, where I queued for 20 mins (would have bought more yday or Fri had I realised to avoid another visit to supermarket during weekend, but by time realised yday was already in queues from hell) and then caused 5-10 mins more delay by paying on ccard.

Here we see the ripple effects of the Argentinian banks charging swingeing withdrawal fees for foreigners and the banks and/or government making this worse by imposing a max withdrawal of 4k. If not for this I'd have paid cash, but since cash effectively incurs a 5%ish surcharge for me I am going to pay by credit card whenever I can.

I do wonder if part of the issue is chip and PIN cards are not common here. I think this is what requires fetching a special card terminal at that supermarket. Also at train station other day, while they *had* a PIN-capable reader there was no slot in window glass big enough for cashier to slide the terminal through to me to enter my PIN - I ended up having him hold terminal up (and "move it down a bit please" directions from me depending which number I needed to press next) to the tiny grille-protected hole so I could poke my little finger through to touch pad to enter my PIN.

Oh, despite being at a non-green checkout I got charged for my two carrier bags - annoying as I had two in my pocket, but I thought since they were free I should stock up. Hate this shit.

Cooked (hot dogs, didn't buy any shitty vinegary mustard but experimented semi-successfully with sprinkling chilli flakes on the sausages) and spent evening on YT while phone gradually charges.

Plan for tomorrow is to get up earlyish (10?), check when/if is any language exchange here and then perhaps go check out some interestingish museum; I have a vague suspicion museums may be shut Mondays but if I go and try I have at least tried and I will see a bit more of city in the course of my walk.

Rained a bit tonight which makes me more confident I didn't miss an opportunity to see even a quiet Sun-eve nightlife by trogging out at say 8-10pm for a later dinner and a beer. Obviously doesn't help that I'd feel slightly worried walking home late and reluctant to get taxi, but this isn't a huge factor - I am being lazy and/or not in mood and/or it doesn't feel like it would be very lively/fun.

I think that's about it anyway. Let's send this and try to go to sleep.

Cordoba, Saturday

Sun 0112 Quietish day.

Got up maybe 10ish, phone failed to charge during night for various reasons so partly out of laziness, partly to let it charge and partly as vague plan for day was head down to area south of historic centre guy at checkin had told me IIRC was cool on Sat afternoons in, well, the afternoon I stayed in flat watching YT and nursing phone to charge (about 1% every 3 mins) from powerbank for some time.

Did just before heading out maybe 3pm book the flat in BA on airbnb having had sane response from owner overnight; works out at £16/night more or less which isn't bad given I've been paying (poss at mentally inflated arithmetically convenient exchange rates) £10/night-ish for dorms. Area is San Nicolas which may be a revelation and if not is also walkable to San Telmo-ish stuff and also microcentro and so forth.

I bought a new USB lead - short one for ARS100, prob overpriced and maybe should have haggled or shopped around but tolerable and can't expect ebay six-week-shipping-from-China prices in the circumstances - from street markety bit of Independencia down on walk to the supposedly cool area.

Supposedly cool area either not there today or didn't exist. Ended up doing mini walk round Sarmiento park and the university campus (cool graffiti mixed with politically wank sentiments, students eh?) and some prob-universityish sports fields with hocket/rugby/soccer going on, which was sort of cool. Started to feel really hungry despite eating OKish yday and indulging in packet of sesame seed crackers during flat loiter in morning. Had half intended to eat out but not seeing anywhere which looked "fun" (sit at table, nice atmosphere, beer in sun/shade) I decided would go to supermarket. Oh, weather today very overcast but still warm. Not at all sunny.

Stopped feeling hungry once got to supermarket. Lucky as I was queuing for 40 mins to pay. Yay for a) weekends b) apparently insane delays as people pay c) being bumped out of the first queue after 10 mins as the massive tailback of shopping trolleys required me to move, then some guy needed to move back and I frankly had not a clue what was going on and just had to walk off and join another queue, which after a couple of minutes I noticed was a "green checkout" which didn't give (did it sell? yday in same supermarket was offered plastic bag at ARS1 each but had daypack so didn't take that up, maybe I was at a green checkout, today I hadn't taken daypack as sick of lugging it round) plastic bags so had to go requeue in a third checkout which *did* I think give me a free plastic bag (I had one in back pocket as always but not sufficient) d) people like me paying on credit card which apparently requires summoning someone over with a card terminal and blocking the queue for five minutes.

I bought a litre bottle of "lo mas barato" Iguana beer at ARS55 and a can of Quilmes Stout and have just finished drinking them. Both v acceptable TBH, though can't help feeling QS is not really a stout - but what do I know? A decent dark beer anyway. Annoyingly the Iguana is a returnable bottle so got charged ARS25ish for privilege of buying it and now I have to lug the bottle back to supermarket and hope I can get a cash refund not just swap it for a full beer. Yay for ecofascism.

Also got a sort of ring-shaped cake/bread (ARS50 on promotion) which may be Easter-ish but not sure. Had half tonight, very rich and nice actually. (Took photo of it in trolley; tempted to photo it out of packaging but since I knew I wouldn't eat the whole thing tonight I figured taking it out of packaging completely would increase chances of it going stale before could finish it.)

New USB cable works to charge powerbank (virtually impossible to charge it reliably with either of existing two cables) but phone (with dodgy socket, so can't blame cable) really doesn't like it. Have been nursing phone charge up via precarious balancing act (literally; I have to prop phone up at funny angles so cable and socket work) and short USB cable from powerbank tonight. Fuck all chance of charging in bed but can prob get away without it.

Among all sorts of much nerdier stuff watched couple of outdoor survivaly videos on YT tonight. I have no serious concern about actual emergency situations but apart from entertainment value this did remind me of eg "How to predict the weather with a cup of coffee"'s " urban bushcraft" stuff and also made me wonder if I might get any travel-light tips from them apart from just raw entertainment. Misc thoughts in this line:

- my current struggle to top up phone seems like an ultra-wussy nerdy version of struggling to maintain supplies of water, food or fire. The fact I have occasionally woken up a few times during the night, seen it wasn't charging and fiddled with it to try to make it charge has an amusing correspondence with waking up during the night to feed the fire keeping you alive.

- in a couple of places (including this flat) I am lighting non-survival gas hobs with unsatisfactory equipment provided (a lighter or match) which makes me worry I'm going to burn the flesh off my hand when the gas ignites. I light the hobs in my own flat with a simple fag lighter without (much) worry but I know it ignites gently on lowest setting without any fuss; the couple of places am thinking of haven't been like that. I doubt I will, but I could (and indeed in last such place wished I had) carry around a few wooden splints to use as "arm's length" firelighters.

- already mused on weight of water when moving around but Patrick did mention some expensive-but-reliable water purification tablets last time I saw him, I should get the details off him - if they're like 50p each that would still be comparable with the price of bottled water and even if taste is a bit foul might make it easier for me to minimise water I lug around long distances (since I only need enough for the journey, I know I can disinfect some once I get to my accom even if it's too late to go to shop for more)

- I have been moderately pleased with my efforts to determine which direction I'm walking based on rough sun location combined with knowledge of town grid layouts, but I should probably (for mental exercise+reduced muggability by not getting phone out so much) practice a kind of "urban bushcraft" when it comes to navigation, eg eyeballing distance/number of blocks on map and counting and so on - sounds a bit nerdy but would lower mugability, probably help me to "learn" local street plan better and would be satisfying not to depend so much on phone for navigation. Not that I do too badly already.

- obviously from my travel light perspective I prefer to carry one of everything because if it breaks it merely causes a teeny tiny bit of hardship (in a wussy way, the phone being knackered is worse since it is playing role of comms device+map+book+music player, and as waffled already toying with carrying two phones in future; not exactly "in case" one breaks as such, as to try to avoid the charging in bed which I thinks makes breakage more likely in first place) whereas survivaly types carry duplicates of some things because they can't just pop down the shops. Of course the idea of dual-function stuff is still useful (and not novel) from a travel-light perspective, but to eliminate items not add redundancy for safety.

- the only actual overlap between what I currently carry and these survival/outdoory people's gear at the moment is a) bin bags b) a torch.

0244 Bed. Bit of a late night but tis OK. Feel a bit sad not to go out Sat night but didn't fancy getting a taxi back, after I ate I felt bloated, I went out too early if I only wanted to go out once, blah blah. Saw "Happy Hostel Happy Bar" (with big drawing of Mafalda on wall) on walk earlier and felt a bit lonely, which is entirely in my head as I saw no one there at all. But although I could perhaps have stayed in more hostels with bars to hang around and socialise in I did hostels, I did dorms a lot lately and I wanted a bit of comfort etc. I *do* need to remember to look and see if there's a Spanish exchange I could go to here and/or in BA. Had quietly enjoyable evening in with beers and YT.

Not got a hope in hell of charging phone in bed overnight, it has got up to 84% and I can prob afford to spend a bit of time topping it up in morning and/or won't need too much power for a few hours out tomorrow, so have left powerbank charging overnight on new cable and hopefully it can get up to 100%. Phone seems to charge better off powerbank than actual charger lately tho hard to be sure I'm not deluding myself.

Corrientes-Cordoba

Thu 1619 Bit worried about battery life given can no longer top up reliably from powerbank given dodgy connector.

Got up 930ish and had breakfast; bloke and woman (strangers I think) having conversation in Spanish but I think they were both native speakers and I didn't try to join in. Left bag at hostel, hope it's OK. Plan is to go back about 1745 and get bag then walk over to terminal.

Went overt to Museo de Ciencias Naturales; free again, small but quite interesting. Milked it rather heavily, watching maybe an hour of some National Geographic documentary in barely-audible Spanish for example. They had a small display of some rather horrific looking preserved spiders. Quite a cool huge bees/wasp's nest which let you see the structure of the thing.

Felt super hot and sweaty as soon as left hostel; surely I should be pretty well acclimatised by now? Maybe it is unusually hot/humid today. Didn't really like to go back to that food truck by river, mostly because didn't fancy third argument with the beggar woman. So walked over to Junin and ended up coming into Cafe-Bar Schneider; sat outside at first but no service plus some guy asking me if I had a fag then inviting me to go take a free look at his shit for sale across the road persuaded me to come in; it was nice enough under umbrella over table but it is airconditioned in here. Had, after some wrangling and confusion, a milanesa with chips and a soft drink and now got litre of Schneider. Shame to drink in a way but sod it. Will prob get an Americano after this and that should see me through to bag-collecting time.

Told guy (it was the one who spoke to me in English so didn't try Spanish, assuming he likes to practice) at reception when left bag about my lost 32GB SD card, he said they would look during cleaning so need to remember to ask about it when collect bag (hope same guy is on) and is a slim chance will get it back.

Did see what I think was the little black cat I had on my bunk during breakfast and snapped very quick picture of it. It was playing with some string at one point, so it may just be an old-ish kitten which might account for it being so relatively skinny.

Looking at place mats this place might actually be called Parada 2-15 and merely have a confusing (to me at least) canopy outside.

Salt packet says "Industria Argentina" and have seen on many other products too, also in Brazil some similar variant with Brazil in name. Wonder if "Industria Argentina" is a huge manufacturing concern, or if this is a way of saying "Made in Argentina" and doesn't indiciate which company produced it.

1853 Got to terminal few mins ago. Sweaty as fuck but otherwise OK. "CBS" tried to charge me 500odd when I knew bill should be 400odd; bit annoying but OTOH kudos for managing to calmly dispute this and get issue fixed.

Collected bag OK and sneakily used wifi while there; a woman on desk not same bloke but asked about card, no sign, oh well. She offered to call me taxi but said no need; my Spanish could have been better during this conversation but got by which is something.

Batt 50%; will try to charge from powerbank on bus. Am in cama; guy was a bit fast for me reeling off prices when bought tkt yday but this was apparently the cheap option - there was a "suite" option for IIRC about an extra ten quid but I had been plannin to settle for semi-cama so cama is fine.

Sign as got near terminal said "Terminal Ferroviario 300m" ; I suspect this is just the bus terminal, but could there be a train station here? Perhaps a stop on that not-very-reliable Buenos Aires-Posadas line? Maybe worth a bit of web search later.

2012 On bus. Accidentally went upstairs, even tho told downstairs. Not sure if upstairs is nicer than downstairs. Upstairs has luggage racks, but the same 2+1 layout as downstairs so it's not like either is semi-cama. I get no luggage rack, which means my rather bulky main bag has to sit round my feet, or be tucked under the footrest which I'd really rather not use. I wasn't offered a choice of seat when I booked, I have the aisle seat of the double seat right at back which means there's a cateringy gadget where the aisle should be and there's a really fucking noisy aircon unit right behind my head. So not terrible, but frankly crap. In this respect most of the semi-cama buses I've been on have been more comfortable. We're off, no seatmate yet anyway.

Also have load of cushions, blankets and food trays which I have nowhere to put if I need to use the footrest (I can tuck them behind it if not in use).

No, we're not quite moving yet.

Ambulant vendor at terminal selling what look like half litre glasses at ARS15 with a mildly amusing line in patter. Vaguely tempted but really could there be a worse souvenir purchase than something that bulky, fragile and dangerous-once-broken?

2020 Now we're off, and no seatmate, but of course may get one en route and esp as I may be half asleep I can't spread myself out.

2155 Had some food on bus, cold rice+chicken+bit of egg, raspberry? jelly, few crackers, a cup of some hot broth, a presumably non-diet coke and annoyed at myself for turning down a cup of something (wiki? wicked?) partly because *everyone* else turned it down too (and partly cos a quick glance made me wonder if it was an iced drink or a syrup with chunk of peach in, prob not the latter but really didn't want it if it was and on bus you can't just ignore or dispose of something trivially once you've got in on your lap tray and it might spill evberywhere).

Struggling to charge phone, think vibrations make it damn hard to keep the cable/connector in a suitable position and I'm worried that trying to apply pressure with hand to compensate is going to accelerate the point at which the connector just dies completely; managed to gradually nudge up to 51% and should last overnight since really only playing music on phone on bus. Once in Cordoba and indeed BA I can hopefully charge it a bit more "gently" via propping up as I did in dorm bunk and I need to try to nurse it through last couple of weeks of trip then can get it fixed back home.

Fri 0949 In flat. Massive amount of forms to get checked in but all OK, they had a cancellation on 1 bed flat (I had booked 2 bed) so got 10% discount for downgrading to still very large and nice 1 bed, also not had to pay IVA (and told it's my right so other place shouldn't have fobbed me off but no matter, not a huge amount and didn't want to argue lateish at night). Checked dollar exchange rate on Google and it *is* 44 ARS to the dollar, which seems expensive but it's because I've been using 50 ARS to the GBP just because it's easy for mental arithmetic but it's actually 57. (So this may mean Argentina has been a bit cheaper than I thought.) Anyway, a hair over USD157 for six nights is not super cheap but not bad and it is a pretty nice flat, although sadly neither of the TVs is a smart TV so I'm stuck watching Youtube on my phone with crappy charging, which is a bit of a shame when one of the attractions of an apartment is it's more comfortable to spend time in.

Was in fairly bad mood on walk over from terminal due to anticipating massive wait to get into flat and phone batt being low. Got to flat about 0830 after arriving terminal maybe 0730 or a bit after, had to wait til 9 for office to open but managed to squash a bit of charge into phone from power bank while sitting on a wall outside. Phone socket is definitely iffy but I think my long USB cable is also a bit knackered too. I have a short cable which I knew was knackered already but which seemed to work instead of long one while charging outside.

Advised by chap that shouldn't walk back at night, though he later clarified this as "midnight onwards" , and a taxi from centre is about 100 so given I will prob only be out late Sat night (if at all) this isn't a huge deal.

No toilet paper which is a bit crap but I do have my own roll and I'll ask for some down at the office later.

Woohoo, found TV manual while checking supplies in kitchen and it is actually a smart TV after all...

1629 Should prob start new blog for today but won't, it doesn't really matter and today sort of feels like continuation of travel.

So topped phone up and went out maybe 1-2pm to buy train ticket to Buenos Aires (Retiro); expected it to be a faff or the train not to be running or ticket office not to be open given there can't be more than a handful of trains a week. All OK except a) camarote class all sold out b) they only take Visa (or cash, but that's a bad option for me given withdrawal fees) and I had two Mastercards on me. So I left and came back - chuntering to myself, not ideal, but wasn't rude to anyone else - via supermarket where picked up some food, a cheap toothbrush (mine is really getting ratty) and amazingly a small cheap pouch of laundry detergent so I can use flat's washing machine (a very rare feature) to save/go one better than handwashing. Cooked, felt quite stuffed, loitered maybe half an hour to digest then went back out to station with my Barclaycard Platinum Travel. Also took actual passport in hidden belt just in case they refused to accept my credit card sized copy; the station isn't far but it's far enough and there's enough dangerous/tedious road crossing for it to be a real pain to have to keep going over there.

No problem, no fuss taking ccard passport copy, paid no fuss for Pullman (next best class, 600 - base class is 500 so given it's a 19h-ish trip plus am doing it for the experience - I suspect bus would be quicker, though maybe not cheaper - not economising over two quid - it's a shame I could go camarote but another time) and have a moderately fancy cardboard wallet with ticket in which will be a small souvenir.

Picked up some toilet paper from the flat rental office on ground floor (they don't own whole building, but guess they must own or manage-for-owner a fair number to warrant a specific office with at least three staff), was very nice about it - I am super grateful they let me in early and while signing a contract and having to leave a cash deposit was a faff it wasn't end of world - but saw no harm in asking.

Plan for tonight is just to have quiet night in, enjoy the flat *and book or at least "choose" a BA flat, be it on airbnb or booking.com or expedia* so I have the accom all sorted out.

I think the USB cable *is* going dodgy as I put the power bank on to top up earlier and it took quite a bit of faffing. The phone's USB connector is definitely dodgy too, but the USB cable is now as well - possibly the propping-up on the cable I've had to do to get the phone to charge hasn't helped, or maybe it's just one of those things. It is supposed to be a half-decent quality cable (though nothing insane; £2-3 for one cable in a pack of three I think) but OTOH it has lasted up til now (I started using it for Guatemala trip in Oct I think) and I guess the "charging phone in bed" does put strain on things.

Going to switch to carrying BPT instead of Clarity; I had been keeping it in reserve as it's more valuable since it has simple fee-free withdrawals, but with the end of the trip so close losing it would not be such a wrench and it would be helpful to have both a Visa (BPT credit) and Mastercard (Starling debit) jic given some places are obviously fussy. If (as prob will) I need to wd more cash it may just be case the BPT is better, but I doubt it (otherwise would have made a point of trying it before).

Looking at contents of train ticket wallet I could apparently have saved 10% booking online. Assuming this works for foreigners I will know next time but TBH by the time I've paid for an internet cafe to print the ticket the 60 saving on this ticket would be beating eaten away anyway. Under other circumstances I might be booking from UK before I travel, though, and then I can obviously print very cheaply and conveniently.

2205 Just been Youtubing it up while charging phone (this is the key advantage of smart TV, albeit another dog slow one - perhaps the YT app has got bloated over time; having a big screen is nice but being able to entertain myself without touching phone and its precarious charge infrastructure is key) and also done a load of laundry.

FWIW did acquire seatmate about an hour into last night's journey, bus filled up at least on my deck at that point. Not a problem though, especially with the bigger cama seats. Didn't sleep super well but could have been worse.

Don't really feel in mood for booking BA accom but let's at least poke and start the mental process off.

Man does it piss me off the way booking.com shows properties which are not available. I suppose this is not entirely marketing wank, as if I repeat a search in a few days time I might be looking for property X I had my eye on and would rather it didn't silently disappear.

Without paying attention to location very much, cheapest apartment/aparthotel on booking.com is USD190+40 taxes for the 10 nights. On the other hand, some of these don't seem to have any kitchens so they're not really apartments to my mind.

They do have a place in Montserrat for USD243+50 which looks OK; I was thinking San Telmo-ish (perhaps boring of me but WTF, tho on prev trips think have been in other areas) and Montserrat is close enough for me, perhaps better in some ways.

Cheapest in rough area on airbnb is £161 for the same period, which is USD210, so that is cheaper (though I may not have to pay the 50 fee on the booking.com place since they do take cards and I am a foreigner). The airbnb place says it has an independent kitchen in listing but has kitchen crossed out in amenities. It seems to be a 4 bedroom place (!) but really I don't need 4 bedrooms, and there are *no* reviews.

I note the booking.com place says it accepts cards, then the text says you must pay by bank transfer before you arrive. Feeling a bit narked by booking.com's "last 1" psychological tricks too.

OK, I've sent a query to the host via booking.com re paying by card and not paying the VAT so let's see what they say. If the place gets booked by someone else in the meantime there are other options, I haven't definitely decided it would suit me if the answer to my query is favourable (though I also don't want to get bogged down in finding the "perfect" place; good enough is good enough).

Hahahaha. Another vaguely decent apartment on booking.com wants a USD 200 (this place in Cordoba has only taken ARS1000, which is a bit over twenty quid) *cash* damage deposit on check in. I bet they want it in ARS not USD too, not that I have 200 USD on me either. I'm flying out straight afterwards, so that would stick me with USD200 worth of ARS which I wouldn't be able to spend til my next visit to Argentina, which may be next year but may be four or five years. And I'd pay an extra 5% or so in cash machine fees for the privilege of withdrawing the money. So fuck right off chap. If you want to play with the big boys you should get the facilities to reserve a chunk of money on my credit card, I'm not handing over USD200 in cash to satisfy your jumped-up little landlording operation.

expedia.co.uk has no apartment for less than £237 so they're out of consideration.

Some of the reviews on the possible booking.com apt I sent query to are a bit iffy but some others (most, in fact) from same time period are pretty positive. Gut feeling is *if* they tell me I can pay by ccard and won't be charged VAT I will probably book with them. I think there's little more to do tonight, having a bit of time and space to consider these issues and spread the booking process over a day or two instead of needing something for a day or two's time is one reason I wanted to start now, but that doesn't mean I have to *finish* tonight and damn the potential downsides.

2319 OK, got two extremely curt replies, not one for some reason. In Spanish. One clearly says "Yes I can pay by card." The other I was a tiny bit dubious about the language (literally they say "Se hace un cobro de 50 %") but Google Translate tells me it says "a 50% surcharge is made" . I wondered (not that that would be acceptable anyway) if this meant "you must pay 50% up front by bank transfer" . They've also completely ignored the not-paying-VAT question. So unfortunately, fuck them - the apartment sounded good and willing to take a punt on the bad reviews being stroppy fuckers given most were good, but I'm not doing an international  bank transfer (which would in any case compel me to pay the VAT) and anyone who thinks a 50% surcharge is reasonable for paying by credit card frankly doesn't deserve to be in business full stop. Add that to the ultra-curtness of the replies (though it is late and at least they replied promptly) and fuck that. Not going to reply and tell them to go fuck themselves, no point burning bridges unnecessarily, I only expressed an interest and am not obliged to follow through.

Was heading towards bed but not that tired and now that property is out of consideration I can go ahead and look at other stuff.

OK, I've messaged the cheap apartment on airbnb (about £16 a night); it's not 4 bedroom, it's 4 beds and sole bedroom has two singles not a double which is but crap but not terrible. It looks like there is no proper kitchen, just a microwave, but I've asked if there's a hob; yes I may well just say "fuck it, last 10 days of trip" and go eat steak and chips at that place found in Jan every day, but I would like to have the option to cook something semi-healthy now and then. On the plus side check in is from 8am so I wouldn't be homeless for hours after my train gets in. Also asked if it would be a problem for me to be checking out pre-8am on last day.

There is another flat in same area for about two quid a night more which looks a bit nicer but checkin is from 3pm and I really don't want to be homeless from 930 to 3pm if I can help it.

There's another borderline OK place further west more into San Nicolas, which *might* be a nice area and worth a punt but current thinking is the £16 place is already over that way and would give me option to explore in that direction without getting me further away from the semi-decent options I know exist over towards Montserrat/Constitucion. There's also a cheapish place in Palermo but I think I stayed there (Dazzler Flats) before and while it may be a swanky area I want something a little more down to earth where I might find some non-overpriced bars for the odd evening out.

I could move up on price (though TBH given booking.com's listings are polluted with the kind of deceptive and/or exploitative shit waffled about above not sure it's easy to find anything on there), I was paying £26ish IIRC in Santiago and could in BA, but I'd rather keep it cheap if I can get something acceptable lower down price range.

Bed. No idea how I'm going to charge phone overnight (batt run down rom 75% I had trickled it up to to 28% doing this stuff tonight) but fingers crossed.

Corrientes, Wednesday

Wed 1139 Slept OKish, woke up a bit in night as usual. Got up with mild hangover about 1010, uncommunicative breakfast (just couple of croissants and some sort of pastry hiding in a cardboard box which I assume was free-to-all) and sitting in "hall" of hostel poking at web re bookings. Wrt uncommunicative to be fair it was just me and one woman who seemed preoccupied, I didn't sit there silently as conversation bubbled round me.

Have booked an apartment in Cordoba for 6 nights at about £27/night on booking.com; airbnb couldn't compete unless I was willing to stay in a town 10-20kms outside Cordoba (which was doable at maybe £19 a night), which to be fair might be interesting in a way but not right now, so this is booking.com. I should be able to pay on credit card though have to give a cash deposit on checkin which will get back on checkout, so this sounds a bit more wanky and bureaucratic than most of my airbnb-ish apartment rentals; however, I can live with this especially as I expect to be leaving Cordoba early afternoon by train so having to meet someone for checkout is not a big problem.

I had a look at the buses and there are some half-decent overnight ones; I am going to end up hanging around from 9am-2pm on arrival with my bag (well, less time to walk over to flat of course) but not the end of the world. I will go over to bus terminal in a bit and buy a ticket; there are enough companies that I am willing to gamble on booking accom now before buying ticket, accom was probably the most limiting factor.

I hope this hostel will let me leave my bag here during the day on Thursday; if they won't I'll just have to deal with it, I guess. Will ask in a bit.

I will have a look later and see if there is any kind of Spanish exchange in Cordoba I might be able to go to while I'm there. Will try to book train tkt to BA as soon as I get there and once I have that I can look into BA flat; sooner I book the better as it opens up slow-responding airbnb hosts (not, incidentally, that this was an issue in Cordoba - there was simply nothing available at a price which could beat booking.com in Cordoba itself, poss due to booking nearly last minue).

Oh, that £27/night includes 21% VAT which booking.com site (but not e-mail) says I don't have to pay as foreigner paying with foreign card. I suspect I'll be charged it anyway but I have a screenshot of the booking.com site this time so I will a) politely bring it up when I check in b) make a polite stink with booking.com after I check out if I do have to pay it.

2058 On common hall bit of hostel to write this before bed. Batt at 10% so hope it lasts.

So I checked on way out earlier and no problem to leave bag here during day. Guy at desk super helpful, spoke English and also told me there was a travel agent round corner open from 5pm where could buy tkt to save going to bus terminal

I think I went to lie on bunk a bit before heading out to top up phone following the morning's web browsing re accom etc.

Oh, the guy also said a lower bunk had come free and did I want to change; I dithered briefly but said it was OK, I was only here one more night and had got used to it. I'm going to feel aggrieved if my phone falls off the bunk and smashes tonight though...

So (it was getting on towards 2 by this point) I walked over to the Costanera and the food truck I went to the other day - passing natural science museum which was open, maybe go there tomorrow - and had a pizza and litre of Quilmes Bajocero by the river. I think the same aggressive beggar woman came up to me as other day, I did broken record "no, disculpe" on here and she walked off muttering "que malo sos vos" or something a bit like that. Felt a bit guilty but I really hate being put on the spot. There was a silvery grey cat hanging round as well, I think it might be a stray - looked a bit thin though otherwise in fair condition. Felt a bit sorry for it but couldn't do anything, I tossed it a tiny bit of ham from my pizza  but it didn't seem interested, it's not as if I had a box of cat biscuits on me. Had brief chat with owner as paid.

Went over to Museo de Bellas Artes. Small but quite good and free (no option to even donate AFAICS), had brief chat in Spanish with staff member who asked me to fill in a card with my impressions of one of the exhibits. Played the Bill Bryson "I've been told I can take one exhibit home as a reward for being an awesome human being, what will I take?" game. A bit torn but ultimately think it would have to be Rincón de Quilmes by Famuceno Bonifacio Oroquieta (1939) - something about the brilliant electric colours on the hut and the impression of sun and shade on the boats etc really worked for me. Didn't note names (tho snapped photos; guy told me it was OK without flash) of all other contenders, but do remember there was a picture called "Descansando" near RdQ with three horses stood in the street and something about the front horse really did conjure up a feeling of relaxation, the front horse also sort of managed to look strangely cuddly (and I am not really a horse person). Another candidate was IIRC "oposicion de signos", a nicely geometric pseudo-neony thing, and there was also a big modern-ish picture called " Pleno aire" (or "aire pleno" ?) which did feel quite open and fresh but which attracted my repeated attention primarily because one of the chickens at the bottom just looked *so* plump and three dimensional, almost like a ball, the effect was almost mesmerising.

Loitered perhaps a bit too long and though I think it was in part a slight sadness at moving on (as always, better than being pleased to get away) I had to tear myself away slightly from RdQ and Descansando.

I then went over to the travel agency nr hostel as it was gone 5pm and they were open. The woman in there seemed slightly sullen and told me I couldn't pay by credit card for the bus I wanted (but I could for others); since my poke on web had suggested other buses had worse timings and prices I really wanted that one but really didn't want to pay cash given the 5%-ish fee so I asked her if I'd be able to pay by card at the bus terminal and she said yes so I thanked her and left. TBH quite glad not to give her my business, she wasn't rude but she didn't seem super welcoming either.

Bit peeved at having to walk 3km+ each way to terminal - mainly as phone batt was super low at this point, single digits - but as I told myself it's not as though I had *any* plans for tonight anyway. Bit of a slog but bought ticket OK on card, came back and got some water and some biscuits (for bus) at supermarket en route and then spent a while back here at hostel lying on bunk as phone charged while I surfed a bit.

2115 Batt 4% and sure was one minor thing left to mention but can't think of it. Will go to bed now anyway, need to try to charge headphones too ready for bus overnight.

Oh, don't think it was the thing, but Cordoba accom says their office is in same building as flat and I can leave my bag there until I check in, which is nice. I arrive before 8am I think so they may not be open straight away, but prob be OKish.

Just seen and photographed near-camouflaged black cat in hostel, but not sure it's the same one I had on my bunk other day - it seems bigger and not super friendly (I touched its head but it didn't seem too impressed).

Poss minor thing was dropping camera while sitting at table at food truck place by river but not sure. Batt 2% so will write about that later/tomorrow.