At that time, I didn't like to enjoy Carnival, so, specifically on February, 2006, I got my ticket to Buenos Aires.
It was a great experience. At that point, I stayed at Pangea Hostel (the owner moved to Bariloche and has a incredible hostel there - Hostel Achalay).
Unfortunately, my first hours in Buenos Aires were not that awesome. I arrived at 2am at Ezeiza Airport. It is located 20 miles from downtown, where Pangea Hostel was. So, as it was late, I got a cab. looks simple, right? But it is not! I got out the terminal and there were piles of taxi drivers screaming: taxi? taxi? So, I got one.
At that point, i was not that familiar with Spanish (my mother language is Portuguese, as I am Brazilian) so, I saw the driver calling a number, and just understood the direction that I gave to him: Entre Rios, 1222. I thought it was normal, as in Brazil, usually, the drivers call the monitoring station to give the directions where they suppose to go when they pick up someone on the streets.
Well, long story short, when we arrived at the direction, the street had no one walking around, just one person in front of the direction I gave.
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| Chilean friends sharing an hamburger |
When the driver stopped, the man opened up the door, and started to take my backpack out. I was trying to get my wallet, so, the driver got it from my hand, and emptied it (took all of my money!), and the man, when finished to take my stuff outside the cab, took my hand and did the same with me. When I felt over the sidewalk, the guy got in the cab and both guys ran away with my money. I was lucky they threw my wallet on me with my ID and documents.
I will use this blog, now, to write about crazy stories that happens when a girl travel by herself.
I will not give up to travel. And I will share a lot of experiences on last 10 years.
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| Subway Line A - the oldest of Buenos Aires |
As I got just part of my money (the part it was hidden on my backpack) and I was planning to stay 12 days there, I needed to find out how i could get money from my stay. I had enough to eat, but I needed to pay the hostel. That time, I had no credit card :O
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| Obelisk at July, 9th Avenue |
So, in Buenos Aires, they have a lot of "kiosks". So, I started to ask if they knew someone who could give me a place to sleep. Remember, my Spanish at that point was really bad. But they could understand what went wrong with me. So, after ask a lot of people, I spoke with a really nice woman that gave me the address of the Brazilian Embassy.
I got a bus, and asked some help there. They told me that Brazilian Consulate could help me, and, for lucky, it was just in front of Brazilian Embassy.
I got into the Brazilian Consulate, but, this same day, it had like 80 Brazilians trying to get their ID to back to Brazil. The night before, they were at the Rolling Stones Concert on River Plate stadium, but, as you guys probably read, it was a huge confusion that night A lot of people got in the stadium without ticket and a lot of people who bought the ticket got outside. And in the middle of this confusion, a lot of people got stollen.
I waited a couple of hours, but as I had my ID, I saw a man, wearing a suit. So, I asked him if he could help me, as I had my ID. For lucky, he was the Consul!
So, he said to me to get into his office. I explained what happened (and cried a lot, of course), and he said that the could give me the money to pay the Hostel. He said that it is very common in Buenos Aires that taxi drivers do this kind of thing, sometimes, the rob you, sometimes they try to tell you that your money is fake, or sometimes they change a 50 bill to 5.
In the end, I came back to Hostel and finally started my trip. It was really nice 12 days there.
Do you think that I got upset with Buenos Aires (or Argentina) because of that? No way! It is being 10 years that i always go there, and love it!
I recommend! It is just a matter to be careful, but the experience, is amazing!
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| Caminito - Barrio de la Boca |
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