Journey to the end of the world.
Buenos Aires, Ushuaia & Iguazu
After arriving in Buenos Aires from Montevideo by ferry, we jumped in an Uber to our apartment, which was in an apparently nice area, but whilst driving, we realised that most of this city was nice. We generally only hear about Buenos Aires' economy issues in the UK and that their currency situation is dire.
I spent the first 5 days or so paying by card, and thinking the prices were cool so I had no idea what the issue was. However, I then decided to exchange some dollars to pesos, and realised that I had been overpaying by more than double. It's quite funny as the prices when paying by card were fine, but paying with cash, it is ridiculously cheap. We went to a parilla and ordered this huge meat platter which was too much to eat, and it came to around $30 when paying by card - a great price actually, but we paid by cash and it was $12, which also included a 2 litre bottle of coke and a large salad. Absolutely ridiculous value. So I exchanged a load more cash and was obviously happy for the rest of the time there.
We spent 5 days in Buenos Aires then flew to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, very close to the ice wall and the penguin guards with ak47s. We did some standard tourist stuff like a boat ride to see some cool stuff. It's pretty cold down there, but not terribly cold at this time as it's their spring season.
We flew back to Buenos Aires for another 5 days and did some tourist stuff, like visiting Caminito which is a very busy area, this massive book store which used to be a theatre and so on. The whole city is cool, very good place to visit.
We then flew to Iguazu to visit Iguazu falls, however, the Argentinian side was closed, so we just crossed to Brazil (Foz do Iguaçu) and stayed there instead. Cool place, got very wet.
I say this with a full chest. Argentina is easily the best country in Latin America. So far I've been to 13 Latam countries, and only in Uruguay and Argentina have I felt that nobody wanted to rip me off, nobody harassed me, taxi drivers used the meters without asking, money exchange guys gave the actual rates, no pickpockets, no beggars following you. It is such a massive change from the northern part of this continent where you can't walk for 5 minutes without somebody shouting, blasting music, begging, arguing, following and the list goes on.
A simple process like getting in a taxi, telling the driver where to go, then paying the correct amount - this should be standard across the world, but it's not. In Latin America you generally have to argue with the driver to turn the meter on. Not in Argentina, it's the first thing they do.
Internet was fast, supermarkets were clean, streets were clean, people were friendly, things worked properly. Argentina. I would definitely come back, but I'll probably pass through the US, grab a few thousand dollars and then head to Argentina to exchange it for pesos.
Shout out Argentina.