Before I start talking about today, I just noticed that this is blog number 600.

Quite the milestone and it’s insane to think that I’ve gone traveling for 600 days over the last however many years.

Anyway, I’m pretty proud of what I’ve accomplished blog wise and I hope you all have enjoyed the content over the years.

So, now, on top blog number 600…

Despite taking a long nap yesterday afternoon, I was still tired enough by midnight to go to sleep.

And just like yesterday, I was up way too early this morning – 5:30am.

The plan for today was to go on the free walking tour I bailed on yesterday but that didn’t start until 3pm.

I needed to figure out what to do this morning.

The city of Buenos Aires has several neighbourhoods to explore so I figured I’d hop a bus to explore one of them this morning.

La Boca

I headed out of the hostel at 8:45am and walked down the street to one of the main streets where all the buses run.

My first experience with the Buenos Aires metro, yay!

I got on, tapped my SUBE metro card, and I was on my way.   Pretty seamless.

The major road I was riding on had two dedicated bus lanes going each way in the middle of it.   There were alot of buses and they all moved pretty damn quick.

And when they arrive at a stop, the driver will swing open the rear doors even before he’s come to a stop and I swear they don’t even come to a complete stop sometimes.

Anyway, La Boca is a neighbourhood to the south of where I’m staying and it was only a short 10 minute ride away.

I arrived to this eclectic part of the city with their colorful buildings at just after 9am.

Shops were just opening up and, aside from a couple school tour groups, this part of the city was pretty quiet at this time of the day.

I wandered the streets for awhile taking snaps of monuments, murals, and colorful houses.

It was a little windy and this is the first trip in awhile where I’ve had hair and, boy, was it a mess.

I spotted a pharmacy on my walk and using my clever charades skills, I was able to find and purchase a tube of hair gel.

As much as I had greasy, slicked back hair, it’s a hell of alot better than this wind tossed mess that was sitting on top of my head at that very moment.

After I had seen all there was to see, I headed over to a dedicated gluten free bakery named Gout to grab some breakfast.

Along with a bunch of pastries, they had a couple of sandwiches available – caprese or ham and cheese.

I don’t know why, but in my head I thought caprese was like a salami but, it turns out, it’s just tomato, mozzarella, and basil.

Even still, despite the lack of meat for my carnivorous self, it was a really great sandwich and filled me up.

By 10:30, I was pretty much done with the La Boca neighbourhood so I popped back on a bus heading back to the hostel.

Another nap

When I got back to the hostel I was suddenly hit with this overwhelming fatigue again.

Hot damn, am I really this jet lagged or am I just getting old?

Of course it doesn’t help that I still haven’t gotten a full night’s sleep since I’ve arrived either.

And so, like yesterday, I just turned out the light by my bed and pulled up a pillow for another nap.

Thankfully this one was much shorter and I was up and ready again a couple of hours later.

Time to do that walking tour that I was supposed to do yesterday…

Free Walking Tour

I hopped on yet another bus over to the National Congress building which was the starting point for this tour.

As we were nearing my stop, I noticed a little shop from the window that said in big letters “Pain du Jour” with “Gluten Free” underneath it.

I didn’t even have this place marked on my map as it wasn’t in the Find Me GF app I use.

Since I arrived a bit early for the tour, I backtracked a block and went inside.

I ordered in my best Spanish a “baguetta con jamon y queso” which I’m assuming would be a ham and cheese sandwich.

Well, she heard empanada for some reason so that’s what I ended up with.

No big deal, though, as the empanadas I had yesterday were amazing.

This one was not.   Yeah, hard pass on that place.   It was barely edible.

I headed back to the start point of the tour and was stunned to see close to 60 people waiting for it.

That is alot of people for a walking tour.

The tour lasted two and half hours and covered alot of the history of Argentina with a heavy emphasis on the politics and financial instability over the years.

In a nutshell, no matter who has been in charge over the years, the finances of Argentina has always been pretty crap.

In just the last two years, inflation has been 200%.

That’s crazy.

In January 2024 it was 25% just that month alone.

New measures have slowed the increase to just 2-3% a month but even that’s high as most countries do that in a year.

Martin, the guide hit the nail on the head when he said 2 years ago Buenos Aires was a backpacker dream and now it’s one of the most expensive cities in the world up there with the likes of Paris or Rome.

Anyway, it was a very educational tour and Martin even handed out some ponchos for some of us to wear when it got chilly.

Yeah, I stupidly didn’t bring my long sleeve top again and I was one of the people with his hands out for a poncho.

At 5:30 the tour was done and I headed back to the hostel for a bit before heading back out at 7:00 for dinner.

Argentinean fast food

After having no meat at all today, I was pretty hungry and I need something to satisfy my carnivorous wishes.

I popped over to the fast food burger chain Mostaza because they had a gluten free bun available.

So, before you get all up on me for having fast food in a foreign land, it was science, okay?

Need to see if they match up to McDonalds gluten free offering.

They’re a little overkill on the gluten allergy thing here which I good in some respects but it meant I only had one burger choice – a double cheese burger.

My meal came out in pieces.   The bun and burger patties were in separate packages and I had to squeeze out ketchup and mayo from little condiment packets.

The bun hands down was the best burger bun I’ve ever tried.   It was light and fluffy and tasted like, well, a burger bun.

However the lack of substantial sauce or any topping just made the burger super heavy and not that enjoyable.

Science experiment over.   Let’s not do that again for awhile, okay?

By 9pm I was back at the hostel and that was it for the day.

Another relatively easy, laid back day – just the way I wrote it up.

Tomorrow I’ll be hopping on ferry over to Colonia del Sacramento on the western coast of Uruguay for a little day trip.

Can’t wait to cross over country number 64…