Arrival in Buenos Aires

Well, I did it! I finally made it to Argentina. At a certain point at Dulles Airport last night I wasn't quite so sure it would actually happen. This whole experience is about being open-ended and having no commitments so naturally when I decided to go ahead and head down south, I bought a one-way ticket. Apparently I didn't read the fine print. Having been taught well to always arrive early for flights, I got to the airport over 2 hours early. This came in handy because when I tried to check in I was told my tickets were not going to be issued. Fortunately there weren't more than 5 other people in the United check in area so I was able to talk to an agent almost immediately. To my horror they explained to me that because of Argentina's three month tourist visa guidelines, you have to have a return ticket to prove that at some point within those three months you will be leaving. Not only do I not know how long I will be here, I am planning on traveling overland back to the States meaning I will probably not be flying out of Buenos Aires. At this point, the only thing I could think to do was buy a return ticket within those 3 month guidelines. Fortunately the people at STA were able to cut the price in more than half (from a whopping $2200 to $1059). Still, it sucked having to pay an extra $1000 bucks when I didn't prepare for it. That's traveling for ya! What's worse is I didn't think to get a ticket to a country a bit closer, like Uruguay for example. All I needed to prove was that I was leaving the country (and after looking at the prices for those flights, I wish I hadn't). Hindsight is 20/20, what can I say? The point is, I made it. And to be honest, the flight was quite pleasant, I actually slept for about 8 of the 10 hours.

So now I'm at the Hostel Suites Obelisco where I will be staying until I find my own apartment. It's a pretty sweet place, right near the Obelisco (who would have figured...). It's about 11:30 am right now and you can't check in until 2, so I'm going to wander around and find some food.