Dreamy Argentina

As fate would have it, I landed in Santiago, Chile at the end of October 2019, during the height of civil protests that made headlines around the world and shook the nation right to its political core. Deciding that it probably wasn't the best time to be gallivanting around the country, I spent less than eight hours in the capital before jumping on a bus to Mendoza, Argentina and basically never looked back! Over the next five weeks I spent at least four of them in Argentina absolutely besotted with the wine, the varied landscapes, the cultural experience of Buenos Aires and most of all the price of a cocktail! Or the price of anything for that matter. 2019 saw Argentina in the grips of its own economic crisis. Inflation had surged dramatically and the peso was losing value by the minute; literally the prices of goods and services had to be adjusted every few weeks which was reflected in all the menus we saw written in pencil. This is obviously extremely concerning for Argentinians, which echoed clearly in our conversations with disheartened locals, but there's no denying it was definitely an advantage for travellers and a marked difference compared with others that had visited the country just a year or two earlier. At the time of writing this, December 2019, the economic situation doesn't look to be improving any time soon so I am highly recommending taking a trip there ASAP to maximise the opportunity. Looking back I was glad to be nudged into Argentina so soon. We loved it so much and, despite criss-crossing the Chilean border four times, felt like it paled in comparison to their very expensive neighbours on the whole. Here are the places we vistited: Mendoza, Buenos Aires, El Calafate, El Chalten (but the weather was terrible so we couldn't hike *big sad face*), Bariloche - and the surrounding Lakes District - and Cordoba. We prioritised spending more time in fewer places and have clearly left out some key spots including Ushuaia and the northern region but we wanted to leave some places to come back and explore. This was also the last country on our ten month Central and South America adventure and we wanted to enjoy it as much as possible so there's more eating out and Air BnBing and less cooking pasta in hostel kitchens. Enjoy! I can't wait to go back.