“So how was your trip?” This is the question I’ve gotten multiple times since I returned from Argentina. My first instinct is to say, “It was long…but a lot of fun.” Between driving my cat Lupin to Louisville, traveling around Argentina for three weeks, then picking up Lupin from Cincinnati, I was traveling for about a month straight. [Author’s note: if the previous sentence says “Leslie’s cat Lupin” instead of “my cat Lupin” then just know that she edited it.]
Here’s a very brief summary of my travels to impress upon you how far I went: started in Sterling IL, drove to Louisville to drop off Lupin, drove to my parents’ place in St. Louis, flew through Dallas to Buenos Aires for two days, flew to Puerto Madryn for seven days, flew to Salta, bussed to Tilcara, bussed to Jujuy, flew to Buenos Aires, flew to Miami for a 16 hour layover, flew to St. Louis, drove to Cincinnati (in Ohio) to pick up Lupin, drove back to Sterling. Needless to say, I slept a lot when I finally returned home.
No, it didn’t take 67 hours because we didn’t drive it, but we did travel far!
In case you haven’t noticed from Leslie’s previous posts, I historically have not been much of a traveler. Before this trip, I had never even left the US. However, I really didn’t want to go 9 months without seeing Leslie, so it was an easy choice to fly down and spend time with her. In the weeks and months leading up to the trip, Leslie and I talked about a lot of different places that we wanted to go. I say ‘we,’ but Leslie did about 95% of the planning. She definitely listened to my input, but I didn’t know anything about where to go or what to see in Argentina, so I let her pick the spots and chimed in when I could. She did a great job of finding gorgeous locations and figuring out how to get to them, so she deserves all the credit for our trip running smoothly.
The flights into Argentina were largely uneventful. When I got on the plane, my entire row of three seats was empty, so I filed into my window seat and waited for the other two people to arrive. Eventually, I was pretty sure I heard someone say the cabin door was closing, but I wasn’t quite sure because I had my noise-cancelling headphones on. Then the plane started taxiing, and that’s when I realized I had the whole row to myself. Having the extra space made my first intercontinental flight just a little cozier.
When I arrived in Argentina, I finally got to see Leslie! Definitely one of the best parts of the trip if I’m being honest. After hanging out, seeing the sights, and sampling as much vegan food as possible in Buenos Aires, Leslie and I flew to Puerto Madryn, and that’s when the trip took a bit of a turn. Within a day of being in Madryn, I broke my glasses, slipped in the shower and bruised my arm, and also developed a mysterious illness. After 3 negative COVID tests and lots of Googling, we decided it was probably some combination of travel and possibly getting used to new tap water. Luckily, I recovered within a day and decided to just stick to bottled water for the rest of the trip.
While in Madryn, I was finally able to meet all the people I’ve heard Leslie talk about each night for the past four months. During dinner with Leslie and her friend Yani, I had the first of my many awkward Spanish exchanges. I don’t speak any Spanish, so I quickly had to embrace the awkwardness of not knowing what anyone in the country was saying. These awkward moments will probably take up most of this blog post. Anyway, at one point during the night I needed to use the bathroom. I knew ‘hombres’ meant men and ‘mujeres’ meant women, so when I went to the bathrooms and saw a “C” on the door, I had to go back and check with Leslie before I went into the wrong one. This will not be the first time that the word ‘hombres’ or bathrooms fit into my awkward exchanges. Eventually, I found my way to the room for ‘caballeros’ (gentleman) and did my business. On the way out, a younger guy came in and said “que tal?” which meant absolutely nothing to me at the time, so I just silently nodded my head and walked out. Apparently he was just saying “what’s up?” so a head nod in response sort of worked there. Later in Madryn, I got to see lots of whales and a cute little penguin with Sol and Claudio, and later on I got to see sea lions cuddling on a dock. Worth the cost of the flight right there.
Leslie please don’t delete this photo from my blog post
My next awkward encounter was at the spa near Mendoza. At one point, I went to use the bathroom while Leslie went to change into her swim suit. When I got out, I started looking for the changing room, and I thought I found it, but I wasn’t quite sure if it was gender neutral because there was no sign on the door. A man was walking by, so I tried out some of my newly-learned Spanish phrases. I attempted to say, “Excuse me. I don’t speak Spanish. Where do I change? Is this room for men and women?” Instead what I said was “Excuse me. I don’t speak Spanish. Where…change? (Change was literally in English) Is this the room for women and…brothers?” The man chuckled but said yes, and that’s when Leslie came out to also laugh at how I mixed up ‘hombres’ with ‘hermanos.’ What’s even worse is that I gestured to him and me while saying ‘hermanos.’ Sometimes in the heat of the moment, you just pick the first H word that comes to mind.
This meme will never be more relevant. If you know, you know.
Leslie already covered the awkward conversation I had outside a bathroom in a Mendoza cafe, but I’ll just briefly remind you of it here. Leslie was using a single-person bathroom that she obviously locked, but I still felt the need to awkwardly tell a girl that “someone’s in there” in English and then eventually blurt out “mi novia” as I pointed to the bathroom door. It was ultimately completely unnecessary, but I didn’t want Leslie to suffer some awkwardness if the lock didn’t work.
At one point in a restaurant near out hostel in Salta, when Leslie asked for ketchup for her fries, the waiter brought back a small bowl containing exactly one ketchup packet and two mustard packets, then quickly dashed off. As Leslie explained to me, ketchup is just not that popular in Argentina. Undeterred, I wanted to get more ketchup for Leslie, but I wanted to aim high in case the waiter brought back less than I asked for, so I decided to tell this man we wanted a lot of ketchup using the only Spanish words I knew. When he came back again, I held up the lonely ketchup packet and said “cinco más, por favor?” The brief flash of mild disgust on his face was able to cross any language barrier between us, but he quickly said something like “I’ll try” and dashed away again. He eventually came back and told us he didn’t have any more, so I thought that was that. A few minutes later, another man came over with two packets, so I guess my plea did somewhat work out. Never underestimate my willingness to debase myself to get Leslie her ketchup.
Anyway, that’s all the funny language-barrier stories I have for now, so I’ll shift to talking about other memorable parts of the trip for me. In Salta, I was proud of myself for riding up the cable cars with Leslie to a hill overlooking the city. I’ve very afraid of heights, but I knew Leslie really wanted to take the cable cars and see the view, so I decided to put on a brave face and do my best. As we started ascending, I tried to take my mind off of the ride by focusing on my breathing. Leslie did a great job of calming me while taking in the sights, and eventually I got a bit more comfortable and was able to look around to take in the sights with her. On the cable car down, we were seated across from an old man and a little boy. I was only mildly embarrassed that this five-year-old was less scared than me, but that’s how irrational fears work. I logically knew in my mind that the cable car wasn’t going to fall out of the sky, but my body still reacts negatively to heights.
Me obviously about to fall to my death
While traveling in a foreign country, I did have a few culture shocks, although none were really too shocking. One thing that stuck out to me was the Argentinians’ relationship with cash. In the US, I always pay with card unless I absolutely have to use cash. In Argentina, it seemed like cash was a little more common. I assume this is maybe due to the inflation, but I don’t know enough about the Argentine economy to comment on that. Another thing I noticed (and thought was really cool) was the mate culture throughout the country. It seemed like everyone in Argentina drank mate with friends. Everywhere we went, whether it be a large city or small town, there were people drinking mate together. It’s this really cool cultural phenomenon that all Argentines share, and I don’t think we have anything like it in the US.
Another thing I noticed was the popularity of ham and queso in all their forms. A lot of restaurant had ham and queso sandwiches, which I didn’t bat an eye at, but Argentina even had ham and queso chips and little packages of ham-flavored crackers that kids can eat. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try those. I’m not a big ham guy, but I did end up eating multiple bags of the limited edition Lays Queso y Pimienta (cheese and pepper) chips. I lovingly referred to them as “messy chips” the entire time due to the dust they left behind, and because the bag has Lionel Messi’s face on it.
I’m realizing now that this has been a pretty long post, so I appreciate that you’re still with me (or skipped to the end) and I’ll try to wrap it up. As you’ve seen in Leslie’s previous posts, we had some incredible views all over the country, and we also got to eat some delicious food. My diet isn’t strictly vegan, but I was happy to eat at a lot of vegan-only restaurants so Leslie could have more options than French fries (without ketchup) and bread. The most memorable parts for me were the times I could just sit in peace with Leslie and take in the sights.
How can you beat this view?
I just want to end by saying that Leslie truly made this trip what it was: amazing. We joked that she came off as the controlling girlfriend who always ordered for her boyfriend, but in reality, she often had the difficult task of translating menus for me and then rechecking with me when waiters asked her questions. Traveling in Argentina was obviously hard for me sometimes because I didn’t speak the language, but it was tougher for Leslie because she had to do double duty by speaking Spanish for herself and for me. I know she doesn’t want to brag about her Spanish skills, but I watched her talk to people all over Argentina for three weeks, so I can say that she’s really, really good at it. I’m incredibly grateful that I got to spend this time with her and that she helped me through my first international trip. It wasn’t always easy, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without her there to laugh at me for asking a man if ‘hermanos’ like us can use this changing room.
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