Chapter 30: We're So Back
Headed to Argentina
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What’s up guys, hope the first month of 2022 has treated you well.
I bought a one-way ticket to Buenos Aires, Argentina earlier this month. I’m flying down there Monday, and I guess I’ll be there for six weeks or so. It’s hard to ditch that travel bug!
By the way, the flight from Atlanta to Argentina is the same time (10 hours) as a flight from London to Las Vegas. It is way tf down there.
In my last piece I said that I probably wouldn’t have time to update a travel blog anymore. It turns out that you can, in fact, make money writing online. Which is good, because I blew way too much money vagabonding around Europe in the fall.
While I will be spending more time working on other stuff, I couldn’t go to South America and not write about it. Where’s the fun in that?
I have no idea how often I will publish stuff here, but I will, most definitely, be publishing stuff here.
So why Argentina?
Great question. I studied Spanish in college, and I realized when I was backpacking Spain that my Spanish is now total trash. It’s summertime in South America, and covid restrictions are non-existent right now.
And then my good friend Mike Slavei, aka Canadian Mike, hit me up asking if I wanted to go to Central/South America.
This is Mike, for those who are new here. Mike likes to have a good time.
See, Mike is from Toronto. Toronto sucks right now because it’s cold, and covid restrictions are actually approaching maximum security-prison levels. I hear if you eat in a restaurant they’ll shoot you up there.
*Sarcasm. Maybe.*
Mike said something about Mexico or Colombia. I said, “How about Buenos Aires?”
Argentina has fantastic food. Great music. Beautiful beaches. Incredible mountains. And a bunch of other stuff that we don’t actually know about because we haven’t been.
Maybe we’ll go hike in the Patagonia region. Maybe we’ll tear up some dance floors (we’ve both been taking Salsa lessons!) Maybe we’ll fly down to Antarctica, because we’ll be right next to it.
Idk what we’ll do, but it’s going to be so sick.
So I’m flying down Monday. Mike is in Mexico right now, and he’s meeting me next week. In the meantime, I booked a hostel with a rooftop pool for the week. No more dorm rooms though, I will be staying in private rooms for the foreseeable future.
It’s summer time down there, seasons are inverted.
When Mike arrives, we’ll stay in an Airbnb for 5 weeks or so.
Want to come bool in Argentina? Hit me up. We have a couch with your name on it, and a lot of cool stories that haven’t happened yet, but probably should.
Living standards may have upgraded (private rooms and Airbnbs certainly beat 8 person dorms with a bunch of randos), but I can assure you that the shenanigans abroad will be the same. This should be a fun one.
Vamos Argentina!
-Jack
PS, I will be moving this newsletter from Substack to another platform called “beehiiv” next week. Should be a seamless transition, just a heads up though.
See below for the previous and next chapter:
Chapter 29: Reflection. | Backpackin'
115 days abroad. 10 back home. Time to reflect.
https://www.backpackin.blog/p/chapter-29-reflection
Chapter 31: Viva Argentina | Backpackin'
Back like we never left. Spanish is really hard. Argentina is sick.