The roads in Buenos Aires are massive! Photo by: Evan Berman

Travel is, by nature, unpredictable. Whether it be the restaurant is out of your favorite food at the cruise buffet or you are stranded for a week because of a missed flight, we have all had experiences to look back upon and laugh now that the situation has thankfully been resolved! One of my favorite recent experiences occurred during my travels to South America in November. The accompanying post reviews the stay in Buenos Aires, but this story is worthy of its own article!

Background

Buenos Aires was the last stop on the South American Adventure. We had been in South America for 6 days and I had spent a long day travelling from Patagonia to Buenos Aires. At approximately 8:45pm local time, I got into a taxi and gave the driver the address of the home that we were staying in that weekend. And we’re off!

Driving Me Crazy

The driver was an older man who seemed very friendly and happy to be driving. Spanish in Buenos Aires is spoken extremely fast and often a consonant is omitted at the end of a word. I am conversational in Spanish and my French comes in handy with both hearing and speaking. I put my suitcase in the trunk and sat down in the backseat as so often happens. Once we were inside, I noticed the divider screen that was used in the early stages of COVID was still up in between the front and rear seats. It was amusing to me, given how filthy both the divider and the air was that this could be thought of as being helpful, but I digress.

Once we were in the car, the man asked me for directions since the name of the homestay would not help. I told him the address as well as the cross streets, and he seemed to know where that was. We were off, or so I thought.

He drifted into the lane next to us and was promptly honked at by the taxi driver to our right. Fun fact: in Buenos Aires, a certain hand gesture while driving means the same thing as it does in Italian (I think that’s “wow your driving skills are excellent?”)!

The driver asked me several times about taking the tunnel. I was very confused and assumed I simply misunderstood his Spanish. To my defense, the filthy screen separating the driver from the backseat made it difficult to hear what he said. I simply repeated “no creo que tu necesita el tunnel” (I don’t think you need the tunnel.”

Once it was time to take the third exit at the roundabout (left), he took the first one (right). It was then that I realized he had no idea where we were going. The rest of the trip was amusing– I guided him using Waze on my nearly dead phone (7% battery), giving directions in Spanish, and we finally arrived at 9:15pm, 30 minutes later!

When we arrived, he insisted on getting out of the car, giving me a hug, and thanking me. The fare was 1,631 pesos but he would not accept any more than 1,600 pesos! The icing on the cake was the final comment he made (translated to English): “I might be a crazy old man but at least I got you here! Enjoy Buenos Aires and don’t worry, there are other drivers in this city!”

“Nak-Es”

Believe it or not, the fun was just beginning on this Friday night in Buenos Aires. We stayed in a home with several rooms available to stay in and it was after 9pm by the time I arrived.

A Wait at the Gate

My friend was awaiting my arrival since we were staying in a house, not a hotel. I messaged and called our host via WhatsApp to no avail. There was no way to enter the house other than with a key. After about 10 minutes of waiting and calling, we were starting to look at other options to spend the night.

Thankfully, a friendly group of Brazilians came out of the house as we were searching nearby hotels. They went inside and tried to find the host but came back about 5 minutes later with nothing. We went across the street to a lively craft beer and spirits bar and had a drink while we waited. After another missed call, they went to check for the host again. Apparently, he had been there the whole time in his room!

The Tour

Sergio finally came down to let us in and give us a tour. We thanked our new friends and told them we would meet them at the bar in a bit. We brought our bags up the steps and entered the large foyer. The house is a beautiful french maison with 2 floors and many rooms. It was not clear whether our host owned the place or was merely the manager. Whatever the case, he lived in the house as well.

Sergio was an interesting man. He insisted on showing us the kitchen and pulled out drawers and opened cabinets to show where various plates and glasses were located despite our insistence that we would not be using cooking or using the kitchen. After about 5 minutes (!), we were taken upstair to our room.

The Room

During the booking process, I had chosen a room with 2 twin beds and a queen. He sent me a message confirming that my 1 twin bed had been confirmed. After a quick explanation that I was there with a male friend of mine and wanted at least two beds, he apologized and updated the reservation.

Our room did have the 3 beds, though the queen bed humorously had a blanket but no sheets– just a plastic layer over the mattress! After showing us the admittedly beautiful windows, he pointed out that by lowering the shades we could be “nak-es” in the room. To clarify: he took the time to close both shades, make the comment, then open the shades up again! This, of course, was after showing the bar right across the street. Apparently, according to our new Brazilian friends, he was very insistent that they could be “nak-es” as well.

The Payment

You might have read the previous section and thought that Sergio did not speak English and was trying his best. Unfortunately, that was not the case– he spoke fluent English (other than when he did not want to answer a question 🙂 ). Booking.com charges your credit card upon arrival, not before. I have stayed in many places and have never had an issue with that. He asked how we wanted to pay and I indicated that it should be done through booking.com.

After some back and forth, I offered my Sapphire Reserve card and he disappeared for a while, ostensibly to charge the card. About 7 minutes later, Sergio returned and told me the card would not work. He was not at all concerned and after I told him that I had been using the card throughout South America without issue, he accepted my Custom Cash card and tried again. Another 5-7 minutes later, he returned with the same news and casually remarked “it’s possible my machine doesn’t work.” Not that it wasn’t currently working, that it did not at all work!

I had a great idea. We were running low on Argentine Pesos but still had USD. I asked if I gave him a $100 bill, how much would he value that in pesos. After some hemming and hawing, he said 1:300! The price that he quoted in pesos was about 32,000. I offered a $100 bill and a 1,000 peso note as a token of good faith and he accepted. To reiterate: we were fully expecting to pay $183.79 and with the conversion rate from before (1:285), paid $103.51! Now that’s a deal!

The Final Chapter

With our tour finally over, roughly 20 minutes after we were allowed to enter the house, we quickly unpacked and headed back to the bar to join our friends. We had many wonderful drinks and made some great memories. Read the review of my time in Buenos Aires to hear about the rest of this part of the trip!

What did you think? Have you had similarly crazy stories? Let me know! And stay posted– there will be many more to come. 🙂

Evan