We tucked our four return tickets into our bags, and left the booth with considerably more money left over than I had thought we would. This was a great relief because things have been a might tight around here with the falling blue rate. Good news, kids: Fresh fruit, helados, weekly street tortillas and mate are back on the menu!!!
Finally, some good news, followed by yet another unpleasant surprise ending... read on, dear reader, to discover why there are no photos with this blog post!!! (Ugh!)
After haggling an arbolito on Florida street up to 10.3 (it helped that we had nearly $2000 USD to exchange), the boys and I headed down to Retiro to buy our bus tickets to Salta, the destination they had chosen for their birthday adventure... And -- YIPPEE -- we found a bus line that sells both first class (i.e. fully reclining seats; very important for a 20-hour bus ride) tickets and allegedly offers free wifi enroute (granted, the lady mimed to me that the Internet was only semi-reliable, depending on where along the route the bus was....) But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's return to Florida street.... The blue rate has been unbelievably shitty lately (I yearn for the days of 12.2, back in early February...) But we needed to exchange $ to buy those bus tickets, and according to my sources, the rate was "up" to 10.2 today. So off we went, hundred dollar bills safely tucked away in various bags and inner pockets. I decided to try a street crier today, since our usual guy is honest, but does not always give the best rate. The first guy we stopped told me 10:1. I raised my eyebrows at him, and he then told me 10.2. I suggested 10.3, and he said no way. I started to walk away, and he quickly saw the error of his ways and suggested 10.28. I told him how much money we had on us to exchange, and he agreed that 10.3 sounded fair. We followed our new friend into some side street office, where we began pulling out our money. The guy behind the counter started counting out stacks of 100 peso bills which he slid under the glass to me, and which I, in turn, slid across the counter for the boys to first count and then check for fakes. (175 bills to individually check in total. No small feat for two 10-year-olds!!!) After counting the first pile of ten 100-peso bills, Simon whispered to me, "Mommy, this one has 11". I had him count it again, and then I counted it. Yep, 11. STOP AND THINK: What would YOU do? (C'mon... be honest!!) I took the bill and slid it back under the glass. The guy behind the counter assumed I wanted to exchange it for another, and wordlessly did so. I shoved the new bill back at him, and explained to him in my broken Spanish that it was too much, he had given me too many bills in this stack. You should have seen the look on his face, and on the face of the street crier (the latter was still hanging around, hoping for a tip)!!! :D "You are very honest!" he exclaimed, "Thank you!" I made sure they knew we were Canadian. Then we got back to counting and checking. All good, with the possible exception of a bill in one of the middle piles. I elected to give that one to our arbolito as a tip, since, after all, he had waited around patiently while we checked every single bill, and truth be told, he had probably not made much from that exchange, since I had driven him to a rate higher than most (he'd had words with the guy behind the counter when we had first come in, and had to argue with him about the rate he'd promised us). Besides, I figured, if it was a fake, then he'd lose at his own game. We stuffed our 17 thousand pesos and change into various pockets and bags, making sure to lock all zippers and strap the bags on tight. Then we headed back out into the busy street, Mommy holding boys' hands. (It's a lot of money to walk around town with, hehe, and we're starting to look familiar to people.) Alex noted, "Mommy, when I was young, I never knew stuff like this existed"! After a quick stop for frozen yogourt and money recounting and organizing in the lockable family washroom at Galleria Pacifico (we took a photo, but...), it was on to Terminal Omnibus Retiro, to see if there was any other bus company than the horribly named Flechabus that might possibly offer "Cama Suite" to Salta. (Sorry, we just could not bring ourselves to ride on something with "flesh" in its name!! And also, the reviews online were crap.) After passing a company called "Dumb Ass Cat" (I kid you not, I have a photo to prove it, but can't post it on the blog -- more on that later... keep reading, kids), we finally found the recently-rumoured, wifi-offering Balut bus company. Small booth. Micro-company. Good. VERY GOOD: Discount when paying "effectivo" (cash), and yes, (sketchy) wifi, and yes, vegetarian meals, and yes, fully reclining seats, and yes, availability of front row (window) seats there and back! SOLD! We tucked our four return tickets into our bags, and left the booth with considerably more money left over than I had thought we would. This was a great relief because things have been a might tight around here with the falling blue rate. Good news, kids: Fresh fruit, helados, weekly street tortillas and mate are back on the menu!!! We had to hustle to get home in time to Skype with Daddy, so we decided to take the more direct Mitre train (2 stops), rather than press onto the overcrowded subway where we'd have to switch trains (approx 11 stops). Things had been going surprisingly well, so something had to give. And here's where our great day starts to go down the toilet, quite literally... At the train station, we made a bathroom stop, and as I was leaning over to flush the toilet, my keys and PHONE FELL INTO THE URINE-FILLED TOILET!!!! ARRRGHHHHH!!! SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE?! I fished it out of the bowl, quick as I could, and gave it a rinse off at the sink -- no soap in most public washrooms, and risk of getting things wetter, but sorry, I'm not going home with a PEE PHONE!!! And of course no paper towel either, so I rubbed the water-rinsed pee phone and keys "dry" on my jacket and we got on the train. Stupidly (I read later you're not supposed to do this!) I turned the phone on to see if it was working. Not so well: Flickering, some parts of screen would not work to touch, calendar shut down... ugh! I pried open the Otterbox case, and sure enough, more water (pee?! Ugh!) needed to be wiped off the phone. So I wiped it all down and put it in the rice whence it will have to stay until at least Friday night, I am told (I think I have a job interview at 9 a.m. that day... can't check my calendar now!!!) Then I thoroughly washed and disinfected the Otterbox components, which I am cautiously optimistic will soon house my gloriously working iPhone once more. (I cannot believe I turned it on. And that I didn't remove the case before we got home. Stupid me. Anyway. That's why there are no photos with this post. They are in the rice, along with the phone!) So those of you following along, please send prayers and/or positive vibes our way, that the rice does its magic and dries out/revives the phone. Otherwise, we are camera-less, map-less, music-less, helpless gringos lost in BsAs. I've already suffered enough with the theft of the laptop and iPad this month, must I lose my only lifeline left???!!! :( Oh well, at least we got 10.3 and cheap bus tix! Now that's okay! :)
2 Comments
Tats
4/23/2014 01:57:57 pm
Oh my! What an adventure. Good to know about the bus tickets, yay! :)
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Vera
4/24/2014 12:14:40 pm
It's the thrill of the chase, baby, the thrill of the chase -- I got 10.3!!! :D Anyway, just be thankful we're not riding dumb ass cat to Salta, lol!
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About Vera...Canadian, vegetarian, PPL, certified teacher and mother of twins, home schooling for the year, in Argentina!
Visit me online at www.verateschow.ca Archives
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