The Curse of Buenos Aires

I have now spent a week in Buenos Aires. Most of my time here has been spent partying and randomly meeting people I had met elsewhere durring my trip. It has been very nice, but I have now been sucked in to the city. There is something about Buenos Aires that makes you want to stay. I have met people in my hostel that have been here for six months, and as exessive as that sounds, I can really see how that could happen...

In other news, I was supposed to be meeting some friends here in order to move up to Iguazu. Complications have arrised which have prevented this from happening, however. One of the girls has had all of her stuff stolen. They were in Bariloche waiting for the bus to take them to Buenos Aires, when some guy came from behind her, and stole her bag containing her passport, visa, camera, etc. This poor girl is now stuck in Buenos Aires until she can get a replacement passport. She seems to think that it will take only a week, but I am slightly more pessimistic. Frankly, I am not sure if I can afford to wait here much longer. I do not want to end up like those girls who have been in Buenos Aires for 6 months.

My plans for the future are pretty unclear as of right now. I still want to go to Iguazu, but I might delay it for a week or two to reduce the amount of time I spend in Brazil. I keep hearing that it is very expensive up there, so the longer I delay it, the more money I will save.



Natali update:

I have received messages from many people about this poor girl, so for those who care, here's the latest. She managed to acquire a new passport with absolutely no problems, much to my surprise. The embassy wanted to give her what they call a passing permit, which would allow her to continue with her trip, but she would not be able to go to many countries. When they told her this she cried and cried until they finally caved and gave her a full passport. I'm surprised that worked, but good for her.

She is currently involved in a telephone battle with American Express to have her travellers cheques replaced. Apparently it takes them 72 hours to investigate the claim, and several weeks for the cheques to be replaced. Frankly I'm shocked and appalled by this. It also does not help that the people on the phone are infuriatingly unhelpful. Natali's english is not very good, so she has asked me to talk to them several times, and each time I have flashbacks of that bitch in Punta del Diablo. Only this time I have the capability to really lay it in to these people - so much so in fact, that one of them hung up on me.