Seeking Argentina

Argentina is famous among overlanders for its free or low cost municipal campgrounds. Chichinales has its own well shaded facility and we spent a night here. The pool was closed; don’t get excited. 

The toilets were open as well as a cold shower but I have to admit I have not seen one of these since I was in France half a century ago. I never did miss them either. 

The free campground is a nice touch but Argentina is a tough country to travel through with your camper. It is not Chile, not one bit. Chile is clean tidy and organized with good roads and high prices. Argentina is the most expensive country in South America that we have come across (Uruguay is said to be pricier) but it is not doing well. 

It’s not easy to get to talk to Argentines in random encounters as they shy away and get a look of panic in their eyes if you try to talk to them. We have had conversations obviously along this very long road and I have pieced together an unsettling view of Argentina. 

It’s annoying to pass through as a tourist in a country with crumbling infrastructure and mildly irritating bureaucracy but to live here is to know pain. If people do open up its to acknowledge the country’s failure, their inability to function collectively coherently and there is a curtain of shame behind which they hide. It really is painful to see it up close.

In 1982 the generals running the country decided the Falklands War would be a good distraction from the sorry mess that was the economy. That plan went wrong and the generals got overthrown and replaced by a civilian democratic government. But you know things didn’t go well because subsequent presidents keep bringing up the Falklands and there’s only one reason for that. 

In 2001 Argentina defaulted on its obligations and a struggling economy went catatonic. It took until 2015 to sort of sort out the bondholders claims but in 2020 the country defaulted on another half billion dollar loan.  So you can see why in 2023 when a performance artist with a shock of hair and 18th century side burns who said he could fix this once and for all got elected president. Everyone was fed up with the old order. Just like the United States in 2024. 

Unlike Argentina the United States had a functioning if ill balanced economy but slash and burn will have the same effect and I can tell you Argentina is not a happy place even though their government operates in surplus. 

I lived a work life of stagnating wages and no clear future until I got to Key West where my wife worked out a plan which we have been living. I never expected to see my life raft sink behind me but here we are in one messed up economy watching our own get torn down. Unlike a lot of people I am not convinced billionaires want to rebuild it bigger and better for working peoples’ benefit. But there again I’ve listened for years to people telling me the second amendment prevented a government take over. Apparently they too were bluffing. 

Argentines aren’t armed. Violent crime is on the rise even as fewer police are on the streets. We keep hearing from overlanders whose vehicles have been broken into so we never leave GANNET2 alone on public streets or parking areas. We don’t camp on the streets either choosing campgrounds or isolated wild camps far from city limits. Worrying like this is not how I like to travel 

I think what makes theft so unfashionable in Argentina is how much the country has slipped. They like to think of themselves, like Chileans, as Europeans but when you look around you see the sort of social decay common in poorer countries like Peru and Ecuador. Cars run on bald tires and rust patches, lines are long outside government buildings and gas stations, shopping in the supermarket is an exercise in frustration with a mixture of high prices (higher than the US) and empty shelves. We try to buy as little as possible. New tires for $250 each are available in Chile while here in Argentina I’ve been quoted $700 for one. We must get a new headlight bulb so we’re going to look for one in Mendoza because you have to keep headlights on in day time and I don’t like using my high beams as I get occasional irritated headlight flashes back. God knows how much it will cost. 

We don’t eat out much and when we try to buy off street vendors a sandwich we share might cost six dollars. The minimum wage here is three times less than the US, so imagine it costing $18 at home.

It’s just untenable but it is also a little scary. We are postponing a visit to Buenos Aires until next year hoping things will be better. If you walk the streets you must keep your phone on a leash to try to avoid it being snatched out of your hand. Petty theft is rampant we have been warned. As bad as it may be for us it must be hell for residents. 

I dread the thought of a similar descent into a lower level of economic insecurity at home. President Milei here has promised a better future but after two years of his chain saw attacks on government the people I spoke to are exhausted. 

I wanted to like Argentina a lot more than other countries and I expected to love it here. Through the grime and the frustration I can see what was, and for me the current state of affairs is a disappointment not a disaster. We got here two years too late, a time when the cost of living was low, the government was overspending and the elections were ahead and people had hope. 

It’s odd to me how the United States had a functioning economy, a growing stock market and investment plans and the voters threw it all away. I paid attention when the elders said you needed to save for retirement but now I learn I was a parasite at my union supoorted government job. I’m glad I’ve gone but our carefully crafted retirement seems at risk of dismemberment by an unelected billionaire playing Monopoly with our lives. And being cheered on by his next victims. 

We seem to have found our way in South America learning to be nomads in societies where summer camping is much enjoyed but permanence in a camper van is an oddity. We both still enjoy this life with all its challenges and are glad to be away from the intolerance of the US. 

The man in the photo above  came in to clean the campground after a long weekend of families enjoying the woods. His three dogs followed him around playing and barking at the grumpy old American dog who didn’t want to play. We talked a little about our trip and I joked about how quiet this private park was. Private? he said…this is public. Yes I said but we get to enjoy it alone so it’s as good as private. He looked around nodding. The locals had left as had the friendly Brazilians in their van. We were alone. 

The night before a nice lady waiting for her husband to bring the car back advised us to move to the other end of the campground where the lights came on at night. It’s safe here she said but it’s better near the lights so we moved. Layne was up at two in the morning and saw a police car on patrol. 

We are moving north slowly into central Argentina and indeed we were camped in the north bank of the Rio Negro which is generally accepted to be the northern boundary of Argentine Patagonia. So technically we are out of the region we originally set out to visit. New countryside awaits us. 

And they say the further north you go the poorer Argentina becomes. 

This journey might get interesting as we approach Bolivia, the poorest of them all.