Friday we have rented an Airbnb in the capital city of Argentina. We will share it with friends from the States until next Wednesday morning and because the city has a terrible reputation for theft and vehicle break ins we are doing what lots of overlanders do and we are parking GANNET2 safely in the suburbs.
It was an uneventful drive from our street camp by the river in the town with the unpronounceable name.
We had some shopping to do owing to the strip down our fridge got at the border and this supermarket chain is familiar to us from Peru oddly enough.
The odd thing was when Layne returned to the bat cave bearing two shopping bags she didn’t start moaning immediately about the prices.
Our memories of Argentine Patagonia last year were colored by high prices and poor quality in the supermarkets.
In this northern area of Argentina especially of course being close to the capital, we’re finding more reasonable prices abc better selection and it’s a relief. Imagine visiting Alaska and thinking what you find there is mainstream America so we were a bit naive.
Our drive was estimated at two and a half hours by Google Maps, mercifully bypassing downtown Buenos Aires (“pleasant breezes”) to get to the rv storage and camping site. It was the usual flatland drive. The gringo butcher (!):
The classic Argentine gaucho beret.
A military base:
Our route took us over two rivers on two suspension bridges in the style of the Sunshine Skyway.
While the other is simply the Paraná the biggest river in the south of the continent. It’s been suffering from historic low levels attributed to climate ate change which has been making commercial navigation more difficult.
There is a railroad bridge alongside at a slightly less steep angle. However it was soon apparent the rails are abandoned.
We took a lunch break and had a salami and cheese sandwich. Rusty sat outside enjoying the grass and the view and took his well earned rest
There were a few roadside stands selling local products.
Layne went shopping again while Rusty and I enjoyed the day.
It was northern she expected but it was a wild ride through dust catcher heaven. She always asks for a photo and the sales people almost always say yes with a smile.
She found a nice hard cheese and an aged salami and they were good, surprisingly.
We also started seeing lots of assorted RVs on the road. Argentine families love to go camping and the country is littered with cheap municipal campgrounds. Below we see “the little old grandparents” presumably dissipating the grandkids’ inheritance.
Need a “burga”? 100% beef…
The left hand lane was much smoother than the lane on the right which takes most of the abuse from the 18 wheelers. I didn’t a lot of time digging in and out of the left lane to spare us the bumps.
We skirted the capital city on the freeway and at last turned off and found ourselves in a wooded suburb.
It was an odd area to have an RV business but sure enough it exists and we found it. GANNET2 will be secure while we are in Buenos Aires.
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