“There’s nothing to worry about, but it’s no longer safe to fly this plane” – the comforting phrase of the Captain of Aerolineas Argentinas flight from Puerto Iguazu to Buenos Aires.

Ya having a giggle. How ever many thousand of feet above the ground and that bloke tells me that.. About twenty minutes into the flight and we’ve had to chuck a U’ey and head back to Puerto Iguazu airport. Waited an hour until “we think we’ve fixed the problem” and decided to give it another shot. Think? You better bloody KNOW you’ve fixed it, not think you’ve fixed it. We returned to our seats and took off. The first attempt to fly to Buenos Aires I was high and proud that I had managed to snag an emergency exit row seat for extra leg room. Not so glad anymore. Everyone sitting in the same row as me were reading up on how to bail from the plane if need be whilst we’re still flying. Never seen so much concentration in my life, except perhaps when I was in charge of the cordial to water ratio as a kid. One real smart joker sitting next to me said that if we crashed we would land in the river like the US pilot did in the Hudson not too many years ago. I reminded him of the INSANE waterfalls he had visited the past few days and told him how I don’t think I’d really appreciate falling with that torrent. It would make an unreal photo for everyone else watching though.

Finally made it to Buenos Aires where there was a forty minute wait to get a taxi from the airport to downtown. Tried my luck out on the street hoping I wouldn’t pick up a fake taxi. The thing is that you never know if it’s a fake taxi or not until you’re being held hostage by a dodgy cop or some massive blokes yelling at you in Spanish (these are the stories I’ve heard from others on my travels). The thing that worried me the most was the excuse of a massive crash on the freeway and massive delays which meant we had to take ‘shortcuts’ through the ghettos of Buenos Aires. I was made aware of this massive crash by official airport staff but it still didn’t make me feel any better.

I didn’t stay long in Buenos Aires, only two days, but the time I spent there I enjoyed. I walked to Florida Street where I changed money. It was a different kind of money exchange though. Walking down a courtyard with shops hanging off the side and other courtyards adjoining, blokes would yell to you something in Spanish; pretty sure it was ‘cambio’. I walked up to one of the blokes who gave me his phone with the calculator application open. I typed in how many US Dollars I had on me in cash – $200. He looked at his phone, gave it back to me so I could type in what I wanted the exchange rate to be. Officially the exchange rate is approximately 6.5 Peso’s to 1 US Dollar. I typed in 10 to 1. The guy looked at it and laughed before typing in 9.8 of which I happily accepted. He laughed at my offer as though that was ridiculous even though he offered it at a rate that was going to give me 4 US Dollars less. Muppet. He led me down one of the adjoining courtyards and into a completely frosted glassed office/shop where I traded my money. I checked that the notes were real before I left. It was the most legitimate black market I have ever heard of. Everybody does it and even though it’s illegal, the whole country runs on it so the cops turn a bit of a blind eye to it. It was a transaction I never have made and never again will make unless I go back to Argentina.

The first day I did a walking tour to San Telmo where we finished it by having a feed. Actually we didn’t even really see that much along the way. Now I think about it all we did was walk to a restaurant and have lunch. Also had dinner around that joint. Had the juiciest tenderloin that made the meat in Argentina live up to its name.

Second day I went to La Boco. Everything I had pictured in my head of Buenos Aires can alive here. Colourful street art and houses scattered the neighbourhood. It was unreal! Unfortunately the weather was grim but I didn’t let that take away from enjoying it. The glass was certainly more than half full because of the torrential rain.

In La Boca we visited the football (soccer) stadium where every fan who fills its seats during the football season is an absolute lunatic. Google La Boca Stadium and you’ll be able to get an understanding just how mental it gets there. It’s the offseason at the moment so unfortunately I didn’t get to see a game but imagining the atmosphere was more than enough. Would love to experience a game though.

Unfortunately I cut my stay too short in Buenos Aires and I didn’t see the whole city as I would have liked to. Would love to come back here with someone one day and continue to explore.