In the winter of 2008, I was working in New York City and had just finished booking my 2nd trip to South America. My first had been to Ecuador in October of that year. My friend Margaret was doing an extended fellowship in Ecuador and Argentina studying organic and medicinal gardening. Booking my ticket with Frequent Flyer miles, I flew LGA-ATL-EZE.
The best way to see a country is to experience it to integrate yourself as best as possible. Since my friend was studying in Cordoba, and flying was prohibitively expensive, and train service between Buenos Aires and Cordoba was spotty at best at the time, and inconveniently timed. So I decided that I would rent a car. I managed to squeak out a deal with unlimited mileage (or as they say in Argentina, Kilometraje libre), and when I touched down, I assumed there would be a rental counter.
Unfortunately, not only was there no rental counter for the company I rented with, but none of the other rental counters had even heard of the company. Only when I convinced one of the other counters to let me use their cellphone to call, did I determine I was actually renting through Thrifty, and they were off site. An hour and a half wasted, and it turned out there was a guy waiting in the terminal with a little card with my name on it, I just failed to see that. I managed to get over to the rental agency, and rent my vehicle. From there, I got vague directions about how to get to where I wanted to go (About 800km (497 miles)) away.
From the Rio de la Plata to the Pampas
I was driving to the city of Cordoba, where I would meet up with my friend, and we would spend some time there before returning to Buenos Aires. So all told, I would be driving about 1600km on this trip. At first intimidating, I quickly realized that the highways in Argentina, especially in down town Buenos Aires, were much like any other big city. I was comfortable after some time, and luckily the directions were good.
As I left the city and entered the completely flat expanse of the Pampas, it dawned on me how large the world really was. Perhaps this is the experience of a city-dweller in the US first seeing the vast flat expanse of Kansas, but to be in South America and see the unbelievable variety of environments, from crowded Buenos Aires, to mountainous Ecuador, and now, utterly flat and cow filled Pampas, was awe-inspiring.
Oh, and there was no speed limit.
For the only time in my life, I could see no obvious speed enforcement. Of course, I also saw no other cars. Wide flat highways that ran up to Cordoba were utterly empty. (25% of people in the country live in Buenos Aires) And so, on the straightest, flattest piece of road I found, I decided to set my own speed record. With the 2-door sedan I had, I managed 168Kph, which works out to just over 100 miles per hour. And I didn’t limit myself for safety reasons (there was literally nothing to hit as far as the eye could see), the car simply would not go faster. I passed the time by keeping track of how fast I would travel a kilometer with a stop watch. (About 25 seconds).
+++
If you enjoyed this post, click below to refer me on StumbleUpon. You can also follow me on Twitter.
probably going there next Feb, so, good to keep this in mind!
It’s a really great trip. One of the true underrated countries in the world. Only downside is the long and usually expensive flight. Also, because of US visa regulations, there is now a $150 visa charge to visit.