It's probably a common assumption that not being able to pay for your dinner at a restaurant is all around embarrassing for everyone involved.  But after tonight, I can assure you that it's only embarrassing for the person who is supposed to be carrying the cash.

Before I spill the gory details, I thought I would at least let you know what we had. My favorite Peruvian dish is Lomo Saltado which Elizabeth orders along with a Peruvian drink called Chicha Morada (made from purple corn, delicious and similar in taste to apple cider).  I order the Ceviche de Mariscos (fish, shrimp, clams and octopus "cooked" by the acidity of lemon juice) and a Pepsi (didn't see that they had Inca Kola, a yellow Peruvian cola that tastes like Big Red).

I tell you this because had we even considered we only had $95 pesos in cash, we could have order a number of other items and been fine, but we made zero attempt, absolutely none, to do so.  Apparently, our euphoria of finding a Peruvian restaurant while in a new part of town was too strong to consider such mundane things.

Once I had realized that my rough estimate of our bill would be more then we had I had for the bill, hoping for some billing miracle but we were on the hook for $105 pesos. With a confirmation that they didn't take credit cards, I was scrambling for some sort of translation of "I'm an idiot and we don't have enough cash. Is there an ATM nearby".

I left Elizabeth behind as an international sign of "good faith" while I ran down the street.  Three different banks and a half mile later, I returned in defeat.  The single ATM card I had on me wasn't working at any of our normal banks. "Invalid operation"??

I'm stuck with three crappy options.  1) Get Elizabeth's attention through the window and gesture somehow that she needs to make a run for it; 2) use my debit car to purchase a Pepsi next door to replace my $10 peso Pepsi; or 3) Suck it up and tell them we will return tomorrow with the $10 pesos and tip.

Of coarse I picked option 3.  My apology was apparently a great show because everyone was smiling ear to ear (the waiter, the owner and Elizabeth).  So tomorrow, we have the pleasure of retracing our steps to find this mystical Peruvian restaurant to clear our balance.  But the waiter will have to wait to get his tip from the owner, because he doesn't work again until Wednesday.

 I guess a plug for their website is also in order: El Cocoroco

Two weeks ago, we received word that our apartment owner was raising our rent 20% ($3200 pesos to $4000 pesos).  Not uncommon because inflation is a constant part of life here in Argentina.  The government numbers put it at around 10% a year, but most 3rd party economists think it's somewhere around 30%.

Unwilling to afford the extra $400 pesos, our roommates have decided to search for a cheaper living situation.  Since we aren't wanting to take over the entire apartment ourselves, our move out date is April 30th as well.  We've enjoyed living here, but we're also now on a search for a new place to call home.

There are many websites available to find an apartment or to find a roommate in Argentina.  Here are some of the ones that we have been using.

CompartoDepto --  Advertisements directly from people looking to fill a spare bedroom.

Craigslist - Most ads are real estate brokers/agents, especially for furnished apartments, but there are a few that are directly from owners. Also Craigslist isn't commonly used by Argentinians, so you will most likely see higher prices geared toward traveler with dollars/euros instead of an Argentinian student.  Searching isn't easy because of the tendency to list prices in pesos sometimes and other times in dollars. Generally you can distinguish the difference (ie $2000 pesos = $500 dollars) but it makes it harder to filter the list down especially because about a quarter of the ads show a weekly price instead of monthly.


Spare Rooms BA - They act as a middleman to pair up people with a room and the people looking for one for a small $55 commission. Easy to search the barrios you want and narrow down the listings which offer the amenities you consider a must haves (WiFi, A/C, double bed, etc).  Also the profiles are usually very complete. We had a problem filtering down the results that fit our desired rental period.  While we specified the next 3 months, it still showed apartments not available. 


Room Argentina  - Allows you to not only look for shared apartments but also individual furnished apartments. They have a wide variety of apartments sizes and price ranges.

4 Rent Argentina  - Allows you to look for shared apartments, individual furnished apartments, guesthouses and hotels.

Buenos Aires Habitat  Allows you to search from studios up to 3 bedroom apartments. Very nice apartments more than we want to pay

Baires Apartments  Allows you to search from budget to luxury apartments

Over the past 2 weeks, we've sent out a lot of correspondence but have only received a response from a handful.  So far, we've visited 2 apartment but neither we close enough to perfect that would make us jump on the opportunity.  Also, they weren't really in an area I am dying to live in.

Keep your fingers crossed because we have 6 days until our bags are on the curb.

Well, this past weekend, we did it.  We ran the FILA 10K in Palermo.  So we can now crossed it off our Argentina To-Do List.  

Over the past few years Elizabeth and I have ran a few 5Ks here an there, but neither of us would consider ourselves to be a runner. Mostly because we usually make more plans to run then we actually keep. 

La Boca is probably Buenos Aires' most well known barrio, located in the south-east corner of the city.  It's famous for a few reasons; a very small street called Caminito, home to the Boca Juniors' soccer team, the birth places of Tango and last but not least its dangerous reputation.


Fact is there is no bigger tourist haven/trap in Argentina then Caminto, which is why it's taken us 3 months to get over there.  Caminito and some side streets around it are well known for their cobble stone streets surrounded by brightly colored immigrant housing.  They were originally painted using whatever paint they could find left over at the docks nearby, or so the story goes. Today, the colorful building remain but the area is now filled with restaurants, pairs of tango dancers, and side-by-side souvinoer shops that go on forever.  Sounds fun until you notice you can't walk by a single person without an insistent request to take a photo or sit and buy a drink.  While the sights are more interesting then a Mexican border town market, it's just as off putting. 

Since leaving Oklahoma on January 10th 2011 Terry and I, have been walking almost everywhere.  It's not that we don't like to take a bus or the subway here or there, but right now all we have is time so why not walk and see the city at a foots pace  

Here are some photo highlights of our 400 miles
 
Miles 0 - 12 Washington D.C. USA