Day 141-142: Part 1 Road Trip (Chajari, Posadas)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
My mom's in town for the next 10 days so we decided to make a trip to the North of Buenos Aires. If we'd accepted the advice of the conventional traveler for our road trip to Puerto Iguazu, we'd have found ourselves on either an hour and half plane ride or an 18 hour bus ride (each way). But instead we bucked the system for secret option number 3 and rented a car for the week it would take us to make the round trip. Solely as reference, the distance is roughly the same as a round trip from Oklahoma City to Phoenix or a one way trip to Portland, Maine (which is 400 miles further then driving directly to New York City from OKC).
Renting a car in Buenos Aires is not cheap. Overall, it cost us about U$70/day for the rental and U$50/day in gas. We rented our Volkswagen Golf 5 door from Tango Rental Cars, which was half the cost of the global brands like Hertz. One reason this company it was cheaper was because they don't have locations at either airport and operated out of a sky-rise in Nunez (with their car lot located 3 blocks away). Defiantly strange renting a car from the 18th floor. Although the deposit of U$1125 was the ceiling of what we were responsible for in all cases (ie theft or damage), it was still nerve racking at time driving in a foreign land.
When driving on the highways in Argentina, most every town you cross operates their own Police Control stop, which is generally a mobile office and three cops standing in the center of the road. Most wave you past after checking you for seat belts, but they can stop you to ask for your license, registration and insurance. Normally this is a painless process of slowing down but within our first 3 hours of driving, I had already received my first international traffic fine. No Observar Las Reglas de Uso De Luces - driving without my daytime running lights on. This should have been an easy one to avoid since we had already been warned by at least 3 different sources. Everyone in our car was fully aware that this was the law, but the butterflies of day one caused me to overlook it.
When the officer stopped us he informed me it was because of my lights and needed me to step out of the car and follow him to his office. At this point, I was sure it would just be a warning after he checked me documents, but I wasn't so lucky. He showed me a fine of U$130 if I paid him right then or U$175 if I didn't have the money and took my ticket to the National Bank. At this time, I assumed he was just making up these numbers and was trying to shake me down for some personal spending money. I told him I didn't have that much on me. I had only U$100 on me at the time so I would have to take option number 2 of paying at the bank. He asked if I had any other prior infractions, which I said no, so he discounted my fine to U$77. When I agreed to pay, he took me over to a second officer seated behind a computer. At this point, I figured out that I had just received a legitimate ticket as this 2nd officer was now entering all of my information into their database and printed me out a receipt. Lesson fully learned. From then on, I announced to the car every time we started driving - Lights are on.
Our stop for the evening was the small town of Chajari. This area is known for it termas (hot springs) and all along the highway are numerous towns advertising their hot springs. We picked Chajari because our tutor had previously recommended it to us and the city had recently built a gated park which included 7 pools, all hot spring fed. Inside the park, the city had sold land to private companies to built hotels, cabins, rental houses, etc. For $45, the three of us stayed in a small cabin within walking distance to the pools, where we soaked for the night. Elizabeth said it reminded her of summer camp.
In the morning, we set out for our next stop, Posadas. Posadas is a border town across the Rio Parana from Paraguay. We arrived to our hostel, Vuela el Pez, in the afternoon and because it was the low season we had a dorm room to ourselves at U$12/person. Instead of leaving the rental car on the street, we opted for the parking lot at U$2 an hour. We were under the impression that we would only be charged for the hours that the parking lot was open (730am - 9pm). But when I went to pick up the car in the morning, I was charged U$32 instead of the U$10 I was expecting. Since then I have checked out the cost of 24hr parking garages here in Buenos Aires and its less then $15/day. Oh well, call it the gringo tax.
Not really knowing what to expect from this city, we were pleasantly surprised how nice the main plaza, downtown and walkways along the river. Things were much cleaner and better kept them we were used to in Buenos Aires. It would definitely be a place to stop through again.
Stats:
Total Drive Time = 12 hours
Total Distance = 990 km
# of Toll Booths (Cost) = 6 (U$4.75)
# of Police Stops = 4
# of Tickets = 1
Renting a car in Buenos Aires is not cheap. Overall, it cost us about U$70/day for the rental and U$50/day in gas. We rented our Volkswagen Golf 5 door from Tango Rental Cars, which was half the cost of the global brands like Hertz. One reason this company it was cheaper was because they don't have locations at either airport and operated out of a sky-rise in Nunez (with their car lot located 3 blocks away). Defiantly strange renting a car from the 18th floor. Although the deposit of U$1125 was the ceiling of what we were responsible for in all cases (ie theft or damage), it was still nerve racking at time driving in a foreign land.
When driving on the highways in Argentina, most every town you cross operates their own Police Control stop, which is generally a mobile office and three cops standing in the center of the road. Most wave you past after checking you for seat belts, but they can stop you to ask for your license, registration and insurance. Normally this is a painless process of slowing down but within our first 3 hours of driving, I had already received my first international traffic fine. No Observar Las Reglas de Uso De Luces - driving without my daytime running lights on. This should have been an easy one to avoid since we had already been warned by at least 3 different sources. Everyone in our car was fully aware that this was the law, but the butterflies of day one caused me to overlook it.
When the officer stopped us he informed me it was because of my lights and needed me to step out of the car and follow him to his office. At this point, I was sure it would just be a warning after he checked me documents, but I wasn't so lucky. He showed me a fine of U$130 if I paid him right then or U$175 if I didn't have the money and took my ticket to the National Bank. At this time, I assumed he was just making up these numbers and was trying to shake me down for some personal spending money. I told him I didn't have that much on me. I had only U$100 on me at the time so I would have to take option number 2 of paying at the bank. He asked if I had any other prior infractions, which I said no, so he discounted my fine to U$77. When I agreed to pay, he took me over to a second officer seated behind a computer. At this point, I figured out that I had just received a legitimate ticket as this 2nd officer was now entering all of my information into their database and printed me out a receipt. Lesson fully learned. From then on, I announced to the car every time we started driving - Lights are on.
Our stop for the evening was the small town of Chajari. This area is known for it termas (hot springs) and all along the highway are numerous towns advertising their hot springs. We picked Chajari because our tutor had previously recommended it to us and the city had recently built a gated park which included 7 pools, all hot spring fed. Inside the park, the city had sold land to private companies to built hotels, cabins, rental houses, etc. For $45, the three of us stayed in a small cabin within walking distance to the pools, where we soaked for the night. Elizabeth said it reminded her of summer camp.
In the morning, we set out for our next stop, Posadas. Posadas is a border town across the Rio Parana from Paraguay. We arrived to our hostel, Vuela el Pez, in the afternoon and because it was the low season we had a dorm room to ourselves at U$12/person. Instead of leaving the rental car on the street, we opted for the parking lot at U$2 an hour. We were under the impression that we would only be charged for the hours that the parking lot was open (730am - 9pm). But when I went to pick up the car in the morning, I was charged U$32 instead of the U$10 I was expecting. Since then I have checked out the cost of 24hr parking garages here in Buenos Aires and its less then $15/day. Oh well, call it the gringo tax.
Not really knowing what to expect from this city, we were pleasantly surprised how nice the main plaza, downtown and walkways along the river. Things were much cleaner and better kept them we were used to in Buenos Aires. It would definitely be a place to stop through again.
Stats:
Total Drive Time = 12 hours
Total Distance = 990 km
# of Toll Booths (Cost) = 6 (U$4.75)
# of Police Stops = 4
# of Tickets = 1
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