We began working towards this long-desired destination in March. Having always made our own plans and arrangements, the idea of joining a tour company with 12-15 other people was still unappealing. But trying to organize everything when Spanish is not our language and the monetary issues of Argentina were so daunting we turned to a recommendation from a friend and decided to work with Silvana of Boutique Travel Services in Buenos Aires. This experience was still rather uneasy…her firm would not accept credit cards and we had to wire a large sum of money to her collegue in Florida. However, our domestic airfares in Argentina could be paid for with a credit card, and when we finally settled on exact travel dates, the quoted price for 5 internal flights had increased by $500. Inflation had been a problem in this country for years and now we were experiencing it firsthand. What would it be like in four more months when we went there?

Another aggravating aspect of the planning process was the lack of a concise and detailed description of our itinerary. Silvana was only accostumed to communicating on WhatsApp. This is fine for conversational purposes, but I need a spreadsheet to follow our dates, location, lodging, and activities. It was not easy to follow all these details her way. I realized these limitations too late to change gears and did my best to adjust. But I would do it differently next time.

Traveling from mid October to mid November promised spring in the southern hemisphere. Although it made more sense to me to travel in a north to south direction, Silvana scheduled us in a random order. If we had visited Salta first it should have been cooler rather than waiting until we did when it became too hot. Similarly it was much colder in Patagonia early in our trip than later when it would have been milder. These are the lessons we learn on a first time visit to unfamiliar territory and part of the adventure.