Nesting in BA

For the past several whirlwind weeks, I’ve been having a wonderful time exploring Argentina. I also hopped the border into Uruguay, which was a week of beachside paradise even though I never left the big cities of Montevideo and Colonia. I have thoroughly enjoyed being on the move again and I have felt more free and light-hearted since leaving the Eco Farm than I have in months. At certain moments: hanging out the open door of a moving train or gazing out across the Rio de la Plata from a white-sand beach, I think that I harbor something nomadic in my deepest soul. Yet in a little over three weeks, I found myself rapidly growing tired of life in a new hostel every night, of packing and repacking my backpack, which seemed to grow heavier every day (no, I haven’t been shopping…). So I suppose like most of my sedentary ancestors, I too have a strong nesting instinct and crave some order in my life.

In the service of this instinctual reaction to an unsettled life, I returned to Buenos Aires just after the New Year and set about renting an apartment. With almost exactly one month remaining before my return ticket comes calling, I was eager to find some small place to call my own so that I could settle down to the business of exploring the big city properly. To complicate matters, I am fantastically, overwhelmingly broke. As much as I would love to continue gallivanting around this enormous country, I think finding a semi-permanent home is probably the only way I can make my ever-dwindling loan from my parents stretch until the end of the month. And so, I returned to my old friend Craigslist, where with a little luck, I found a very cozy (i.e. small) apartment in a fantastic location (Barrio Norte, on Santa Fe) for slightly less money than my significantly larger apartment in Mendoza. Oh well, I am still saving about 50% by finally getting myself out of the hostel circuit.

I have now been in my new nest for almost a week. Unfortunately, I haven’t done much. I finally visited the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, a huge store of national and international artwork, including some pre-Columbian stone and textile pieces from the area. I made it through roughly half of the huge space, but it’s a free trip so I plan on returning to finish it up another day. I found some yummy, and surprisingly spicy Thai curry at a nearby restaurant. I located my local heladeria (always a necessity) and have become a faithful patron. But although my little nest is at the axis of all the major subway lines throughout the city, I haven’t managed to stray much beyond my new front door. Why do I feel so uninspired, after months of wishing I could experience BA while twiddling my thumbs in Mendoza?

The truth is: I’m pretty tired. I think I’ve reached that wall which looms in front of all budget travelers, when you spend so much time trying to find free things to do and save a buck that you feel just plain pooped by the time you reach your destination. I’m tired of the constant tourist traps. The poverty of the big city wears me down, and I feel an unreasonable sense of guilt when I am approached several times a day by dirty-faced children asking for money. I very badly want to volunteer, which would kill two birds with one stone by giving me something to every day and being free, but unfortunately even the non-profits, government aid agencies, and volunteer networks like South American Explorers require a “contribution” before they will graciously allow you to help out. This is one of my biggest frustrations: I feel like nothing more than a walking cash cow in Buenos Aires, more than I have any where else in Argentina (make that all of South America). I am tired of the assumption that being foreign equals being rich, and the myriad ways this wrongful assumption makes my life much, much more difficult.

If anyone has suggestions about free and fun ways to spend my last few weeks in Buenos Aires, I welcome suggestions. If anyone wants to share their own experiences of feeling worn out at the end of a long trip, I would like to commiserate. In the meantime, I am going to attempt to make some sort of schedule for myself, limiting my research time to one day a week, so that I can hopefully see beyond my front door.