First it was striking bus drivers. Now it's snow. I should be well on my way to Buenos Aires by now, but I'm stuck in Santiago. An unusual snowstorm in the Andes on the border between Chile and Argentina has closed the international tunnel. So I'm still here.

There are worse places to be stuck than Santiago. Most travelers call it boring, expensive and not worth your time. I like it. It's quite a culture shock, being the first developed, rich city I've been in since leaving Tampa in December. If you're familiar with Tampa, you may insert your own joke here about Tampa being a developed, rich city.

"As clean as any town of five million can get."
It's just so different to not be surrounded by unending dirt, depression and poverty. The people are obviously prosperous. The city is as clean as any town of five million can get,

An Unusual Statue on a Santiago Plaza

and there's a subway. I suppose I didn't go traveling to spend all my time in European-like cities, but it's nice to be here for a while.

And it's not as expensive as people would have you believe. Despite the traveler's nightmare of the declining dollar, it still fetches slightly more than 700 Chilean pesos. That means the matinee of Matrix 2 cost about three dollars with the student discount. Not bad at all. It would have been about five in the evening without a discount. Still a good deal. The movie was good, too.

"I'm ready to be in one place for a while."
So here's my plan once the tunnel to Argentina reopens, supposedly this weekend. I've hinted at this, but never given too much detail. I'm spending the next month in Buenos Aires. I'm definitely not tired of being in foreign countries, but I am a bit tuckered out from traveling constantly. I'm ready to be in one place for a while. And Buenos Aires, called the "Paris of South America," seems like a great place to do that. A month may prove to be too long, but we'll see. I just wanna rest a bit before taking on Africa.

I've been in touch with a management company in Buenos Aires, which has some amazing apartments for around $400 per month. This is in the poshest part of the city. These things would cost at least $2000

Santiago's Subway Zooms Into the Station

a month in New York or San Francisco... and would probably have cost at least double their current value before Argentina's economy went to hell.

"I'll be saving some serious money."
So I'll take a quick look around town when I arrive and see if there's anything cheaper, and probably end up with the $400 place. Considering I won't be paying for buses and will be able to cook for myself frequently, I'll be saving some serious money. Maybe enough to do some shopping for once.

The journal entries probably won't be quite as interesting while I'm just sitting around and checking out Buenos Aires, but I'll be keeping myself sane at least. And I'll do some day trips around the city... including a quick jaunt over to Uruguay. So there'll be stories to tell.... once the snow clears.