The Return Of The Rolling Stone

Here I am, away from the large, noisy and overstayed metropolis of BA, sat in a coffee shop savouring the first glimpses of Mendoza. Despite arriving in the dark and only strolling slowly down to get a capuchino, it already feels different. The sky is a deep blue, the weather slightly chilly, but not cold, and the trees have the unmistakable character of a wine region. By this meaning lanky, twisted with sun stripped, patchwork bark and delicate leaves. But first, let us return to the week passed, and its subsequent lows.

I arrived back in Buenos Aires with a feeling in my stomach that I had already had my best days there. As usual I not slept beyond the occassional drift towards sleep before being jolted back by a sharp turn or bump in the road. I made my way back to the hostel and was relieved to be greeted by some familiar faces: Justin and Cameron, two cool dudes from the USA, and Hannah Banana, my last remaining friend from the fiesta days with my bear squad. Having them around made my three days in Buenos Aires bearable (rubbish pun absolutely intended). My reason for returning was to pick up a camera that I was having imported and stock up with necessities for the journey north.

Upon arrival at the hostel I was presented with a letter in Spanish from the courier, DHL, describing all kinds of payments that they would like me to pay (amounting to around £120) and a request for me to come to their office to get it. I arrived at the office a strong minded consumer prepared to fight each and every peso that they expected me to pay, and after a short skirmish the fee went down to £35. Utterly pleased with myself I prepared for my brand spanking new point-and-shoot, only to have this dream shattered by DHL. Apparently it was being stored at the International Airport and I had to go to the Cargo Terminal to pick it up. I returned to the hostel to find that the International Airport was around 50km away and that I'd have to take a timely bus to get there.

The next day I awoke early and hopped on the underground to the bus stop to the airport. Nobody knew where the cargo terminal was, giving me different directions each time and sending me all over the airort. Upon finally finding the cargo terminal I was redirected around that for another 25 minutes before finally finding the right office. It had just closed for lunch. Of course it had; the most surprising thing was that I had been surprised by this. An hour passed before the office finally reopened. And by office I actually mean offices, because I was directed to seven of them before actually receiving the camera, and being charged £30 for "storage and administration charges": of course, someone had to pay for the staffing of seven unnecessary offices. I was that chump.

As the sun set over the traffic jam back into the city I consoled myself that I had my new toy, and that couldn't and wouldn't deflate me. It had been a rather soul destroying day but it had been worth it. I had a cool new camera to play with at my hearts content.

Or did I?

After taking the camera out and charging it, I described my day to the guys almost pleased with the fact that I had got the job done and kept a smile. After a while, I decided that it had charged long enough and it was time for a bit of testing and parading. I turned the switch, nothing happened apart from an error message: "please turn the camera on then off again". I obliged. The message came up again, and again, and again. I consulted the manual which told me in no uncertain terms that the camera was faulty. I was utterly deflated. The ebay seller had much tactical wording in their returns policy to ensure that it wouldn't be worth returning. In total £350 and an unnecessary week back in BA had just gone down the toilet.

The next day I sent some things home and boarded the first available bus to Mendoza. I don't know a soul here and I think my bed has flees but in honesty these just feel trivial. I'm back on the trail to encounter a whole bunch of unknown people, places and experiences. Just like a rolling stone.