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Hadlock posted:I've been using Google translate for email correspondence since like 2005 I use google translate for French, despite speaking and reading fluent French and using French every day for more than a decade. For any message longer than like twenty words I put it in google translate and then just edit the French as best I can, it does a way better job than me writing from scratch. Although me doing that for years is probably why my written French is still riddled with errors. DeepL is a little better but google translate is still very good. They vastly improved maybe 5 or 6 years ago, I think something something machine learning something. It’s great, definitely use it for all your communication in LatAm unless you know the person speaks English well.
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Mar 4, 2022 14:33
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A little late to the discussion but the Uyuni / La Paz / Atacama tour was one of the most memorable experiences I've had and I've been fortunate to travel to many countries around the world. It was incredible and you are going to have a blast. edit: After I made the above post, I went back and viewed the photos I took during that trip. It was amazing.... I would really recommend you take a point-and-shoot camera, even if its only a $150 camera - you'll get much better photos than your phone. Busy Bee fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Mar 4, 2022 |
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Mar 4, 2022 15:02
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Any Argentina goons here? We've just kicked off our three month South America odyssey and are figuring out various options and places. Specifically about Argentina, I remember hearing a few years ago about some crazy black market system for exchanging currency, where the black market rate and the official rate were vastly different, so that if you got cash from an ATM you essentially doubled the prices of everything in the country - or something like that anyway. Is that still the case? Is there a preferred method for accessing money that's not crazy expensive? I'm not American if that matters at all (Australian). Also wondering what driving is like, particularly up in the northern areas of the country. Although I'm a pretty experienced driver and have driven in many countries, I wouldn't consider driving in BA or any other big cities. But there's a couple of spots up north towards Bolivia and Paraguay that we're keen to check out, and if the highway driving is generally pretty easy up there I can probably give it a shot. Finally - any Brazilian goons here as well? We're interested in hitting up Brazil as well, but really I just want to know if the crime is as bad as everyone says it is. Over in Oz we basically have no exposure to anything from Brazil that isn't crime or politics related, so I'm trying to figure how much is real or not. We had the same issue with Mexico, where the only news you get is narco-related, but even in the more "dangerous" cities like Morelia and Zacatecas we largely felt fine (during the day, and in the tourist areas anyway). Is it mostly the same deal in Brazil? I've also heard that the inland cities away from Rio/Sao Paolo are generally better, and the further north you get the dodgier it gets too. Any tips/advice? Neither of us are big drinkers, and we don't really go out at night at all if that makes a difference.
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Jun 19, 2022 03:52
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webmeister posted:Any Argentina goons here? We've just kicked off our three month South America odyssey and are figuring out various options and places. Specifically about Argentina, I remember hearing a few years ago about some crazy black market system for exchanging currency, where the black market rate and the official rate were vastly different, so that if you got cash from an ATM you essentially doubled the prices of everything in the country - or something like that anyway. Is that still the case? Is there a preferred method for accessing money that's not crazy expensive? I'm not American if that matters at all (Australian). You're talking about the "dolar blue", which still exists, and has off and on existed since like... 1998? There have been periods of a few years where the government let the rates meet, but that's not the case now. It's not Lebanon or Venezuela bad, but if you withdraw from an ATM or use a foreign credit card, you're paying about double what the "real" cost is. https://bluedollar.net/ If you don't already have USD (or maybe Euros, etc) then the only way to not pay double is to go to Uruguay (or Chile, Bolivia, ...) and get dollars there, then bring them back to Argentina and exchange them. We went to Colonia once to do that, but Colonia blows and the amount of US$ we were able to get there and exchange just barely paid for the expensive and not very interesting daytrip. If you do already have a bunch of USD, you just go to Calle Florida in BA (or at least this was the case in 2015) and follow whatever sketchy guy tells you to go with him into some random apartment in some random building. Better yet, ask your AirBnB host or someone else so you don't have to go in a random apartment with a sketchy dude with $2000 USD or whatever. We did it off the street and it was fine, and I think it will be fine most of the time, but still. If you don't know anyone you could ask on Reddit or TripAdvisor maybe and get more recent advice. Driving in Argentina is fine, even in the remote hinterlands above Salta. We took buses on the Argentine side and rented a car on the Chilean side, but the driving and road conditions were more or less identical, and in any case way better than in like, the Outback. Google Streetview is pretty comprehensive. I wish we had rented a car in rural Argentina, but I didn't know how to drive manual and there were no automatics, so we did organized tours. Then in Chile it was the same deal, so I was like "gently caress it, I hate organized tours and I bet I can learn how to drive a manual in like five minutes of YouTube", which indeed turned out to be the case, since there is almost zero traffic so it doesn't matter if you stall the engine 20 times in your first two hours of driving. If you're going super far distances though, I'd take the Argentine intercity buses which are super nice, especially if you go for the Super Executive class. This will probably turn out about the same price as paying for the gas and the extra days of car rental too. I'd go up to Posadas (or Salta or whatever you had in mind) by bus and then rent a car there rather than renting in BA and driving those incredibly far distances. No clue about Brazil. We spent a month in Argentina and another month in Chile and Bolivia. We got as far as Iguazu Falls, but I only had a US passport and didn't want to pay $200 for a visa for a daytrip to Brazil as was required briefly at the time. Saladman fucked around with this message at 10:06 on Jun 19, 2022 |
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Jun 19, 2022 10:04
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Can't offer any better advice but dolar blue is definitely a thing. Basically the official exchange rate is set by the government because they won't officially allow pesos to be sold outside the country. People are only allowed to officially exchange $200 per month to try and keep assets in country, so private individuals are willing to pay a lot more for dollars than you get officially. My experience of driving in Argentina (Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata) was pretty easy. That said I'm comfortable driving manual but it didn't seem crazy. If you're getting further off the main lines or heading south to the Pampas or off to the West I think it's generally a lot more remote.
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Jun 19, 2022 21:35
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Im considering going Roatán somewhere this January/February as there are pretty reasonable tickets available at the moment. Would it make sense to make it a longer trip, say 3 weeks, and after swimming/diving on the island, spend the rest on the mainland or Belize/Guatemala or something? I've never been to Central America so don't really know if this would be a good idea for a solo traveler. Update It's done. Managed to build a multi-city trip while maintaining the sales price, so I'll be flying into Guatemala City and returning from Roatan 3 weeks later at the beginning of February. Of course I realized after booking it that I won't be able to dive the last day or two but at least it'll be an excuse to just chill on the beach. Otherwise the plan will be to see Guatemala, maybe Belize depending on the time, before moving to Honduras and Utila/Roatan. Plenty of time to figure out the specifics. mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Jul 4, 2022 |
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Jun 23, 2022 16:06
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Medellin is nice. I've forgotten most of what little Spanish I had learned pre pandemic beyond basic pleasantries, probably should have been grinding Duolingo for the week before I got here, my pronunciation is probably even more horrific Mask compliance is really good here. Not amazing, but I would say 60-80% of service industry workers wear them, a lot of the over 60 crowd wears them. Weather has been good so patios and restaurants have excellent ventilation The customs guy was pretty adamant about my vaccination status (rightfully so) but I lost my vax card a long time ago (useless domestically anyway), thankfully he took my California digital vax record Exchange rate is atrocious, 3750 at the airport, I've been paying for anything over $10 with a card and getting close to 4500 peso to the dollar (17% better exchange) not that anything here is hugely expensive here Not that I'm renting a car but I think they have national gas price controls, it's about $2/gal here for 87 and diesel, premium gas isn't price controlled it's like $10/gal
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Jul 18, 2022 18:22
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Hadlock posted:Medellin is nice. I've forgotten most of what little Spanish I had learned pre pandemic beyond basic pleasantries, probably should have been grinding Duolingo for the week before I got here, my pronunciation is probably even more horrific Good to know, we have a flight to Bogota from CDMX early August. How's the general mood there? Tourists welcome with open arms or rather circumspectly ?
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Jul 18, 2022 18:49
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Yeah no issues. I get the usual "where the gently caress did this gringo come from" looks but that's standard
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Jul 18, 2022 18:59
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Data point, Medellin July 2022 Went to banco occidental on av70 near estudio station in MDE Google's exchange rate says 1usd = 4356cop Including 7.1% exchange fee(!!!) effective rate for getting $1mm pesos a 1usd to 4000cop, not including any fees my bank charges me on the back end. Cost almost exactly $250usd Airport was charging 1usd = 3750 at MDE airport clearing customs  For reference $20,000 pesos will buy you a pretty decent entree at a restaurant, and $11,000 pesos will buy you a decent breakfast with coffee. I've been eating out every night and drinking cocktails and have really struggled to spend $150 in a week
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Jul 20, 2022 22:31
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Never been to Colombia, though it's on the list somewhere. Do all ATMs have these fees? From my experience in other countries, some do but other banks don't charge you any extra fees. Prices sound good. Quite a bit cheaper than here.
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Jul 21, 2022 11:01
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If at an atm or paying by credit card almost anywhere in the world and it asks if you want a usd conversion or for it to be charged in usd, decline. It'll gouge you. Also, get a Charles schwab bank account. I'd recommend it to even someone who only stays in the usa but especially especially to someone who travels. It's free with no minimum balance, they reimburse ALL atm fees, and don't charge an international conversion fee. I literally don't care if an atm charges me 10 dollars to take 50 dollars out - they reimburse it 100%.
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Jul 21, 2022 11:30
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Hadlock posted:Google's exchange rate says 1usd = 4356cop By the airport rate do you mean the exchange houses, which are always a scam, or the ATMs at the airports, which are occasionally scams? Although even with legit banks you can sometimes get lol exchange rates. I was in Valencia a couple months ago and my friends with US cards got like 1.20 to the euro at one ATM by a major bank, and then the (correct) like 1.1 to the euro at a different ATM. Both were from real banks, not Euronet.
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Jul 21, 2022 12:22
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Speaking of exchange rates, I’m in Argentina at the moment and it’s loving wild down here. Official rate is 125:1, and when we arrived two weeks ago the blue rate was 225:1. Yesterday we changed at 293:1 
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Jul 21, 2022 13:07
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webmeister posted:Speaking of exchange rates, I’m in Argentina at the moment and it’s loving wild down here. Official rate is 125:1, and when we arrived two weeks ago the blue rate was 225:1. Yesterday we changed at 293:1  Boola posted:If at an atm or paying by credit card almost anywhere in the world and it asks if you want a usd conversion or for it to be charged in usd, decline. It'll gouge you.
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Jul 21, 2022 13:53
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Yeah I am here long enough to make multiple trips to the ¡Exitio grocery store and my free-forex-fees credit card asks if I want to pay in pesos or dollars, it's a huge difference in priceSaladman posted:By the airport rate do you mean the exchange houses, which are always a scam, or the ATMs at the airports, which are occasionally scams? Yeah the 3750 rate was at both the exchange houses and the airport ATM! There's a money changer in my grocery store I'll have to see what their rate is next time I go in To reiterate, the screenshot is from banco occidental, which I think is more of a second or third tier bank here, they did NOT give me the option to do peso or dollars In other news almost every restaurant you'd want to eat at here now takes cards, although a couple only do this QR code bank transfer thing and cash but the QR only is pretty rare. QR code bank transfer is super common here, makes the US consumer banking system look like a dinosaur
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Jul 21, 2022 16:53
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webmeister posted:Speaking of exchange rates, I’m in Argentina at the moment and it’s loving wild down here. Official rate is 125:1, and when we arrived two weeks ago the blue rate was 225:1. Yesterday we changed at 293:1 Update: today we changed at 315:1, things are going well! We’re heading for Paraguay and then Brazil in a few days and I’m really going to miss feeling like a king
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Jul 21, 2022 17:12
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webmeister posted:Update: today we changed at 315:1, things are going well! What is this rate thing? Quick googling suggests this means you'll have to arrive with your cash dollars in Argentina and change them for local currency on the  black market Is that right?
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Jul 21, 2022 18:01
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Chikimiki posted:What is this rate thing? Quick googling suggests this means you'll have to arrive with your cash dollars in Argentina and change them for local currency on the Yeah basically, someone explained it properly at the top of the page but the official exchange rate is set by the government. There's crazy inflation here, like 70% or something, people want to put their money into a more stable currency, but they can only exchange limited amounts at a time. So there's a huge unofficial market for forex trading, mostly USD and Brazilian reals but some Euros too. We brought $300 USD in from Bolivia a few weeks ago, and then pulled out another $200 USD when we went over to Uruguay for a few days. Doing the exchange can feel kinda dodgy (in Cordoba and Salta we managed to find bus companies that would exchange), but here in BA there's just one pedestrian shopping street with dozens of sketchy guys hanging around yelling "cambio cambio cambio". For our exchanges, we just hunted down the nicest looking lady (rather than the taxi mafia looking guys), she took us into a "jewellers shop" in a small run-down mall where we did the exchange. Plenty of other people doing it too so it feels moderately safe but yeah. Weird carrying around stacks of cash, because the biggest note they have is 1000 peso and our exchange today gave us 31 of them. The most annoying part is that you just then have to pay cash for loving everything, because if you do a credit card payment that goes through at the official rate. So if your lunch is 1300 pesos, paying on card it'll be $10 USD. Paying with cash that you've exchanged at 315:1 like we did today, your lunch is now $4.10 USD. Crazy poo poo.
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Jul 21, 2022 19:13
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Hey all. I live in the UK and for our moneymoon, my future wife and I are thinking it would be lovely to visit Jamaica. We've heard it can be difficult getting around there and that driving is a must. Neither of us has driven in years and would prefer not too, and to be honest I'm a a bit flummoxed by all the different resort and activity package options. We don't have a crazy amount of money put aside for this - we can cover it but would like to not pay out the nose (if that's possible at all in a tourism hotspot). Does anyone have any recommendations of advice on where to stay, packages to look in to, etc.? Thanks!
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Jul 26, 2022 18:28
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Oh yeah, and I can't stress this enough, wear an N95 mask at the airport and in the plane, particularly in the security line and in the lobby waiting to board. There's an insane number of people coughing right now Omicron BA.5 a.k.a. mega covid is making the rounds right now, a vaccine or prior infection will keep you out of the hospital but it's effectively vaccine escape and immunity escape. If you got covid/omicron over new years, you don't have full immunity to ba.5 and this one is more than double the infectiousness of omicron so it's really easy to get, especially with mask mandates on planes goneTrim your beard short or shave, pick up a couple of 3M Aura N95 masks and make sure you have a good seal. Airports are a high risk area to be going without a quality mask right now, and you don't want to ruin your trip Also stay away from people who are clearly on big multi generational family trips, where being sick isn't an excuse to not go Trapped in the airport for a couple hours and there's just a ton of people here coughing every 30-120 seconds, not wearing masks and not covering their mouth Oh right the other big time for infection is it you get stuck on the tarmac and they turn off the engines to save fuel. This effectively disables the air filtration so you're hot boxing it with 200 other strangers for an hour or more with the guy in the other row hacking up a lung. N95 is really nice then Edit: regular masks do gently caress all for filtration on a 4 hour flight sitting behind someone who's hot at 11% for a blue surgical mask is not effective over that time scale; N95 are guaranteed 95% filtration, in most cases if you wear it right, filtration is > 98% bordering on 100% Thanks for coming to my Ted talk Hadlock fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Jul 27, 2022 |
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Jul 27, 2022 01:53
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Calico Heart posted:Hey all. I live in the UK and for our moneymoon, my future wife and I are thinking it would be lovely to visit Jamaica. We've heard it can be difficult getting around there and that driving is a must. Neither of us has driven in years and would prefer not too, and to be honest I'm a a bit flummoxed by all the different resort and activity package options. We don't have a crazy amount of money put aside for this - we can cover it but would like to not pay out the nose (if that's possible at all in a tourism hotspot). Does anyone have any recommendations of advice on where to stay, packages to look in to, etc.? Thanks! Edit: in any case, from my experience and from what you wrote, no you’re not going to have fun driving yourselves. Taxis are cheap, though. WithoutTheFezOn fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Jul 27, 2022 |
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Jul 27, 2022 18:30
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Yeah if you're already a nervous nancy when it comes to driving on well manicured UK roads, renting a car is probably not for you on a tropical island I had the opportunity to drive a Suzuki Sidekick (like a Morris mini sized jeep) literally around the entire island of Grenada, vaguely similar in Caribbean road development index, would not recommend that to an inexperienced driver I would look into judicious use of taxis as well. They will be a lot cheaper than you expect. You might be able to strike a daily deal with a driver you like/trust, or the hotel/s can recommend someone for you. Not sure what the rate would be but probably somewhere in the range of $40-80/day which is what a rental car will run you anyways
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Jul 27, 2022 19:22
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Hadlock posted:Oh yeah, and I can't stress this enough, wear an N95 mask at the airport and in the plane, particularly in the security line and in the lobby waiting to board. There's an insane number of people coughing right now I've noticed this a shitload in Argentina, every time you get on an overnight bus there's people constantly coughing and hacking and totally unmasked. I'm still wearing an N95 even though I caught super mild Covid a month ago in Bolivia. We just crossed into Brazil yesterday, so I'll be interested to see what it's like over here as well. The woman at the Claro store who sold us SIM cards sniffled about every 5-10 seconds and sneezed several times in the 15 minutes we were at the counter, so it's not looking good! RE Jamaica, is Uber available at all on the island? I detest them as a company but it's a godsend when travelling - knowing roughly what a reasonable fare is, being able to track your journey, removing the incentive for a dodgy driver to take the long way, being able to communicate your destination precisely without a language barrier etc etc.
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Jul 28, 2022 02:58
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The worst flu I ever had, I was sitting on one of the lower "stadium seating" levels at the very front of the bus Some guy was just coughing and sneezing and hacking up a storm on me, raining that poo poo down on me for 12 hours South America has so many open outdoor areas it's easy to travel here, but yeah, N95 for long periods of indoor exposure if you don't want to get sick
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Jul 29, 2022 02:15
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We are looking at going to Guatemala in February for a week. Will be me, my boyfriend and a girl friend. We have some passable to good Spanish skills. My partner is learning for his job in the ER and wants to practice with locals, and he has about 5 days to spend. My friend and I are talking about staying a few days longer, so about a week+ for us. All 3 of us are hikers/outdoors people so if we can spend more time seeing places like Atitlan and hiking a volcano. I have a personal interest in pottery (ceramics is my hobby), textile crafts and architecture, so Antigua is on my list to visit and all of us would be happy with a trip to a botanical garden or natural preserve type of deal. Very food open, not big partiers. I was thinking Antigua from the airport for 2-3 days, Atitlan for another 2-3, then base camp Guatemala City for the rest with an overnight trip to the coast with my friend? Not sure how many days to give these areas. I've been to Crater Lake so I'm guessing Atitlan is the same cold water in an alpine setting that's not too fun to swim in? Had mostly questions about out of the way stuff: I'm curious if the trip to see Tikal is worth it with Flores being the closest town and an 8 hour out of the way? I'm into Mayan sites and have been to Chichen, Tulum and Monte Alban, but others in my party have not been to a significant site. I got to Chichen at opening hour. A+ will do it again with Tikal, but it also will take 3 days out of the trip with travel if we did a bus so it seems too tight for our timeline. Basically is Flores a better small town to spend time in vs Antigua? I'd like to swing a beach day on the Pacific coast if there's a town to crash at overnight or even worth the trip down there? Livingston would be more preferred but it's also so far from Guatemala City. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Nov 26, 2022 |
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Nov 26, 2022 08:04
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Motherfucker! Speaking of Guatemala, the airline just told me my flights to there were changed. It was supposed to be BER->EWR->GUA and return from Roatan and instead there's now another stop in Houston and a return from Guatemala instead of the open-jaw flight I had. It was already a whole-day ordeal but now it's even more nightmarish.  At least 50% of the purpose was also for driving on Roatan so that's doesn't work for that either. Fuuuck. Let's see if some changes are possible, or if I'll have to cancel the whole thing because as wonderful as Guatemala is, I wanted to see some more different places too during the trip.
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Dec 8, 2022 10:55
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webmeister posted:Finally - any Brazilian goons here as well? We're interested in hitting up Brazil as well, but really I just want to know if the crime is as bad as everyone says it is. Over in Oz we basically have no exposure to anything from Brazil that isn't crime or politics related, so I'm trying to figure how much is real or not. We had the same issue with Mexico, where the only news you get is narco-related, but even in the more "dangerous" cities like Morelia and Zacatecas we largely felt fine (during the day, and in the tourist areas anyway). Is it mostly the same deal in Brazil? I've also heard that the inland cities away from Rio/Sao Paolo are generally better, and the further north you get the dodgier it gets too. Any tips/advice? Neither of us are big drinkers, and we don't really go out at night at all if that makes a difference. Figured I should answer my own post here, just in case it'll help someone else in the future. We ended up spending nearly a month in Brazil back in July/August, and as I kinda suspected, it was largely fine. At the very least, it was nowhere near as bad some people lead you to believe. We crossed over the land border from Argentina at Iguazu Falls (unbelievably impressive), flew to Goianas, then went overland to Brasilia -> Belo Horizonte -> Ouro Preto -> Rio -> Paraty -> Sao Paulo, with a bunch of smaller towns in between as well. Overall the smaller towns generally felt pretty safe, it's only really in the big cities that you have to be careful. We mostly stuck to semi-touristy areas, bailed if there was no locals around, caught Ubers everywhere, and we didn't really go out much at night beyond coming back from dinner after sunset (we're too old for that kind of thing these days!). Looking back it was basically 10/10, we had a great time and saw a lot of incredible stuff (beautiful scenery, gorgeous old towns, modern architecture etc). Super friendly people - we did a guided tour of some famous house where the guide didn't speak English, but one lady from the group just volunteered to translate for us for the entire time! We bought her some beers afterwards as a thank you. But yeah, would highly recommend - just be careful!
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Dec 10, 2022 03:33
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Does anyone know how to buy a SUBE card in Buenos Aires? I've been to a station and ~10 shops/lotteries; all out.
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Dec 16, 2022 14:10
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That’s crazy, must be something going on with the supply. Have you tried any of the kioskos in or near 9 de Julio station? If you’re near Palermo, try the area around Santa Fe and Juan B Justo (“Galerías Pacífico”). Those are the main transport hubs other than Constitución and Retiro so I can’t imagine them not having cards.
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Dec 16, 2022 14:49
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Most subway stations has them. I bought mine in one a month ago.dpkg chopra posted:
hello i am phone fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Dec 16, 2022 |
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Dec 16, 2022 15:05
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cheese eats mouse posted:We are looking at going to Guatemala in February for a week. Will be me, my boyfriend and a girl friend. We have some passable to good Spanish skills. My partner is learning for his job in the ER and wants to practice with locals, and he has about 5 days to spend. My friend and I are talking about staying a few days longer, so about a week+ for us. There isn't really anything to see in Guatemala City, I wouldn't bother staying there unless your flight times require it. But even then Antigua is only an hour from the airport and it should be easy to find transportation to and from. Tikal is stunning, better than Chichen Itza and Tulum, and really only on par with Teotihuacan in North America in my opinion. Flores is also a really nice little town to spend a night in, but not really comparable to Antigua. You don't really have time to drive imo so if you're interested you would need to fly. It looks like it's about $200 round trip. If Tikal isn't in your budget or it seems like too much work I would recommend Rio Dulce and Livingston, you can even stop by the Copan ruins just across the border in Honduras on the way. If you don't have time for that I guess El Paredón on the Pacific is a nice little beach down (tho I've never been)
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Dec 16, 2022 15:23
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mobby_6kl posted:Motherfucker! Speaking of Guatemala, the airline just told me my flights to there were changed. It was supposed to be BER->EWR->GUA and return from Roatan and instead there's now another stop in Houston and a return from Guatemala instead of the open-jaw flight I had. It was already a whole-day ordeal but now it's even more nightmarish. Looks like there are some direct flights from Guatemala to Roatan. Not sure if that would help you. If you're driving I would suggest stopping in Rio Dulce for a night. There's also Copan where you could stay to break up the drive. I've heard San Pedro Sula isn't worth visiting (dangerous and not much to do). And finally I wouldn't worry about trying to get to Belize, it's really difficult to get to from Guatemala.
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Dec 16, 2022 15:33
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Dominoes posted:Does anyone know how to buy a SUBE card in Buenos Aires? I've been to a station and ~10 shops/lotteries; all out. I’ve heard they can be a pain to find, but when we were in BA back in July we got them from the first subway window we tried. Can’t quite remember which station, but we were staying right near Teatro Colón, so it would have been either Lavalle or 9 de Julio I think.
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Dec 16, 2022 16:21
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webmeister posted:I’ve heard they can be a pain to find, but when we were in BA back in July we got them from the first subway window we tried. Can’t quite remember which station, but we were staying right near Teatro Colón, so it would have been either Lavalle or 9 de Julio I think. dpkg chopra posted:That’s crazy, must be something going on with the supply. Have you tried any of the kioskos in or near 9 de Julio station? hello i am phone posted:Most subway stations has them. I bought mine in one a month ago.
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Dec 16, 2022 20:43
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Ubered to 9 Julio. None there either. Edit: The Lavelle guy buzzed me in to go to Retiro. Retiro subte told me to go upstairs. Upstairs train agent at the window told me to go down to subte. The lottery at Retiro told me also to go to the ticket window. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Dec 16, 2022 |
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Dec 16, 2022 22:46
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Hashtag Banterzone posted:Looks like there are some direct flights from Guatemala to Roatan. Not sure if that would help you. If you're driving I would suggest stopping in Rio Dulce for a night. There's also Copan where you could stay to break up the drive. I've heard San Pedro Sula isn't worth visiting (dangerous and not much to do). And finally I wouldn't worry about trying to get to Belize, it's really difficult to get to from Guatemala. I also had another trip to Egypt booked soon after this one lol. I'd still like to check out the region so I'll see if I can make the Iberia option work for me once this is refunded. Worst case I'd do Korea or Japan which has been on my list too.
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Dec 27, 2022 15:47
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Just used the phrase "my travel info is so out of date it's probably not useful" Brazil is gorgeous though
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Dec 28, 2022 11:31
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Welp, was planning a trip to Iguazú before Christmas from Buenos Aires but aerolíneas hosed us. The plane boarded 30 minutes late and we then spent 2 hours on the runway before they unboarded us (this was the 20th, when the team was coming back to BA). Reason given was a mechanical fault, they couldn't start the engine. Then spent an hour or so at the gate before they made a fairly quiet announcement that we needed to go back to the check in desk (I don't believe they actually said anything in English, despite a number of people on the flight not having any Spanish). When we came down we were told they had rebooked us for 22nd as there was nothing earlier. Our return was booked for the 23rd so this was not really viable and even if they'd moved that we still lost the hotel booking and would have missed Christmas with my in laws. Obviously they refused any kind of refund and when we asked for a certificate of the cancellation they gave us one stating the flight was cancelled due to weather conditions. When we insisted this was a lie and we wanted something accurate they gave us one stating our flight had been cancelled and they had rebooked us for the 22nd. They also offered us a food voucher valid at 3 different restaurants in Aeroparque on the 22nd. All this took a few hours of standing and arguing with the service desk staff. Fortunately we paid with a credit card who are willing to reverse the charges for a cancelled flight but Jesus it was a frustrating experience. I'll say for the people who had flown in and were happy to get a hotel for a night or so they were willing to organise vouchers but even then some of them had to pay extra for flights the next day (I guess the tickets were more expensive?) Basically I'd only ever use a credit card for booking high ticket items like flights or consider low deductible travel insurance. Also apparently if you don't speak Spanish these airlines are more than happy to let you rely on other passengers to actually know what's going on.
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Dec 28, 2022 12:12
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Hadlock posted:Just used the phrase "my travel info is so out of date it's probably not useful" Yeah, makes you feel old. Although sometimes information falls out of date super fast due to government/national collapse (e.g. Lebanon pre-2019 / Lebanon post-2019) or COVID. I guess most relevantly to this thread in terms of Latin America changes, Easter Island now permanently blows -- you have to be followed by some dude 100% of the time on the island, except in the main town. They shut down tourism from March 2020 until September this year, decided they liked not having tourists, so they made it way more expensive and worse to visit. I guess I can understand that, but it's a bummer for anyone who was super interested in going there. We're in Mexico City now, and Mexico is also still absolutely crazy into COVID. Like a fair number of major sites are still closed due to COVID -- you can do a Zoom tour of the Palacio Nacional, for US$100, lmao -- and others are restricted significantly, like Teotihuacan you can no longer go up the pyramids, because COVID is apparently most transmissible on exterior staircases. They still have a bunch of archaic biosecurity theater too, like those temperature scanners that tell you your body temperature is 32°C. I've also seen so many people driving cars by themselves wearing masks too, and the air quality is fine right now. There are also quite long Disney-esque lines to get into some places, but I'm not sure if that's due to COVID space restrictions, it being the busy Christmas period, or Mexico City just being ginormous.
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Dec 29, 2022 00:40
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