Planning a Trip

So my friend and I have been planning a trip to visit Igazu falls! This is the absolute reason I even came to Argentina, well besides the fact that I wanted to learn Spanish! Anywho, planning the trip has been an adventure. We were looking tickets up online, and thought that we found a really good price until we found out that the tickets were for Argetinians only. Then we found tickets for Americans. Oh boy do they stick it to the Americans with plane ticket prices, guess they figure all Americans are rich. So we went to a travel agent next door to IES to help us plan the trip. They offered an even higher price for two round trip plane tickets it was 2200 pesos. So we made our last trip to plan the trip. We went to the bus station. Granted a 18 hour bus ride is least on my list of things I want to do, but I'm on a student budget. If I want to go to Uraguay, I better save some money. So we got our tickets. Two round trip bus tickets cost us 630 pesos. I definately think we took the best route. And its on a fun double decker bus, so at least we will have a cool view of the country on our drive to the triple boarder area!

I went to Wal-Mart today. This was certainly more of a chore than going to Wal-Mart in the states. First off, my southern accent makes me portray Wal-Mart as some obscure name, in which cab drivers cannot decifer. So I have to try to tell them what I want with the little vocabulary I know. Then I arrive. It is about a 40 peso cab ride outside of the city. I arrive, and in order to get into Wal-mart, you have to go through metal detectors. Then there are things like you would see at an amusment park, the metal counter things ( I know totally descriptive). Once in the Wal-Mart layout is to the tee like that of America. The clothing selection is a lot more limited, as well as the make-up and jewlery. Besides that you have a huge food section, an electronics section, furniture and bedding, you know the same ole same ole one is used to at Wal-Mart. There are some differences though. There are not debit card machines at every register and the prices are times three what we would see at home. I went to buy a skirt and the price was $60, but I had to remember it was in pesos. The toys are outrageously priced. One Barbie brand barbie doll was $170ARS. It was insane. I don't see how the kids have any toys here when a lot of people only bring in about $1600 pesos a month and $800 goes towards rent. There is also a food court in the Wal-Marts here. Yeap, there is a Parilla (which is like a grill with steak and such), a mcdonalds, and some sort of other restuarant.