We spent nearly two months in Argentina, so we really got the chance to know the country, the people, and the culture. We spent time in pretty much every area, and traveled overland for a significant portion of our time. We got some really good use out of our gear, too. Here’s what we found most useful:
- Lonely Planet Argentina. Yes, we used the guidebook a lot in Argentina. In fact, we spent so much time in-country that we brought a country-specific guidebook (for the rest of our trip we pretty much only used the book “South America on a Shoestring” by Lonely Planet). It was super-useful, from helping us to identify the primary places we wanted to visit, to giving us tips on which sights were worth it and which weren’t. Yes, we spoke with a lot of different people on the road in Argentina, but we couldn’t fit them in our packs
(besides, I’m not sure they would have been ok with that, either). - Unlocked cell phone. Again it came in handy (seems like we used it almost everywhere!). From calling hotels and hostels when making reservations for the next night (or confirming them), to arranging meetups with locals, to coordinating tour details with guides, we used our phone several times in Argentina. This time around, we had a Claro chip, and it worked great!
- Hiking shoes. We hiked a lot here. We visited the national park in Ushuaia, did several trails in El Chalten, hiked around La Cumbre, and walked with our packs from bus station to hotel, hotel to bus station in cities the length of Argentina (which, by the way, is about as long as the US is wide).
So that’s what came in handy while we were in Argentina.
