San Juan

After my siblings left, I was back on my own. I needed a few days to relax, catch up on sleep, and do a few other things. I was somewhat successful. However, I also had a few things holding me back. And right off the bat, something not so pleasant happened.

I made it to the hostel in relatively good time. The bus ride was short and I was able to take a nap. And when I wasn't sleeping, I was enjoying the landscape. It looked cooler in real life. 

North of Mendoza.

I checked in, realized why this hostel was so cheap (definitely needed some repairs), and got some food for dinner (I needed to save some money after all that splurging in Mendoza). I tried to get some sleep that first night and I was so unsuccessful. My fitbit shows that I slept a bit before midnight, but then really didn't go back to sleep almost 5am. I felt itchy the entire night, and I kept tossing and turning. When I woke up the following morning, I was covered with bumps. Oh goodness. I had broken out in some sort of rash or something similar to when I was in Chile. But that had gone away. My brother and friend thought it looked like poison ivy. I checked and they don't have poison ivy in South America, but maybe it was some other plant that I reacted to on my runs in Pucon. Who knows. Of course my other brother said bed bugs. I suspected that, but since it went away, I thought he may have been wrong. Well turns out, he may have been right.

What I woke up with was so much worse than before. It looked like some sort of allergic reaction. I didn't know what to do. I took some antihistamine, ate breakfast and went back to my room. I decided to inspect my bed closer. Yup. I found a little blood sucking bug. Ugh. So gross. It was dead, but who knows where his friends were. I immediately showed the hostel staff and they went into action. They checked around the beds, cleared out the room, and sprayed it down. It was one of those things that you wonder whether they just know what to do, or it's because they've done this before. I switched rooms and chose the upper bunk, just in case. I also ensured to wash all my clothes. Except they don't have any dryers. Not sure how much it was helping. But it at least made me feel a bit better.

The following nights I did not sleep well at all. Not only was I itchy, I was paranoid there were bugs crawling all over me throughout the night. Even though I suspect it didn't help, I slept in my sleeping bag sheet which has insect repellent on it, and also applied some repellent lotion. I don't think they repel bed bugs, but I was taking whatever precaution I could.

After dealing with that, I was just not really in the mood for anything else. I did go running, as I figured it would help to move, even if I was all itchy. I got some good runs around the city. I usually went a bit later, but the streets were still pretty quiet. And they have super wide sidewalks with trees lining all of them. So I was able to take full advantage of wandering around the city with little foot and car traffic. 

Wide Streets.

I also spent some time in various cafes, mostly catching up on things, like my finances. It takes a while to go through it all, especially after not doing it for a few months. I was working to capture all my spending so I can break it down at some point. We'll see how that goes. I also want to get a sense of where I'm at financially. I'm doing ok, but definitely spending a bit more recently. South America is way more expensive than Asia. Not surprising, but still more expensive than I anticipated. 

Catedral de San Juan.

I had walked around a little bit, but not too much. There wasn't too much to see outside of the main plazas and the cathedral. The few days in San Juan didn't quite go to plan, but it gave me an opportunity to catch up and deal with some unexpected things. I didn't get a chance to check out the surrounding area, which I heard was beautiful. But maybe next time. 

Before I left the hostel to head back to Mendoza, I shook out every single thing that I had. That took a while. Like hours. Towards the end of this process, I found a couple of small bugs and killed them. I hope there are none hiding in my bag. But time will tell. I guess I should be happy it took this long for something major to happen. But doesn't make me want it to happen again.

Inspection process.

I spent one last night in Mendoza before heading off to Buenos Aires. My hostel was much nicer than the one in San Juan, and the cost didn't differ too much. Maybe I should have just stayed in Mendoza. Before leaving the wine region, I sat down at a cute cafe and enjoyed some Chardonnay. And since they only had one option by the glass, I figured I'd get a bottle and see how the night went. The next morning came much too soon, but I was off to explore more of Argentina with my friend Sandra.

Final Mendoza wine.