The last few days of the trip were mostly spent waiting to leave and return from Argentina to the US. I had lost any interest in interacting with my travel partner, my cough was so bad I spent most nights awake, I could barely speak, and I was running a nasty temperature.  What started as a cold had turned into something worse, something more like nasty flu. On top of that, the girl I went on the trip with turned out to be one of the worse travel partners I ever had. We spent a large portion of the trip fighting, and when we weren’t arguing with one another, we were giving the silent treatment to the other person in a force of wills as to who could be the most suborn.

The flight home was a glad one in the sense that it was happening, not so much in the time spent on an airplane before arriving back home in Seattle, where I had hoped the flu I was experiencing would improve. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until a week after returning before I was finally forced into going to the hospital where I was informed I had Scarlet Fever. Something I didn’t even know people could get any more. On the plus side, with modern antibiotics, I was in no danger of dying from it like past days, but I did spend the most of the rest of the summer recovering from the experience. For a good month after I was weak, slept most of the day and night, had no energy or apatite. Scarlet fever, I found out, really sucks.

Lessons From a Trip to Argentina

1. Don’t get sick on vacation. It sucks and makes the trip miserable. And if you do get sick, get medicine or you might end up with Scarlet Feature.
2. Don’t travel with a person you are not compatible with. It might seem adventurous, but sometimes it would be better to travel alone.
3. Uruguay is a beautiful country that tends to get skipped over for its larger neighbors.
4. Even though it looks sunny, it can get cold in South America in the winter months.
5. The food is awesome.
6. It is possible to get by on limited Spanish, but it sure helps to know some as well.
7. Take lots of pictures.