Argentina for the backpackers || #club5050

I adore how backpackers-friendly Argentina is. Many Scouts may be happy to hear that in this country most of the towns have... free municipality camping. It's paid only in some special situations, in example when camping contains the swimming pool but even then it's very cheap as the prices are regulated by the government and changed rarely (while inflation changes the value of the money every few months).

Most of the public free camping is unguarded. Usually, it includes the space for your tent, bathrooms which in the vast majority of the cases were very clean, and showers (in 90% with cold water only, but it's still the improvement compared to washing yourself in a bottle of water, as it happens when we sleep in the woods). In many cases extra facilities are included: benches and tables to eat the meal, BBQ area (Argentinians love making BBQ and most of them use campings just for that purpose), free wifi. Even if you won't find wifi on the camping, you can always go to the center of the town. One of the government projects includes providing free Internet to every Argentinian by installing modems on the main squares of the towns and villages. It might not be very fast, but enough to check your Whatsapp, Facebook, or email.

If the camping is closed, just ask any citizen about the key. They surely know who has it and will direct you to the home of that person.

The nature around that place is almost always stunning - rivers, artificial lakes, beautiful gardens, and sometimes mountains on the horizon are making staying there an unforgettable experience, sometimes more exciting than sleeping in a five-star hotel.

Here I have to mention the disadvantages: watch out for your stuff! Argentina in general is a safe country, but robberies happen. It's better to stay in a place distanced from the town center and not to keep any stuff outside. I was naive enough to charge my phone in the BBQ area once and leave it there unguarded. As you can imagine, I never found it again. My boyfriend lost the shoes that he kept out of the tent as well. Two incidents during four-month-long trips with almost every night in a tent are not that much though, especially that we were behaving irresponsibly then.

Come to Argentina and travel like a real scout! That country is perfect for that!

---

Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati

PS: all the photos included in this post belong to me.
10% goes to @hive-181136