I am in Ushuaia, Argentina, the supposedly southernmost City in the world.

After 2 months traveling through southern Chile and Argentina I am no longer able to stay warm. It is middle of summer and the outside temperature never gets above 15° C The constant wind goes through and through. I can not even warm up at the Hostels and Pensions since they don’t have very effective heating. Getting out of the cozy, warm Sleeping-bag in the morning feels like torture. I need to get out of here, I’ve had enough of this cold, I am not even in the mood to visit Nationalparks or any other sights anymore. So I book a flight, out off the freeze, to Bahia Blanca, about 1800 km north. On the plane are also a Frenchman and an Israeli, whom I already know from the hostel in Ushuaia. We decide to travel together from Bahia Blanca to Buenos Aires.

Arriving in BB, finally pleasant T-shirt climate again! The next day we`re off to Buenos Aires. But instead of taking the Bus we want to try hitchhiking. So we go to the outskirts of town and find a good spot on the main road. As we sit there taking turns holding out the thumb a few young boys come up to us wanting to talk, getting to know us and ask many questions. Nice kids, after a while they head to a field nearby to play football. We sit there for hours, no luck. No one stops not even to ask where we are going. It will be getting dark soon so we decide to go back to the Hotel and take the Bus tomorrow morning. As we are about to walk on we see the boys coming back, this time they are with some older guys. We’re relaxed because we had a good time with them in the afternoon. But as they approach they suddenly get very aggressive, wanting to grab our backpacks, trying to beat us and one guy even pulls out a knife. OK that’s a robbery right here in the open field. There must be about 7-or 8 of them, two concentrating on me, others on the French and some on the Israeli. I keep them away by waving my Backpack in front of their heads. Out of the corner of my eye I see the French guy also successfully keeping them at a distance. The Israeli seems to argue with one of the Thieves, his bags on the ground behind him out off sight. Two boys grab his big Backpack and run off. I call out to him, he looks around and runs after them, and manages to get the bag back. Nearby we see a City- Bus passing by, driving slowly and honking, the driver waves at us to come and get inside. We run, with our Bags in hands and jump inside, the boys running after us and even throwing stones, some hit the Bus, luckily non of us or the other passengers. Inside the Bus the Israeli realizes that his small Bag is missing. We see a boy with his bag, far off, running toward the houses and disappearing. The Israeli jumps off the Bus running after the boy. We shout for him to come back, its to dangerous, so he comes back. Me and the French guy still have all our things. The Israeli lost all his money, passport and other important things he has in that bag. We thank the Bus driver for his help and go to the Police to report the theft. First they drive us in a Police-car around the Neighborhood in the hope to find some of these rotten scumbags, but obviously they’re all gone, hiding in their rat holes.

Well, it is hard for the Israeli to lose his valuables and Papers, but then, who travels with 2000$ in cash and on top of that keeps it in his day-pack instead of carrying it on the body?! Traveling with cash, only because he is to stingy to pay the fee for buying traveler checks. How foolish. Now he paid a much higher price and lost everything!