Definition of a Crappy Hostel

So, I got to this town Mercedes yesterday in northern Argentina, after spending some time in the cities Santa Fe & Parana, 8 hours south by bus. I'm really only here as a stop to get to this National Park called Esteros del Ibera, which are supposed to have some of the most diverse wildlife in the world after the Pantanal in Brazil.

Anyways, its a tiny little town filled with Gaucho's (Argentinian cowboys). They are also professionals at the siesta here. Yesterday, I went hungry from 1-4pm cause the whole town was shut down.

It's actually not that bad of a town. Anyways, I got sick a few days ago, I think due to the cold air Friday night in my room, and it came to full fruitation as I arrived here yesterday. Instead of a 1 night stopover, I'll probably stay here 3 or 4 days now to recuperate.

So the hostel I am staying at, I can't tell if its just really crappy, or it is just that I am in the middle of nowhere and this is kind of how it is. For example:

-Kitchen faucet squirts water in my face
-Shower curtain has hole causing water to drip into bathroom floor(bathrooms normally have floor drains and floor squegee here so not the end of the world)
-Had to ask them to turn the water on to flush the toilet (valve was closed)
-Had to ask to shower with hot water yesterday, no problem. Today, however, something is broken, and it's been 6 hours with no fixture, so no shower.
-Had to ask to get gas turned on to cook today.
-Teapot in kitchen had paint chips in it. Glad I looked first.
-No can opener. Glad the can happened to have a tab on it yesterday.
-The rest of the pots and pans look like they are from WWII. Although from other hostels I am now used to pots with no handles, saute pans with no handles, etc. I could probably cook with any piece of semicircular metal at this point.
-I'm used to bread and jam/butter for breakfast now, Argentine style. But this place gave me 10 peices of a small biscotti like bread. Maybe it used to be fresh, and got a little hard. I did have a small amount of jam and butter to go, though. No dulce de leche.
-Stretching it a little, the mattress is quite thin.


However, it is not tourist season here, so there is nobody in my dorm room, which is great, because I was able to hack my lungs away and blow my nose out as well last night. There is a really picturesque court in the middle, and the building feels like a ranch house, so quaint would be a good word to describe it. Also, the internet is actually pretty good here, so I can write really uplifting blogs such as this! All in all, kind of a crappy hostel, but what can you expect from a Gaucho town in the middle of nowhere in Argentina. It happens. Long trip.