Talking Point: Dream trip turns into a nightmare

Max Quick’s solo backpacking adventure turned from fun to frightening as the virus hit Argentina. Now he just wants to come home to Tasmania

Hobart's Max Quick is stuck in Argentina during the coronavirus pandemic.

MY trip in Argentina and ultimately South America has been severely cut short by this coronavirus pandemic. Only three months into what was my first and most exciting solo backpacking adventure everything has been flipped on its head. Here is my story of what has occurred to me during what can only be described as the next form of natural disaster.

My travels in Argentina have been incredible and in my opinion $5AUD a day has been a perfect travel budget. The experiences I have had with travelling cheap have far outweighed the benefits of staying in big hotels and catching long distance buses. Hitchhiking and camping I have met so many like-minded, kind people, locals and other travellers alike. However, right now and since the start of the severe lockdown in Argentina I’m currently, and have been, in some very precarious situations. As a boy of just 19, right now I just want to be at home with my family until this blows over.

I had been in a very secluded town by the name of Londres in the Catamarca province of Argentina and decided to hike into the gorgeous mountainous area for a few days of solitude. Three days and 30km later I returned to a ghost town. I had no clue what had happened, I had had no connection to the outside world for those days and to then return to all the shops closed and no people in the streets was crazy. I thought I was going crazy.

I sat in the main plaza of the town in the hope that with free Wi-Fi I could figure out what was happening. I didn’t even get a chance. Five minutes in I was arrested by the police for being in a public place during the lockdown. Even though I was able to get my situation across they put me behind bars for five hours which, in the sweltering heat of a semi-acrid desert is no fun believe me. Some time later I was told I had to leave the town. So with no general idea why I was put on a bus to the next town some 30km away where I knew nobody and had not even a room for the night.

Max Quick in Salines Grandes, the Argentine salt flats Picture: Supplied

Arriving in the town, Belen, at 6pm left me scrambling to find accommodation before dark. The seemingly oblivious police were of no help to my situation and it was completely by chance I bumped into a French couple whom were staying at a hostel where luckily an extra bed was found for me.

The next few days were spent with the French attempting to find a way out. Being stuck in a very isolated part of Argentina with little police assistance is not a good combination for finding a way home.

After four days of serious conversation with the police, we finally thought we had found a way. It seemed possible for us to get a taxi to the Catamarca-Cordoba provincial border some 500km away before needing to ride bicycles for the final 230km of the journey. My new-found French friends had cycled most of Argentina on this trip and had all the correct gear and bicycles, however, I had a 75-litre backpack of about 15-20kg and if you have ever cycled with a large pack you will know it’s not easy. Nevertheless, in the hope of returning to Buenos Aires to catch what was the final flight home on March 27, it was the only option I had. So I bought a bike and packed my bags for the following morning.

Hobart's Max Quick is stuck in Argentina.

This positivity was short lived because just 80km into our car journey, at the first town, we were turned away by the police who refused to even look at our embassial letters, and despite police assurance in Belen that we would pass easily, we were told to go back. Considering the severe lack of support from the Australian consulate I received, basically telling me I was on my own, the French people frantically began calling their embassy. Having driven a few hundred metres down the road for these phone calls we were quickly told by the police that we could not leave the vehicle and so for some three hours, four people, the two French, our driver and myself, were stuck in a single-cab ute while trying to find a solution. Alas it was all to no avail and so we returned to our hostel.

Later that night we were called to the police station where finally they had pulled through and developed a set of papers allowing us to pass the entire way to Cordoba by car the following day. So once again it seemed we had a way home and the following day we were able to drive the entire way to Cordoba. Some 13 hours later we arrived for me to only discover the flight I so desperately needed to be on had been cancelled and so once again I was trapped.

From Cordoba I was able to get a flight to Buenos Aires where I am now staying in an Airbnb. I am remaining optimistic that the Government will pull through with a charter flight. However, considering the assistance given by the consulate that confidence I have is beginning to waver. I am getting scared as the world as we know it is beginning to crumble before our very eyes. Is it really so much to ask, for the Government to just bring me and the other 90 or so Australians in Argentina home? I hope not.

Max Quick, 19, is from Richmond, Tasmania.