How to Fix an iPhone in Buenos Aires

  I stood there in the middle of leafy Palermo soaked to the core. I watched as my new acquaintance of 5 minutes rode off into the distance on his motorbike - with my mobile phone. I was left behind with an already sopping piece of paper faintly showing an address. I'm pretty sure this was the opposite of the situation I was meant to be in when in a South American capital city.

  Wet, phone-less, clueless.

 Let's go back to the start. After my photo-loss drama at La Bombonera I decided enough was enough and I needed the battery changing. I visited the 'Unofficial Official' (I know right) Apple Store and they told me my battery was broken. I could of told you that mate. He then told me to Google a local shop to fix it. I hate to think the horrors of difficulty that this guy went through to get this job as 'Unofficial Official' Apple helper. 

All I was left with - old school navigation
required.

 Anyway, I followed his advice and googled a local (not so local) shop to my hostel and headed off in the rain to find it. This was harder than I anticipated, and required half an hour or brainless wandering down tens of side streets that stretched far and wide within a 25 minute radius of the closest Subte station. When I did find it, it was closed. Hm. But the door was ajar so I went in anyway and explained my situation to a surprisingly accommodating techy. He explained he could take the phone across town to their other branch (which was open) and there it would be fixed. I agreed quicker than my battery's 100-0% battery drainage. 

 And I was left with an address but without a phone and more importantly without Google Maps. I watched him jet off on his motorbike and trekked through torrential rain back to the Subte station to ask what way was best to get to this mystery destination: 

"Ahh 5 cuadras no problema, camina arriba!" (i.e. 5 blocks, you can walk)

The distance between the two iPhone shops (#1 at the bottom)

  This was good news. I rose back up to the tsunami of rain and started walking in what turns out was the wrong direction. I decided to ask a man for directions because apparently that was a lot more frequent than in England, so I did... 

"Oooo che muy lejos! 40 minutos! Consigue cualquier micro" (i.e. Jesus that's far, you're f****d, get on any bus) 

  Hmm. That Subte worker was going down in my estimations as was the bloke that had taken my phone. I hopped on a bus ("any bus") and headed uptown to what I hoped was Belgrano. On arrival, I carefully observed the building numbers and realised I was still a good 200 numbers off. By this point the rain was at god-like levels. I was hoping that Noah had enough space on his ark for all of the dogs on the Argentinean streets or they'd be toast. When I finally found the shop I was told it would take another 2 hours to fix my phone. Dios Mio.

I think your battery may be broken. 

  I spent 50 minutes in McDonalds, with about 15 minutes spent devouring my monster of a burger and the following 35 minutes spent twiddling my thumbs and looking shady. I then went wandering around various shops, buying nothing and looking even shadier. My last resort at time-killing was to ride the Subte down the line before hopping off and going straight back up the line. By this point I was looking more shady than the people I had been warned about here. 

  At exactly 2:00pm, I walked through the doors of the shop and picked up my phone. As relieved as I was to finally have it again, it was also unsettling to realise just how much I relied on it. The old battery was returned to me and it was really battered. I envisioned the 'Unofficial Official' Apple helper taking a good 10 minutes of visual inspection before telling me it was broken. 

  I never thought I'd be writing a blog post in Argentina about fixing my phone but alas here I am. It's undeniable that so much could've gone wrong throughout this story. The guy could've nicked my phone for one. I could've very easily gotten lost. I could've been reported to the police for looking shady on Subte Linea D. After basically swimming through the downpour (only the second day of rain I've had here) I'm almost certain I have pneumonia, but with a new phone battery I'm not complaining. 

Thanks for reading and to TechnoHard for fixing my phone!