The other day when I joined a sports club, I was so excited I was having heart palpitations! Normally I'm all about a balanced lifestyle but as I'm new to the city I just went hell for leather and spent 5 weeks stuffing myself on Buenos Aires' finest stodge (pastries!) After 5 weeks of mucho stodgo and nada nadar my body has been feeling, well, stodgo!
The search for a 'drop in' swimming pool has not been easy. I think I must be labelled as 'the girl who just wants to swim (for crying out loud)' or 'the girl who is obsessed with finding a swimming pool'. I have been asking everyone since I arrived, where? where? where?
In the end, I had to join a Club Deportivo (Sports club) for access and since my first couple of swims I have realised the worth of this investment - for my sanity. There's nothing like being in a different medium all together when you live in this hectic a city!
For someone that's unsure of the length of their stay and just wants to pay monthly without a hefty registration fee, Megalton seems like a good option. There are four different price plans and the more you pay the more gyms you have access to around the city. The higher the price plan the more branches you have access to and the nicer the gyms.
I went for the rock bottom price plan knowing that all I would need was a 25 metre pool to get my fix.
After much research I understood that you can't use a gym / swimming pool in Buenos Aires without having a medical check up first. I've also heard that this is quite common in Latin America.
While in London, they get you to fill in and sign a yes/no form, here it's a little more thorough.
So, I've registered... I get escorted to the changing rooms where, in an adjoining room a doctor sits. The doctor doesn't look like a doctor, just an argentine bloke with a white doctors shirt on. The room looks more like a cleaners cupboard than a room that someone should be based in for work. It's small with no windows and sandwiched between the male and female changing rooms and the swimming pool - a nice healthy environment! The lighting in the room is the type you'd expect to find in a garage.
I sat down and quickly established that he spoke absolutely no English - great! So he gives me a form to fill in with all the yes/no questions - in Spanish. I pretty much know that my answers are 'no' on forms like this in English so, I shrug my shoulders and circle the 'no's'. On the back of the form is a large chunk of text that looks pretty official (also in Spanish), followed by a section for you to sign. I laughed and signed my life away! Right, 'can I swim now?' I thought.
I sat down and quickly established that he spoke absolutely no English - great! So he gives me a form to fill in with all the yes/no questions - in Spanish. I pretty much know that my answers are 'no' on forms like this in English so, I shrug my shoulders and circle the 'no's'. On the back of the form is a large chunk of text that looks pretty official (also in Spanish), followed by a section for you to sign. I laughed and signed my life away! Right, 'can I swim now?' I thought.
The argentine bloke then uses hand and arm gestures to indicate that I need to take off my t-shirt so I do. So, I'm in a room with no chaperone or windows with an argentinian bloke taking my clothes off. He then gestures for me to lie down on the broken leather plinth.
He then patted several parts of my body with alcohol. As he did this I kept thinking to myself, these are very random areas - There didn't seem to be a pattern left to right. I was quite confused about what he was checking and thought, why don't you just check my blood pressure and heart rate and be done with it - I could see he had the appropriate equipment in the room to do this.
When I walked in the room originally I saw a set of wires and wooden balls sprawled on the plinth and thought nothing of it, except that it was a rather ancient 1930's looking piece of equipment. I didn't actually think that it was a diagnostic piece of equipment. Lying there he began to attach this 'thing' to me, clipping it to several parts of my body. Around my ankles, under my bra, on one arm, around one knee. I looked up at him and actually thought for a moment this was it, you are the last person I'm ever going to look at! They sign people up for the lowest price plan and think 'let's electrocute the tight bastards!'
He flicked a switch and a machine started clicking and printing out a reading - phew, i was still alive! I asked him 'normales?' and he said 'no' with a straight face. I think this was his way of telling a joke as I passed my medical. He then did a couple of more familiar tests on me and that was it!
Two days later I met my friend Lia who had joined the same gym chain on a higher price plan. We exchanged stories about the medical and I realised how likely I had got off. It turns out she had to do all sorts of bizarre things like, spread her toes, show part of her bikini line and flick her hair upside down. These checks meant that at one point she was actually in the room with her argentine guy (SORRY, sorry, I mean 'Doctor') trousers down, top off and bent over. I'm not sure why paying a higher price plan means that you get a more thorough medical!
Anyway, the security of knowing I am highly unlikely to catch athletes foot, crabs or lice has made me a happy member! : )
