When we last spoke I was in Miami waiting on the plane south. We did get away from the gate later than expected but it wasn't too bad and only resulted in a couple minute delay at the airport in Santiago and we made it so all is well.
The flight to Santiago wasn't too bad. We sat in the front row of economy behind a bulkhead so we had lots of legroom. Unfortunately we could see everything that first class had to offer but was just out of our reach. Of course they ate before us and my tummy was grumbling by the time we ate around 10:30. That was almost a disaster as they ran out of chicken but I think I came out ahead with the pasta.
Arriving in Santiago, we Amazing Race'd it to the connecting gate and thankfully the line had formed but not yet boarded. The boarding process was glacially slow with the back of the plane boarding first (good idea) but we walked down a jetway to a set of stairs out on the tarmac to a bus, which we took around the corner to a plane waiting on the tarmac not far away. This would make more sense when you see how small the airport in Santiago is!
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| Boarding in Santiago. DC got ahead of me and an officious airline worker held me in the bus until "congestion" eased on the tarmac. |
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| Looking back, I believe that may be part of the Andes. |
Finally boarded, we left almost an hour later than advertised, but we hoped the delay would allow our bags to also make the short connection. Up and over the Andes (very cool sights out the window!) we traversed Las Pampas (the Plains) and began our descent towards BA. Up to this point everything had been in Spanish first, followed by English. With my limited skills, I was pretty sure I heard "pesticidos" which was confirmed by the English announcement minutes later that a flight attendant would be coming through the cabin, spraying a pesticide! DC and I exchanged looks of alarm as he hurriedly covered the chocolate he had just opened and sure enough, a flight attendant came through with a hair spray type pump spraying something with a faint chemical odor. Great. In talking to others in our group, we were the only ones to experience the pesticide spray, something we chalked up to Argentinean disdain for the Chilenos!
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| A brief glimpse of the street grid from above BA. |
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| Yep, had to declare my non-GSM phone, aka a paperweight. |
In the final minutes of our descent, we were able to see lots of neat architecture including a giant train shed, a velodrome and lots of hi rise apartment buildings of varying architectural styles. Safely on the ground, DC and I negotiated Immigracion with relative ease. FYI, the Argentinians think of Patagonia as a region wholly in Argentina, something the Immigracion Officer subtly corrected me on. We won the lottery and both of our bags made the trip and we quickly sailed through Customs. One curious thing, Customs was particular about declaring your cellphone.
After Customs, we began a search of the airport for a SIM card for DC's phone and so began my experiment in remembering Spanish. I mutilated the language and pantomimed my way through a couple of vendors before we gave up and hailed a taxi. We were extremely lucky by picking a driver who was patient with my attempts to communicate in Spanish, taught me the correct ways and pointed out every tourist or historic site we passed. Once at the apartment on Uruguay Street, we buzzed the doorbell and JD came to let us it. Bienvenidos a Buenos Aires!
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| De-planeing in BA. Sooo hot and humid. Think a June DC afternoon. |
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| It's hard to make out by this airport, the domestic one, is on the shore of the Rio Plate. And would you look at that, I caught a Land Rover in this picture! |
Hasta Luego!
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