Patagonian Grand Adventure
Day Thirteen – 25 February 2014
Weather: Last day of the tour. Doesn’t matter now. I had enough Wow to do me a while.
I woke at 5:55 and put my head back down on the pillow. Then I looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:10. The light was peeking in through the curtains and I thought – given the previous mornings – I really should check.
Well, you want to see how fast a Newfie can get changed, grab her camera and run out to the beach in front of the hotel?
By the time I got out there, there were others from the tour with the same idea. We all had learned that, in Patagonia, you don’t get up without checking the view first. This was what made this hotel so nice – we likely would not have seen this from a hotel in the city, or it would have been quite a walk to get to the dock to view it. Here, we just walked out the front door and across a street.
Well worth the $6 cab ride.
Breakfast was served at seven and we were on the bus by 7:30. It’s not often that we can see the airport from a hotel lobby. We watched a plane take off and it made a bank that looked really tight to avoid the mountains.
It was a quick drive to the airport and a quick check-in. We also had to pay an airport tax. Four US dollars.
In southern Argentina, I found the USD was more readily accepted than in Buenos Aires (they took it, but they’d hesitate a lot more and the exchange rate was much worse). In southern Argentina, I was getting ten pesos per dollar. The official exchange rate was seven pesos per dollar, so we were doing better using USD in the south. It was one of the few times I had a better rate than an ATM.
The flight to Buenos Aires had a stop in El Calafate before going to Buenos Aires. We left Ushuaia at 9:40 an got into Buenos Aires around 2:45. This was where we said farewell to the bulk of the tour and Marcelo. He was taking all the Americans to the international terminal for their late night flights home. Myself and the other two solos were not leaving until tomorrow, so we got a relaxing night in the same hotel in central Buenos Aires. Well worth it. I wouldn’t want to do a day of flying then face six or so hours in the airport before the long flight back to the US.
Marcelo passed us off to another TT rep who took us to the hotel and arranged for a late check-out for me since I wasn’t leaving until the afternoon.
I had dinner, and for the first time since I started travelling again, I checked-in for my flight the next day. I had learned that checking in online reduces the risk of being bumped and I could sign up for alerts from Air Canada regarding the gates and timings etc.
The next morning I was up 7:30 and went down to breakfast. This place had the nicest breakfast on the tour with custard croissants and French toast sprinkled with powdered sugar. And the usual good tea.
Most shops opened at ten, so just before ten, I put my computer in the safe with my camera and then went to reopen it to put in my phone but it wouldn’t open. I called the reception and she said she would contact the manager and he’d be right up. He came up, unscrewed the plate and used a key to open it.
Whew.
First time in thirteen tours that I’d had an issue with the safe, but it was rectified in ten minutes and it was good to see that the access to the safe was regulated by the manager on duty.
Once that was done, I went out for a nice long walk down Florida avenue. I made it all the way to the Casa Rosada and got a chance to take a closer look.
It was 12:30 by the time I dragged my poor feet back into the hotel and got my luggage ready for my transfer. Remembering what the airport was like in Lima, I had asked Marcelo if I could leave the hotel at least four hours early and he got me the transfer for two o’clock along with the male solo who was taking a South African flight to Johannesburg en route to Mumbai.
I went down to the lobby for 1:45, and my transfer, Anna, walked in the door just as I sat down to wait. The other solo joined us and Anna said she was there for one person and said my name. She told the other solo that another transfer was coming for him. So, I shook his hand, said goodbye and off I went.
It was about a thirty-five minute drive to the airport and twenty minutes after we left, Anna asked if I was flying South African Airlines. I said no, that I was flying Air Canada.
Yeah. I got that pregnant pause.
I leaned a bit to my left and saw her wide eyes and hand over her mouth in the rear view mirror.
Can you say oops in Spanish?
Nope, I don’t need to know Spanish to understand the gist of her phone call. Hotel, taxi, aeropeurto. After a couple of calls, she got reception at the hotel and spoke to the solo and told him his transfer was delayed and that the hotel would get him a taxi and that she would meet him by the South African counter.
I had to suppress a giggle.
Now you know why I like to go four hours early.
The slight delay probably only cost him about fifteen minutes and he would have been at the airport a bit more than three hours before departure. Always better to be early and sitting at the gate with a tea than be late, in a long line at security and checking your watch every thirty seconds.
Well, back to Air Canada. Since I had checked in through the hotel reception, an Air Canada agent directed me into the short line for bag drop.
Sweet. Another benefit of checking-in early.
I dropped off the bag and got my boarding passes and double checked that the luggage tag was going all the way home. Another thing to remember is to not loiter outside security for long. You never know what kind of delays there might be with security or passport control. In Lima, it was a long line at both. Today, no line up at either though the immigration official looked at my passport and then left with it for a while. He went somewhere to print out a sheet. While I waited, visions of Locked Up Abroad were going through my head.
He eventually came back, took some information off that sheet, said nothing about Carlos’ smiling face on page four and stamped me through. As with arriving in Argentina, you have to get your picture taken and thumb print scanned. I heard one guide explaining that it was just their way to make sure you are you.
Last time I checked, I was me.
The flight left after a short delay and we made the stop in Santiago again. Except for the extremely rude Argentine girl in front of me who kept driving her seat back as far and as fast as it could possibly move, the flight was uneventful. I got a good six hours sleep.
We got into Toronto on time and this time my Maple Leaf Lounge pass was accepted with a thank-you and enjoy yourself.
And with such fast internet in the lounge, I had no problem waiting the four hours for my flight home. I would be home by supper.
And just hoped someone has plowed my driveway out.
🙂
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