Patagonian Grand Adventure – Travel Days

Patagonian Grand Adventure

Travel Days – February 11th and 12th 2014.

Weather – St. John’s -25 with windchill

Buenos Aires 32 with humidity

A week prior to departure, I found out one of my eighteen year-old cats was sick and rather than risk something happening while I was gone, she made that last visit to the vet. I left behind her somewhat depressed sister in the care of my sister and her two girls. Being winter, I had booked a long layover in Toronto of about ten hours and used my miles to buy a Maple Leaf lounge pass for the trip out and back (where I would have a six hour layover).

That was the plan.

I get into Toronto and go to the International Departures Maple Leaf lounge only to find out the pass is only good at Domestic terminal lounge. I couldn’t even pay to get into this one.

So now I faced ten hours in the International departures area. But it wasn’t a total bummer.  Pearson had replaced more than half the seating area with comfortable seats and tables complete with ipads with internet/games etc as well as plugs to recharge electronics.

Very nice and I had no problem passing the ten hours there doing some work.

The flight was scheduled to depart at 11:45 pm. One of the last for the night. The agent in charge of the gate was pretty good trying to keep people out of the wrong line-ups. She even insisted that people not loiter in the hallway and block the way for others trying to walk by. At one point, a tour group of seniors was allowed to board even before the pre-boarding call and the agent asked the crowd to “please do not try to infiltrate this group.”

Two gentlemen “infiltrators” had to turn around and slink off to the side to wait their turn.

When it comes to getting an empty seat next to me on long flights, I think I have a horseshoe….somewhere. The man on the other side looked at me and smiled, saying “think we’ll get someone between us?” And I said a few hours earlier, the seat was still listed as empty. He laughed and said he had checked too. And sure enough, it was empty.

I was able to sleep fairly solidly for six hours (and still wonder why they serve dinner on a midnight flight…that should be a light meal…get it done quick). I was able to watch a couple movies – Lee Daniel’s The Butler and Captain Phillips. Two great flicks that I saved for the flights.

The landing in Santiago means one should have a window seat on this plane. I could glimpse the scenery from the middle section and it was gorgeous!

We arrived in Santiago at noon and even though we were taking the same plane on to Buenos Aires, we had to deplane. The announcement on the plane told us to go to the “transit lounge” but when we got off, no such thing was in sight. One couple said the terminal had been renovated. A group of us hung together trying to figure out what we were supposed to do and finally a staff member pointed to “connecting flights” off to the side. We went through security (though I was allowed to keep my bottle of Pepsi) and then we went upstairs to the departure gates. We found our gate and waited again to board.

Instead of being warned about infiltration techniques, we struggled just to understand the words. Luckily, there were two lineups for row numbers so I just stood in that line until it was time. I did find time to pick up a Santiago fridge magnet.

We got back in the air by two and again the scenery looked great. We started crossing the Andes and all I could think was “turn off that seat belt sign before we cross them!” But alas, they kept it on for a long time and by the time it went off and I sprinted to the closest emergency exit to get a pic with my cell phone, we were almost on the other side.

I might look into changing my seat on the flight home….though the internal flights on this tour cross the Andes a couple times, so I might luck into a window seat there.

We arrived in Buenos Aires at about 3:30 and I had to go through a couple of long lines for passport and luggage x-ray. Passport control here takes a picture and a thumb print. And as a Canadian, I had to pay a reciprocity fee but it had to be done ahead of time, so I just had to show the printed receipt. (Chile used has the same thing that I could get that on arrival, but a few months after this tour, they eliminated the fee). The Argentine reciprocity fee was good for the duration of my passport but as of January, 2018, there is no longer a fee charged to Canadians.

With my South Africa trip fresh in my mind – in which I showed up at the airport only to find no transfer cause a hiccup somewhere meant they didn’t know I was coming – I anxiously checked out every sign along the way until I saw the Trafalgar sign in a group of transfers. For the first time in thirteen tours, my transfer was also my tour director, Marcello.

First thing he told me to do was to take off my polar fleece.

Then he picked up my luggage, all ten kilograms of it, and asked if I forgot something.

Nope. The stove was definitely off. I checked four times before I left.

It was only thirty-five kilometres to the hotel from the airport. Marcello gave me some tips as we went along. He said that the Argentine pesos are denoted by a symbol close to the USD $ sign but that it means the peso and not USD. He said if it refers to USD, I should see US or USD written there too.

When we got to the hotel, he gave me a card for a free drink and said the morning was just for giving out information and that the city tour would start at 1:45 and go till 8 pm. He said something about tango.

My mind said “oh cool.”

My hips said “don’t even think about it.”

So, I picked up a Fanta and checked out my room at the Sheraton Libertador Hotel.

First thing I noticed was the list of TV channels and was delighted to see Discovery, Nat Geo, History and ESPN and more, until I actually turned on the TV and realized that they were all in Spanish.

So, I guessed I’d watch the Olympics in Spanish.

It was six by the time I settled in. I did a laundry and a lot of twisting and reorganized my half empty luggage. Wifi was free and I spent the rest of the evening catching up with what I missed before I turned in.

For a change, I was only tired from the flight, not the time difference.

Newfoundland is only a half hour behind Argentina.

 

 

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