We brought these cards throughout our backpacking treks, and finally put them to use for a game of gin rummy on the plane ride...
12:33pm, El Calafate airport, on plane...
I went to bed ~1am last night and slept well, though it was a bit too hot in the room. One roommate got up early ~6am, and the other got up with us at 8:30am.
For breakfast we cook the rest of the oats and cereal, and add some dulce de leche. It's tasty, and Wendy likes it too. She also makes a ham and cheese sandwich, and I eat more dulce de leche with bread. We pack up our gear, shower, and put on clean clothes that we had left here prior to our El Chalten trip. I give the remaining stove fuel to our roommate, and we check out at 10:10am. At the desk we call for the airport shuttle to pick us up, and wait around. Wendy checks her email and finds a message from Christine saying that they indeed went to Buenos Aires early, and will meet us at the hostel at 5pm today. After waiting 30 minutes for the bus, we start to get worried and ask the woman behind the desk to call a taxi. Two minutes later the bus finally arrives, and we feel bad asking for them to cancel the taxi.
The bus stops at three more hostels, and arrives at the airport 15 minutes later, exactly one hour before our flight. I expected an hour would be plenty of time, cause this is a small airport. But turns out this airport is TOO small, and thus begins a long wait to make it to the gate. Fortunately LAN airlines has a short check-in line, but then we are surprised to find there is a $6 exit tax, which we have to wait 15 minutes in line to pay for. Then we head to the security line, and follow it into the arrivals area, and all the way outside the terminal! We're standing 30 feet outside the doors, and I'm thinking how obscenely ridiculous this situation is (and glad it's not raining). They need a much bigger airport!
The line seems to move for the 1st 15 minutes, then stops. Apparently everyone in line is running late for their flight (everyone near us is on our flight). People with the tightest connections all jump to the front. Again this seems ridiculous. Finally at 12:10 (our scheduled flight time) we reach the single security scanner and pass into the terminal where they are just beginning to board our flight. Once on the plane, we start taxing quickly, and have already been in the air for 15 minutes as I write this. Smooth skies. Unfortunately we're on the east side of the plane again, so no views of Fitzroy out the window. LAN has nice planes, with plenty of leg room...
We brought these cards throughout our backpacking treks, and finally put them to use for a game of gin rummy on the plane ride...
The flight goes smooth. They serve a ham and cheese sandwich, with a chocolate covered cake bar filled with dulce de leche. Wendy and I looked at all our pics on our cameras between eating, playing some cards, and sleeping. We land at 3:25pm, grab our packs, and hire a taxi for $10 from the airport to our hostel. The road is 12 lanes wide heading into the city! We arrive at the hostel at 4:30pm and check-in. The cost is ~$15 each per night for our 4 bed room that has it's own bathroom. Also included is breakfast and internet in the lobby. We head to room 306 and drop our stuff off, and go back down to the lobby to send an email and wait for Victor and Christine. We also drop off some laundry to be picked up tomorrow morning, at $4 for a load.
Wendy stands in our Buenos Aires hostel room. We took the bunks, and gave Victor and Christine the single beds. A look down the open courtyard from our third floor...
After our companions arrive, we head out for some walking, shopping, and dinner. This gives us a chance to catch up on each others doings. V & C took the 6:30am bus back to El Calafate on Wednesday and flew to Buenos Aires later that same day (2 days early!). They got to go to a Boca soccer game yesterday too!
Our hostel is located near the center of the city, and it's a short walk to the Plaza de Mayo. Next we head to a popular shopping area nearby. Christine and Wendy are excited to look for leather items. Victor and I agree to meet up with them an hour later, and decide to hang out at a cafe to rest and share a 1/2 bottle of wine. The wine is awful, but we finish it anyway (was only $5).
Some pics of buildings in Buenos Aires as we walk to Plaza de Mayo, where the famous Pink House resides...
A look down a prominent shopping street. While Wendy and Christine shopped, Victor and I rested at a cafe and drank some bad tasting wine...
We meet up with Christine and Wendy, and head to San Telmo for dinner at a restaurant called Taberna Baska, which was highly recommended in Christine's guidebook. There are high expectations as we enter the place at their opening hour of 8pm (people eat dinner really late here), and find out we need a reservation. But they still let us in and put us at a table in the back, which unfortunately is under an air conditioner that drips water on me occasionally throughout the evening. Christine's guide book said to ask the waiter for recommendations. He doesn't speak English much, but recommends the baked calamari for an appetizer. It doesn't disappoint. I let Wendy do the ordering, which is tricky when it's all in spanish and our waiter doesn't speak English. He recommends a special, which seems to match something on the menu, and we decide to split the big seafood platter, and a bowl of lentil stew. Unfortunately there's a misunderstanding at what we order, and it's pig meat (including the feet) and potato fries with a red pepper on it, instead of the seafood dish we thought. The lentil dish doesn't taste that good to me either oddly (since I love lentils). Wendy enjoys it a lot though, and everyone else likes their meal, but I find it disappointing for a fancy/pricy meal (the AC dripping on me didn't help).
Wendy and Christine are hard at work deciding what to pick from the menu as baked calamari sits on our table. Our waiter was nice, but didn't speak much English. Christine ordered a great looking seafood soup...
After we get back to the hotel, Wendy and Christine make plans for restaurants and a tango show tomorrow. We'll be going to a cemetary at Recoleta in the morning. It's smoky in the hostel lounge, which is annoying, and seems like there should be laws against it, but perhaps not in Buenos Aires. Victor is heading out for a night on the town to try out Buenos Aires' famous club scene.