What can I tell you about a 10 hour flight? It was freaking long. I watched a whole movie and still had time to play games and get horrible sleep in my nearly upright seat. We were in the very back again. The flight attendants had lights in their work area and used the 3 seats behind us for breaks. They laughed, joked, and talked all night while we did our best to sleep. When we finally touched down in EZE, we were all exhausted from almost sleeping part of the night. I’m not sure if it was better to have an overnight flight, but we made it work.
During the flight, there was about 15 minutes when the sun came up that there was enough light to actually see out the window. After that, the sky was cloudy for the rest of the flight. The photo below was taken just as we were leaving Chile and entering Argentina over the Andes mountains.
Inside the airport at Buenos Aries, it was real that we here. I could smell South America. While there wasn’t anything specific to report, just knowing that I did was a welcoming fact to me. We walked through the airport together sticking close while trying to decide what to do next. Eventually with our luggage in hand and bathroom breaks completed, we walked through the customs area to have our bags scanned by a machine before being sent on our way again. Just outside the door, we were addressed immediately by a man asking if we needed a taxi. After some thoughts and a quick discussion, we purchased a fare for 48,000 pesos (exchange rate ~1000 to 1 USD depending on location). We put it on the travel CC as we had not been able to exchange money yet.
The drive with our primarily Spanish speaking cab driver started awkward. I was in front with the driver while Danelle, Corvin, and Sonora squeezed into the back of his Fiat which was roughly the size of a Toyota Corolla. We provided the address and he started on his way. Then Corvin started slowly asking questions in Spanish. The driver and Corvin had a nice conversation during the 40 minute drive, learning about the area as we went. Corvin got some grammar lessons and worked with vocabulary he didn’t know very well.
My first impressions of the city were mixed. Most of the drive, the city is filled with multi story apartment buildings. Many of them were a bit run down. Being used to an affluent part of town, this felt negative to me. Yet at the same moment, I was in awe of all the new and old cars we don’t have in the US on the road all around us. Actually not knowing the language, the whole experience to me was like waking up as the main character in a Sci-Fi film. I’m in the future and things are familiar, but vastly different than what I remember. I can’t understand people or read anything, but I think that I should be able to…..
The family dropped off our bags in the Palermo Bridge Hotel, changed from winter to summer clothes, and went off walking around town. We found some delicious treats from a nearby bakery and enjoyed them in a park. It was super loud as there are buses everywhere. The kids went back to the room to rest and I convinced Danelle to go out for more walking with me. I wanted to get a beer and sit outside people watching. Eventually we did just that. Ordering the beers we encountered our first experience of a non-English speaking worker. So far there have been small pieces of English to communicate. Danelle used a bit of her Spanish and we eventually figured stuff out.
Corvin texted and joined us out at the shopping center. Not having voice calling makes you be more creative for describing your location. After a few tries we realized that sending directions via Google Maps to his phone was the best way to navigate to us. The three of us walked more around the city stopping at a bakery to pick up some more bread for tonight and something extra for breakfast tomorrow. Then we headed back to the room to wake Sonora from her nap to get an early dinner at a restaurant. Since it was 4pm, by Argentinian standards, it was probably more like a late lunch. We have to keep reminding ourselves its Christmas Eve and not everything is going to be open.
Dinner was another language barrier affair at a 24 hour pizza restaurant. It took a bit to order but we eventually received our food. After dinner, we walked around until we found a store selling wine. With wine and some other random food, we went back to the hotel to play some cards and eat in the atrium.
Danelle and Corvin are out for one more evening walk before we call it a night. We have an early morning taxi to catch for another plane! *The journey to the plane would be a little longer than originally planned. We booked the flight to San Juan that was leaving from Aeroparque in downtown, so found a hotel close to that airport for a quick morning commute. Unfortunately, the flight got switched from Aeroparque to EZE, meaning another 40 minute commute to the much further airport.