May 22, 2003
After breakfast, we packed up, checked out of the hotel, and left our stuff beneath the stairs while we set off in search of souvenirs from our visit to ¨Ushuaia, El Fin del Mundo.¨ We've noticed that it is hard in this time of globalization to find things that are truly unique to a geographical area. This was evident in Ushuaia as well, where we saw Peruvian crafts for sale at crafts stores in addition to the standard stuffed penguins, huskies, and sheep that we had seen in Calafate. We've both come to have much less desire to buy a lot of stuff - it's more fun to put our money into making memories. However, we have begun buying small magnets and pins of the places we're visiting. They're small, cheap, and....easily lost. We did however, buy some unique things for some of our friends, after we made another visit to the ATM. We also wrote some postcards while sipping hot chocolates at a cafe and sent them at the tourist office, which we had been unable to do in Chile, with its national holiday.... Wonder if they'll make it to the US before we do. We also picked up some chocolates for Margarita's aunt.
Which brings me to somewhat of a rant about Bariloche and it's chocolate - it's not that good. The stores where they sell it have some nice displays and they make it into interesting shapes and combine it with interesting things, but it doesn't taste that good. Give me Cadbury or See's any day. Of course, the same chocolates, for the most part, are available in Calafate and Ushuaia (which is what reminded me about this).
Anyway, after returning to the hotel, we lugged everything to the street where we flagged down a cab. The cab ride was about 5 pesos or so and, as usual, check-in and security were a breeze. Once we got to the waiting area, Margarita and I took turns going to the bathroom while trying to prevent Michaela from heading back down the stairs to security or electrocuting herself on one of the floor plugs that was falling apart.
The plane was a McDonnell Douglas MD 88, which I like, because it seems to have much quieter engines than the Boeing 737s we flew in. The plane was on its way from Calafate to Buenos Aires, and it was relatively empty. This time, however, there were 3 or 4 people in first class - the first time we had seen actual passengers in first class. I have noticed that while on the two United Airlines flights we took to get to Buenos Aires, we were given a special infant life preserver. However, none of the Argentine flights that have gone over water (and included the special life preserver demonstrations) have given us these infant life preservers (if they even have them). The flight was pretty typical for us. Michaela fell asleep for about an hour or so soon after the plane took off. While I was holding her sleeping form, a meal was server, and I missed it, so I ended up eating one of the milanesa sandwiches we had brought with us. When she woke up, we kept her entertained in our seats until she saw an older kid running around the plane. Then she wanted to get into the aisle and crawl after him. We ended up taking over the entire row in front of us by either folding down the seats so we could use them to rest our feet - or by moving some of our stuff onto them. Michaela crawled into first class a few times, until one of the flight attendants noticed and said something to me that seemed like an admonishment.
Back in Buenos Aires, the plane unloaded from the front and rear onto the tarmac and onto a bus. Although somewhat reminiscent of the buses at Dulles in DC, these don't go up and down. We got shuttled to a baggage area that was at an unseemly part of the airport - kind of the neglected section where there doesn`t seem to be much traffic. As a consequence, there were only two taxi company stands, instead of many, as there are at the international area. As a result, we ended up paying 75 pesos for a taxi to La Plata, plus we had to pay for the tolls on the autopista. On the way out of the baggage claim area, we were asked for our baggage claim tickets - for the first time, including when we arrived at the international terminal.
The taxi ride to La Plata was pleasant enough. The taxi company contracts to people who own their own cars and this guy had a nice relatively new Renault or Peugot. Unfortunately, it had been raining in Buenos Aires for the past few days and it seemed that he had left a window or two open because the area where the seat meets the seat-back was wet. Oh well. The guy turned out to be married with two kids. I missed most of the conversation between him and Margarita.
Back at the Howard Johnson where we stayed initially, we figured we would would probably have to pay the full rate of 80 pesos a night rather than the 66-68 we paid for our first stay. We checked in and got our room without any discussion of the rate at all. Strange, I thought. So I went down to find out what our rate was and to see if we could get the cheaper rate we had previously. First I asked if we could get the same special rate that we had paid previously. "You are paying the same special rate," replied the manager. "What rate is that?" I asked. "80 pesos," he answered. Then I asked about the special winter rate where you stay for three nights and pay for two, but that was only good in July, he said. Oh well, 80 pesos is not bad - Internet is free, we have a fridge and cable, and we won't be spending as much money here as we had been while traveling in the southern part of the country.
We didn't bother with dinner. In fact, we didn't bother with anything (which would be a problem later), except making sure we had enough milk for Michaela. We watched a couple of movies on cable and ate the food we had brought on the plane for dinner.
Posted by mike at May 25, 2003 07:03 PM