Coffs Harbour to Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hola from Buenos Aires. Ok no responsibility for blog and photo quality as have now been up for over 30 hours.

So this has been a very long day. Awake at 5am after a not so great night. Thanks to the lovely Colette & Rod for delivering us safely to the airport.

Not long to wait in the wee Coffs Harbour Qantas Club and we were heading for Sydney. My first impression was “what have they done to this plane?” Outside seemed incredibly dirty. A combination of moisture and the bushfires.

We passed a lot of burning land but sadly the phone focussed on the dirty windows. This shot gives you a bit of an idea how much peril homes have been in (and yes many lost).

A quick look at the Harbour bridge and Opera House and the one hour flight was over.

Normally Garrie is the one who sets off the alarms at the airport but today was my turn and after three goes in the body scanner (will I be glowing the dark I wonder?), a pat down was ordered as the alert would not disappear. It was just a zip on the pocket.

Not long in the airport and an announcement that our flight to Santiago had been delayed… oh oh we only have a one hour 30 minute gap between flights there… Final take-off had us wondering…

I watched a Brad Pitt space movie. Ok is as good as I can give it, though I did laugh when he had to pay an exorbitant fee for the “blanket pack” on his commercial flight to the moon.

I have to say the Qantas food was delicious with a lamb shank that just melted in your mouth. Premium economy definitely gives you more room and a few extras and so nice not to be asked to pay for movies and food etc.

So before we started to descend we were presented with a paper telling us our flight had been changed. We were landing almost an hour later than scheduled. “Just head to the transit desk and they will swap over your boarding passes.” Said the overly chirpy flight attendant.

Arrive Santiago. Walk for a couple of miles. Suddenly the transiting passenger signs disappear. First we find ourselves in the line to pay the exorbitant “welcome to Chile” entrance fee. (In fairness we are told that is just for Australians because we charge them.). We aren’t staying so get out of that queue and join what is an enormous queue towards transiting. Our new flight is just an hour later than the original so clearly this isn’t going to work. We head down and find a Qantas uniform and he scoops up a group of us and finds our new boarding passes. But wait, thinks I, we were being picked up in Buenos Aires so we need to let them know we’ll be late.

First Qantas person finds a second who agrees to make the call. She tried the hotel number about six times – no answer. She tried Quark who answered from Ushuaia so couldn’t help. Eventually she tried social media and left them a message. First Qantas person returns telling her our flight is boarding. We race to the head of the, still, very long security queue, jump it entirely and go through. Then I panic as I see a LAT flight leaving at 12.50pm the gate has closed and the gate is 15 minutes away. We start to run. Brain keeps ticking. I stop. Our flight is at 1.50pm. Phew. We arrive at the gate just as it starts boarding.

My Spanish is non existent but I think “mucho loco” probably covers it. Let’s hope the luggage is with us! Sydney time 3.44am. Hmm not sure how much plane sleep we have had but we’ve been up almost 24 hours.

Not many pics. Have been running too much and flying in we were in the centre of the plane though we did glimpse the snow topped Andes. Taking off I was right over the wing and we banked away so metal was the view. Here’s one I tried. By the time we were over the Andes proper they were covered in heavy cloud.

For the plane spotters this one is a Boeing 767-300. The airline is Latam, local South American airline.

By some miracle our bags have made it. We’re we happy but we are yet to get some local currency as you cannot buy it in Australia, (mainly because it has been swinging wildly). So I head towards the bank whilst Garrie looks for our lift.

I find a long queue at the bank and try the ATM, which says it is going to charge me $630 to take out $2000. “I don’t bloody well think so.” I say to myself cancelling the transaction. Then Garrie turns up with a man in tow with our luggage. We must go, I am told, as this man is pretty cranky he has had to wait over two hours for us. The message did not get through.

So we head to the hotel and he calmed down and told us how good pizza was in BA. Who knew?! He had limited English but it was far superior to our Spanish.

So at last at the hotel after 24 hours. Our view is mixed with high buildings, gardens and some vintage buildings.

The room is very nice and has one or two surprises.

We are clearly not buying water in the hotel but thankfully that is $ peso. About 200 to A$5.

We unpack and decide to take a walk. Just a short one as it is now well after 6pm and we are getting weary but want our body clocks to understand the time and getting out into daylight is the only way.

I have done some research and we decide to head to Plaza de Mayo. Not too far from the hotel and basically the birth place of Argentina, so a good place to start. A couple of interesting buildings and statues on the way.

The Plaza is surrounded by historical buildings.

If you visit, try to visit on the hour. We were entertained by church bells from two directions that went on for some time. We walked down to the Casa Rosada, the very pink seat of Government.

Turning to retrace our steps down the palapa you can’t help but note the similarities with Paris.

I had read about The Cafe Tortini. A BA institution that has been around for 160 years. Again fairly close so off we went and my maps worked a treat.

Yes we had to queue but only for about ten minutes. This is an institution like Raffles of Singapore, or Betty’s of York, so we hoped it would be worth it.

Was it ever. The decor is fabulous.

Wow it started 100 years before I was born!

So beer in Spanish is cervezes (cerveza singular). So I asked the guy – how do you say beer? He responds “beer” – yes I should have added “in Spanish”…

So here is the cerveza of the day and it’s Patagonian!

OK we are starting a rating system. Erdinger, which is Garrie’s all time favourite is a 10 out of 10. Today’s beer was rated by Garrie as a 5. (As he said it could be the way it is stored – he can tell instantly if beer has been both hot and cold over time. It had a perfume aroma he didn’t like so much.

Having been told by Colette I should try a local Malbec, I did just that. They are not light on the servings either!

Oh and here we are waiting for the arrival of our food. Some local beef – one has to try Argentina’s beef and a pizza for our crusty driver.

The beef sandwich was delicious. The beef being likened by Garrie to home killed meat. The local olive oil just added so much to both the sandwich and the pizza. (Sorry driver we like thin and crispy bases, though they would not have been as good with the olive oil.)

Of course Tortini is particularly famous for its coffee so Garrie felt he should try that too. I opted for a hot chocolate with churros.

So Coffee ratings. Those who are long time blog followers will know that Panama booted Antwerp from the top of the list with a perfect 10. Garrie says Tortino’s coffee was equal. Wow! My chocolate was excellent. Garrie also tried the apple pie, though that was rated as so so.

So then it was time for the bill $2613.00 including tips. It does take a minute for your head to get around it but it was excellent value for not much more than A$50.

We staggered back to the hotel, so needing to walk further to lighten the load. So now here we are 10.05pm BA time, just 12 noon EDST (though we are still in Wednesday here), and it’s time, after 31 hours, to finally get back into a bed.