Every Argentine I have met throughout the course of the trip has warned me about flying with Aerolineas Argentinas. But, since I had already planned my flights and hadn´t yet experienced any problems with the airline, I took the advice given to me and stored it in a little pocket in the corner of my cabeza, hoping that ´´it just wouldn´t happen to me.´´ Ready to take my seventh and final Aerolineas Argentinas flight of the trip, I´m afraid I, too, have become a victim of the inefficiency and stupidity that plagues the airline.
I left Mendoza for Buenos Aires (we´re talking Sunday, March 30), en route to Madrid, and after I arrived at the domestic airport and went cross-town to the international airport (no short trip) and went through the whole check-in line and everything (as would, clearly, be the case in a frustrating story like this one), I found out just when I got to the front of the line that no, my flight would not be taking off at 9:50pm on March 30. Rather, it was rescheduled for 28 hours later -- to be leaving on April 1. April Fool´s, I fool you not! When I approached the ticket counter and I inquired as to the reason why my plane would not be taking me where I was supposed to be going, ticket woman simply told me, ´´rompió el avión y no había otro para substituirlo´´. What?? The airplane broke and there wasn´t another one to replace it? Clearly this was a case of a broken falangie. But the woman wasn´t kidding, so she proceeded to give me the details of what the airline could do for me (haven´t they done enough?). Meals, hotel, transfers, blahblahblah. How to spend what would be my 11th day in Buenos Aires?
After a buffet breakfast (where I stealthily pilfered my lunch, too -- who wants to come alllll the way back to the hotel to sit in the hotel´s restaurant and wait, wait, and wait for the vouchered lunch when I can just take it with me from breakfast?), I made my way down to the lobby and asked the concierge people how long it would take to get to a specific park (walking). They said, oh 40+ minutes or so. I said, oh, that´s not so bad. And they said, no we said 40....maybe more. And I said, right. Ok...it´s that way, right? And they said, yeah. I said, Ok, thanks, hasta luego! Maybe it was an hour and fifteen minutes away or so, but hey, where else did I have to be? On my way there, I ended up passing by the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden and walking around there for a bit. Not finding anything else there but some plants and sculptures (as is the nature of a botanical garden) -- oh, my mistake, and there were some cats -- I left the grounds and headed out. Next, I decided to go check out the King Fahd Centro Cultural Islámico, Latin America´s largest mosque. As luck would have it, they only give guided tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon, and being that it was Monday at about 1pm, I wasn´t allowed past the front gate. After I left, I thought about going back and asking if I could just go to pray and not do the guided visit (the only way to tour the grounds), but I thought it would only be convincing if I were to ask in Arabic, and my Arabic isn´t exactly up to par right now. Oh well. Shoukran anyway. Then I moved on to Parque 3 de Febrero, a place where one can find such everyday activities as tai chi classes, families drinking mate, and transvestite volleyball games. Unfortunately, it must have been an off day (despite the beautiful weather), because I saw none of these activities taking place. It´s a very peaceful park, though, with a boating lake in the middle (but no one was out boating, maybe because it´s fall?), so it was a great day to eat my picnic lunch lakeside, especially knowing that it cost me zero pesos (just my time..and, of course, we all know that time is priceless). After lunch and hanging around in the park for awhile, I went back across town and meandered along some of the pedestrian streets for awhile before heading back in the direction of my hotel to start getting ready for what we will call: Flight to Madrid, Take 2.
hasta madrid?
missy
http://andsmilestogobeforeisleep.blogspot.com
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