Unexpected time in Buenos Aires

On Friday 13th October I woke up in the hostel in El Calafate, ready to enjoy my last few hours in Patagonia before my 2:50pm Aerolineas Argentinas flight back to Buenos Aires. Once there, I had a few hours to kill at the airport before my Air NZ flight back to New Zealand. Well, that was the plan anyway... Unfortunately I woke up that morning to an email from Aerolineas Argentinas saying that my afternoon flight had been cancelled due to strike action!

I showed the email to (the lovely) Patricio, our favourite local hostel worker. He wasn't overly surprised, apparently strike action is quite common in that part of the world. Although he did say that there hadn't been an airline strike for a while. He suggested I walk the 10 minutes or so into town and go into the airline office in person. I arrived at around 9am to find a queue of around 100 people already, waiting for the office to open at 9:30am. When I finally got to speak to someone (who thankfully spoke not too bad English) he said all he could do for me was to book me onto the only flight leaving El Calafate that day, at about 9pm. Unfortunately that didn't arrive in Buenos Aires in time to make my flight back to NZ. Back at the hostel Patricio kindly lent me one of the hostel phones to get in touch with Air NZ. My original flight would have gotten me into Wellington (via Auckland) on Sunday morning, ready to start the new school term on Monday. Unfortunately Air NZ only flies the Buenos Aires-Auckland route 3 times per week. The next flight was at 00:30am on Monday morning, arriving in New Zealand on the Tuesday. The next problem was that there were no economy seats left on that flight, meaning I had to fork out an extra $1700 for a premium economy seat. I didn't really have a choice, as the next flight didn't leave Argentina until Wednesday meaning I'd miss almost the whole first week at school.

Flight sorted, I then emailed school to let them know the situation, before trying to find some accommodation in Buenos Aires for my unexpected two extra nights there. This was easier said than done... It was a long weekend in Argentina (which is probably why the airline chose that weekend to strike -trying to cause maximum disruption). The downside of this was that accommodation in Buenos Aires was nearly fully booked out. Patricio gave me what he thought were the top 3 hostels in BA, but they were all fully booked... He then gave me another few that he thought were really good... Again, all booked. We then started looking at the pretty average places, without any luck. By the end of it, there were three hostel staff all trying to find me a bed for the two nights! I think I said similar in an earlier post, but I really can't recommend the America del Sur hostel highly enough if you need a place to stay in El Calafate. The staff really are amazing. Eventually we found a dorm bed available in the Casa de Papa hostel. This place wasn't great, but it had 3 things going for it... Most importantly, it had space for me for the two nights, secondly, it was dirt cheap (about 20NZD per night) and thirdly, it was in a primo central location. Downsides included being in an 8-bed dorm (whilst I still stay in hostels when I travel, I'm all about the private ensuite room at this stage of my life!). Unfortunately it was bit of a party place, and anyone who has spent time in South America will know that parties tend to get going at around 11pm or later, and go all the way through to 5 or 6am... I didn't get much sleep in this hostel, despite the best efforts of my noise-cancelling headphones which I would wear to bed...

With the situation being totally beyond my control, I thought I might as well make the most of my bonus two extra days of holiday. It helped that the weather was absolutely amazing, better than when I had first been in Buenos Aires. I took some photos around congress and the Plaza de Mayo which were better than my original ones from when it was a bit overcast.

I then went for a walk around the Recoleta area. There was a big market on that was interesting to wander around.

It was nice to be able to explore the Recoleta Cemetery at my leisure, as when Nicola and I visited previously it was just before our flight to Patagonia, and we really only had time to find and view Evita's grave.

At the Recoleta Cultural Centre I stumbled across a free music festival which was pretty cool.

As well as the stage with local artists playing, there were art installations both inside and outside. It was a great place to chill out for a while.

The next day I set off exploring some places that I hadn't already visited, starting with the Floralis Generalis sculpture.

I then hit a couple of parks, including a very cool rose garden on a little island in the middle of a lake, accessed by a cute white footbridge. The place was absolutely heaving with everybody out enjoying the perfect weather and long weekend.

Next up was the Japanese Gardens. You had to pay for entry to this one (the rose gardens were free) but it was well worth it. Wandering around parks and gardens is one of my favourite things to do when travelling, and I particularly love a good Japanese garden!

On the way back to the hostel I ran into a street parade. I couldn't quite get to the bottom of what it was all about... Something to do with cultural harmony, which I believe was the reason for the holiday weekend (but could well be mistaken!). Anyway, there were dancing girls, shaking their booty in that most latino of ways, and hordes of energetic and exuberant men dancing up a storm. There was also a brass band which looked to be having a great time as they paraded along. It was all quite infectious, and a great thing to experience on my last night in the country.

Once back at my hostel I grabbed some dinner, then took a bus to the airport for my flight which left just after midnight. It was my first time flying Premium Economy, and it was lovely. The food was amazing (it's not often you get offered eye-fillet steak on an airline) and with only 21 seats in the compartment and one air-stewardess looking after us full-time, our every need was met. I did enjoy the extra space to stretch out, and managed to get about 5 hours sleep during the 13 hour flight, which is pretty good for me on a plane! It was lovely to be met at the airport by my wonderful husband, then the next day it was back to school for the final term of the year, albeit two days late! Patagonia had been on the wishlist for a while, and I'm glad that it lived up to all of my expectations. It really is a magical place to visit. Even the little mishap at the end of my trip didn't detract from what was an amazing holiday that will be remembered for a long time to come.