February 14th 2017
Found it hard to sleep too well with the thought of being roused at 3am by the alarm clock. I had a long day ahead of me, three flight changes to encounter in a 15 hour journey. Jeff had kindly offered to take me to Cape Town Airport at this ungodly hour and I was surprised to find Jeff downstairs before me, reading his laptop. I’d had a fantastic time during my two week stay in South Africa, Jeff and Naomi had looked after me unbelievably, as had the boys Dillon and Rufus, who had also very kindly given up his room for me. Now it was time to continue my trek across the southern hemisphere to South America.
The roads were empty, as you would expect in the middle of the night but we made the airport in plenty of time. I bade Jeff farewell, thanked him for everything and hoped we ‘d catch up later in the year back home.
The first leg was a flight to Johannesburg for a connecting flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Problems weren’t anticipated. But you can never assume anything….at 4am in the morning you don’t need any perturbation. Checking in, the girl behind the desk didn’t recognise my flight number! Explanations that I had booked everything through the international company Trailfinders and that all should be straightforward fell on deaf ears. Growing a tad anxious, it was eventually discovered that South African Airlines had changed the flight number and that I could proceed! Well, thank you! That was a good start, just as I was beginning to think I might have to call Jeff back!
The nine and a half hour flight to Brazil was good. The plane was half empty which enabled me to sprawl out over two seats and pass the time reading, listening to my iPod, watching a film, eating etc. My mindset, having spent nine hours on a train from Memphis to New Orleans six months previously was that this flight wouldn’t be a problem at all. The flight was smooth and it was interesting when we reached the southern continent of America and flying over Sao Paulo, my first glimpse of Brazil from a few thousand feet, it looked very enticing and I made a mental note for the future. Rio and Paulo could be an idea for a holiday sometime.
If I was daydreaming and thinking how wonderful life was, reality brought me back to the present when I disembarked and sought out my connection to Buenos Aires. Turned into very near a nightmare!
Sao Paulo is a huge airport on three levels, and I visited each one, two or three times, getting nowhere fast. Nobody it appeared, spoke English. Nobody could understand what I was asking for even when I showed them documents stating I was looking for the Argentine Airlines Check-Out.
‘Up the elevator’ I was told, in Spanish, ‘no, wrong area, down the elevator’ the woman at the enquiries desk informed me. Trailing my suitcase behind me, I walked back and for, up and down stairs, up and down lifts, to all three levels, getting more frustrated by the minute. Eyes peeled, there was never a sign anywhere indicating where the Argentine Airline was situated. I began to wonder if I was in the right airport! Or was it a conspiracy, i know Brazil and Argentina are great rivals in virtually everything but had relations dropped to such a level that they didn’t want to acknowledge each other at all?
Exasperated, tired and bothered walking around like a headless chicken, and time passing by, relief came unexpectedly when I spied an official looking young bloke leaning against a wall. He looked as if he was wanting something useful to do, had a handful of documents in his hand, I approached him with some weariness. Showing him my flight docs and asking if he could point me in the right direction I was pleasantly surprised when he answered me in my native tongue.
‘Yes, you’re on the wrong floor’, then, ‘come, I’ll take you there’. Well that was a very nice gesture, what a nice young chap this guy was. I had the feeling, as we made our way about two miles away from where I had been hanging about, it did seem two miles! This guy had seen me wandering back and for aimlessly for the last half hour or so. He took me directly to the Argentine Check out, even jumped the queue to explain to the desk girl, which drew some dodgy glances from others in line but what the hell. I was past caring about minor things like that. Boarding pass in hand, this young chap even took me to my departure gate and wished me well. Sometimes you do think, people can be so nice. I wished I could have thanked him more for his help, bought him a drink or something, but he walked on and left me feeling humble. Whoever you were kind fellow, you restored some faith in humanity for me!
The final leg of my journey was a two and a half hour flight on what I could only describe as Argentina’s answer to Ryanair. Aerolineas Airlines don’t have a great track record, I was later to learn. The plane was rather decrepit, like a crate compared to what I’d flown on to get this far, crammed. People coming on board with suitcases that were ridiculous, stretching credibility to the limit. Surely they should have gone in the hold? So bad, the flight was delayed while these cretins jostled and farted around trying to store these things in the overhead compartments. Didn’t need this.
The flight was bumpy, turbulence quite bad but by now I was past caring. Never bothered me much anyway. I’ve long accepted that if the plane goes down there’s sod all you can do about it, so why worry and get stressed about it?
We arrived at the airport Buenos Aires has delegated for ‘internal’ flights, that is from neighbouring South American countries. Made little difference to me, I was too knackered to take this snippet of useless information in.
Finally passed through Passport Control and retrieving my luggage I took a minute to take in the fact that at long last I had arrived and was actually standing in a place way on the other side of the world. Seemed like a million miles away from Corby, but very exciting. A taxi to my destination, the Hotel Crillon was another half hour passed and first impression was, that it didn’t look that brilliant!
Looks can be deceiving though and in fact it was very comfortable, people very nice, welcoming.
Settled in, the heat was quite intense, humidity was high, I dragged myself across to a bar on the corner opposite the Crillon. Busy, the bartender was very polite and smiling, obviously enjoyed his job I figured, I sat outside on a table to relax and watch the bustle that was all around me. I was in the centre of the city, right next to a park, on one of the main streets apparently.
Enjoyed the time chilling with a very acceptable pint of cool Patagonia beer and it was time to get some zzzz. And to look forward to the week ahead of me, discovering the delights of Buenos Aires and a three day trip to Montevideo, Uruguay to boot. Very satisfying. I slept well.
