Though we had the option to just hustle on over to Buenos Aires on an earlier flight in the morning, we elected to get some much needed rest and took a 1:20pm flight. That allowed us time to get the free breakfast thanks to Nicole’s Hilton Honor’s Diamond status. Boom! You didn’t think it would find its way into the blog this time, but there it is — a shoutout to Diamond status. Nicole was somewhat underwhelmed, however, with the rather dry baked goods that were offered.
The hotel shuttle van driver begrudgingly shuttled us off to Santiago airport where we were magically able to check-in for a standby listing by using nothing more than a self-service kiosk. This is unheard of. We went through customs in about 30 seconds, and security in about 20. The Santiago airport does operate surprisingly efficient despite having a layout that seems to require everyone to get a two mile walk in before boarding a plane. We got a few last minute Chile souvenirs and found ourselves shortly thereafter in our own row on Aerolíneas Argentinas bound for Buenos Aires.
We had no plan, no hotel, just a few loose ideas. We debated our options briefly during the short flight as we crossed the South American continent at its knee caps. I heard back from some fellow staff travelers, and loads looked reasonable to Iguazu in the evening. Iguazu was back on the table, and only because the connection times actually worked now that we were arriving later in the afternoon. I listed us after we landed and we went through customs after a few minutes plus a little bit of attitude from the border agents (is there any other kind?).
We had about three hours to kill at Jorge Newbery airport, the more local and smaller of the two Buenos Aires airports. We thought this airport would be a better option due to its smaller size. I was picturing something like John Wayne airport or San José — a bit calmer, fewer flights, etc. Unfortunately, it was quite the opposite. The self-service kiosks did not help us this time. This meant we had to wait in a queue that took us about an hour to get through. When we did finally reach the front, we had to check our bags for a flight we didn’t yet have seats for. The man with rather long beard helping us was quite nice, however, and assured us that we would get seats. We would simply have to board last.
With one hour of our layover out of the way, we went through security, and were dumped out into a terminal of mayhem. People everywhere. Children screaming, rogue wheeled luggage rolling off on its own, and groups of people stopping abruptly in the middle of the unnecessarily narrow hallway. The airport was not properly designed to handle the volume of traffic it is getting. We had dinner at Pain Quotidien, where we had some ham and cheese croissanwiches and a sparkling water that exploded on me.
Our flight to Iguazu, scheduled for 7:10pm ended up being delayed about 30 minutes due to a late inbound flight. There was an 810pm flight to Iguazu as well, but having checked our bags, I feared that we might get to Iguazu on that flight, but our pants would not. #standbyproblems. When boarding did commence, it went shockingly fast. We entered the queue at the back and were issued seats together in an exit row. We had barely taken our seats before the plane was pushing from the gate. It was about a 90 minute flight up to Iguazu on Argentina’s northern border.
It was an easy exit from the Iguazu airport until it wasn’t. We thought there was a hotel bus, but we were unable to reach the hotel to get this arranged one way or the other. We ended up taking a taxi, which was about a 25 minute ride. The chilliness of Santiago and Buenos Aires was replaced with tropical warmth. Our drive to the Hotel Mercure (which the taxi dispatchers insisted on pronouncing “Mercury”) soon came to an end and we got a very thorough tour of our room. Tomorrow we plan to see Iguazu Falls (obviously). Perhaps those plans will materialize after all.
passports & pepto bismol 