Anderson South American Adventure Day 2 - Buenos Aires "Fasten your Seat Belts it's Going to be a Bumpy Night" or "When will We Learn that We are too Old for Red Eye Flights?" March 4 - 5, 2020

At 9:00 we finally admitted that it was time to leave the comfort of the Admiral's Club Lounge and head for our boarding gate. We were in boarding group 6 and they were already loading group 4. Rob ran to get our water bottles filled and we merged with the masses. They would call a boarding group and the masses at the beginning of the line would just stay there. Please wait somewhere else. We have the 2nd last row, or steerage. We go past the first class passengers in their little pods then the business class with more room, then a premium seating section. You have to pay extra to get one of these seats, the seats are mostly empty. Then we get to our section. The bins above our seat are filled so a flight attendant told me to use the ones across the aisle. These are more shallow and I have to turn my suitcase sideways. I am used to the other way so that more people can get their suitcases in but OK. We are in a section of seats where the plane starts to curve so instead of three seats there are two seats. We kind of hoped that we might get bigger seats, oh wow, we are silly. I sit there and watch people try to turn my suitcase the other way so that they can get their bag in. The flight attendant keeps telling them "no, that will not work." I am keeping an eye on my suitcase. I have had to play "where oh where is my suitcase" at the end of a flight, not in the mood for it. As we boarded I noticed several people wearing face masks. As the flight went on I saw fewer people wearing face masks. We take off a couple of minutes early and I prepare to hopefully sleep for much of the flight. Seriously, I did think this. I do not know why but this was a very bumpy flight. Not like we hit some pockets of turbulence but in, the entire flight we were bouncing around. Rob sleeps and I stare at him trying to figure out how he can through all of this. I would start to sleep and "bam" we would start to bounce again. We were rocking side to side. I have never wanted to be a pilot and I was very glad that I was not the pilot of this plane. I will say that this was one of the quieter overnight flights that I have ever taken. I had the window seat and thought that I could just lean against the side of the plane. Remember how I talked about hoping for extra space, well that is one of the places that it was, the other was in the aisle. It came in handy to stuff things there, not good for leaning on the wall. We land and get off of the plane where we are herded into two different groups. The instructions were given in Spanish. We figured that if we could not understand what they were saying we should go where they were pointing. Ah we finally see a sign that read "Ex Tranjero." We figured that said foreigner and stay in that line. We are snaking around and back and forth and around the escalator. We are being told what to do, only it is in Spanish so who knows what we are being told. Then they pull some people out of our line, us included to go to a different line. Why? No one tells us, but he is wearing a uniform and we are in a foreign country so I just follow directions. We stand, and shift along and stand some more. The room is packed with people and it is warm. If they are scanning temps I am on the first flight back to the US. Finally after more than 90 minutes we go up to the booth. Hand in our passports, get our pictures taken, get our thumb print scanned and answer questions. What hotel are we staying in. At an Airbnb. Where is it? We give the area, no, he needs an address. Rob can tell him the street, but not the address. He pulls out his papers. In all of his papers he does not have the address. He has to pull out his laptop to find the address. I happen to glance back at the people in line. They do not look happy. Finally we are done. We go in search of our luggage. I figured that by now our luggage has come up, we are just hoping that it is still there. We find it and start to move out. I find that in most other countries the luggage carts are free, why do we have to pay in the US? We head for the lobby and get mobbed by taxi companies. We know that you do not want to go outside of the airport to get a taxi but will we do better in the lobby or the companies that have a counter? Forget it, just get a taxi. We get a quote and are told 15 minutes for our taxi. Our Airbnb host wants us to text him from the airport. Great, I will have time. Rob is going in search of the currency exchange counter. So of course our 15 minutes turns into NOW they have a driver. Rob explains that he needs to exchange currency. The man shows us the line, um, yeah, never mind. Back to the lobby and heading for the curb. We run into Rob's brother Jim. They landed an hour after us and are already through customs. Sometimes life is unfair. Finally we are in the taxi. I try to text the host but we are no longer on wifi and I am not paying for international service. We do not know if there will be anyone there. Wow, what a great way to start a vacation. We drive and drive and drive and I keep nodding off. We get to the place, at least it is a nice neighborhood. We unload and ring the buzzer. YES, God is smiling on us the host is there. He comes down to let us and help us with the luggage. He is explaining everything to us, how to use the TV, where things are how to use the subway. The entire time I just want him to go away so I can take a shower and put on clean clothes. We get settled in, take showers, Rob gets currency exchanged, only took two tries, and I sleep some more. Donna and I have tested and yes, if we are both on wifi with the phones set on airplane mode we can text. We go to get something for breakfast and Rob said that we needed to eat lunch. This is how tired I am, I am not hungry. We settle on yogurt for breakfast, split a sandwich for lunch and splurge on a 2 litre bottle of Coke Zero. We are meeting Donna and Jim for dinner at an empanada place at 7:00. We get there just as the guy is opening at 6:50 but he lets us come in. Rob waits on the sidewalk for Donna and Jim since it is not an easy place to find. Finally at 7:10 we decide to order. Something must have happened. Rob had read that the cheese and onion empanadas are a must have. What's not to love, carmalized onions and melted cheese. I ordered a chicken one and it will be out soon. I begin to wonder if they are chasing the chicken around in the back. We decide to order more and at 7:40 Donna and Jim show up. They tried to find an ATM to do their exchange and a few miss directions they finally find it and the ATM keeps charging them a fee but not dispensing money. If you can get your hands on the video from this I am sure that it will be amusing to watch. I did not get pictures of the empanadas but we liked it so much we are going back tomorrow. It has been a long two days and we have a full day tomorrow, including the yarn district.