Day 0: Travel from Phoenix to BA

We left home at 0800 PST with the help of an Uber ride to Phoenix Sky Harbor and started our journey, which would take us to Miami and then to Argentina.

Fortunately, nothing worthy of mention happened. Our main concern was that one or more of our connecting flights would experience cancellation or delay, which would affect whatever we planned for Day 1. However, all of our flights were on time and without problems.

The first leg of the trip was a five-hour flight from Phoenix to Miami, where we only had to wait one hour for our connecting flight to EZE, the international airport in Buenos Aires. The nine-hour flight to Buenos Aires (henceforth referred to as “BA”) was quiet and they fed us twice. The food was disappointing but airline food seldom meets my high culinary standards. Also, I did not get any sleep. Despite springing for “Premium Economy” seats, back pain and movement of the plane in flight prevented any attempt to sleep. Lorna got about three hours of sleep but her attempts to remain so were complicated by crying babies. That would also have been a factor in my inability to sleep if it were not for sound-deadening headphones.

We arrived in BA at sunrise of Day 1.

Day 1: BA to Mendoza

After a nearly trouble-free processing through immigration, we met up with our tourism agency’s representative and were picked up by our driver to get to the regional airport, an hour away.

Some initial observations about BA:

• Despite the presumed good air quality suggested by the city’s name, we did not detect anything clean about the air. From the international airport to the regional airport an hour away, the constant odor of diesel overwhelmed any goodness that might have had a chance at survival.

• The traffic was horrible. Granted, this was at 0630 on a Monday morning so it may have been typical. The one-hour drive from airport to airport was bumper-to-bumper. I have not seen such traffic since in was in Panama City, where you would find three traffic lanes and five actual lanes of traffic defying the intended lane designations.

• Motorcycles and their gimpy scooter brethren dominated any free space between lanes. It was not unusual to be at a dead stop on the freeway while dozens of scooters zoomed past on the shoulder and between lanes.

Upon arrival at the domestic airport, we settled in for our six-hour wait for our flight to Mendoza.

At one point, we were sitting outside so that I could vape and I had my phone next to me on the picnic table. A local at another table warned me to guarda la celular because it is common for thieves for grab and run, despite the heavy police presence around the airport terminal.

I also found a national bank branch in the airport to exchange one of my benjamins for AR pesos and had to suffer the awful exchange rate that one gets by using a bank. The official exchange rate is around 145 AR pesos per US dollar, while the black market “cambios” can exchange at the “blue dollar” rate of 200-300 AR pesos per US dollar. Because we were stuck at the airport, we had no choice but to exchange at the official rate because the only means of exchange was the national bank branch inside the terminal.

After the six hour layover, we finally boarded our flight to Mendoza. A two-hour hop later, during which neither of us were able to catch a nap, we arrived in Mendoza and met up with our contact, who handed our rental truck over to us.

I was planning on driving because they were supposed to have given us a 4x4 with manual transmission. Because of Lorna’s broken foot and inability to use the clutch pedal, it was up to me to drive, even at the risk of my falling asleep at the wheel, as I tend to do. Fortunately, the vehicle had automatic transmission, so Lorna was able to drive.

After a 45 minute drive south to Lujon de Cuyo, Google Maps directed us to what it thought was our destination: the middle of a busy intersection, followed by directing us down the wrong way of a one-way street. We concluded at that point that Google Maps was insane and changed our means of navigation to WAZE and whatever Apple devices use.

The alternative method was successful, which brought us to our hotel, Finca Adalgisa. We initially had some difficulty finding it because all properties on the street were gated and none marked with what lay beyond. I had to call the hotel to explain that we were lost, after which they had someone go out to the street to open the gate and wave us in.

After 30 hours of travel in the same clothes, all we wanted to do was wash and relax. Instead of going out for supper, we went to the hotel’s small, vineyard restaurant, where we had charcuterie, soup, salad and wine. Because Lorna was recovering from a broken foot, she had to keep it elevated periodically.

An initial observation of what we saw of BA and Mendoza - The city reminded me of driving though Phoenix on Interstate 10: Dilapidated houses, cars older than we are, and poorly maintained roads. I would not take this as a representation of what the rest of the city is like because as with Phoenix, it seems to get nicer the further away from the freeway you go. I will reserve judgment until we see more.

An initial observation about language barriers: I have been studying Spanish for about two years but had not considered myself ready yet for situations where I need to speak Spanish to get by. In our first day in BA and Mendoza, we interacted with a lot of people in BA and Mendoza who either did not or would not speak English. The PSA agent (Argentina’s version of TSA) who had to pat me down after I set off the metal detector was probably the most important to need to understand, but I had no problems understanding him. The food truck vendor outside the airport where I bought Choripan for lunch didn’t speak any English, but we were able to complete the transaction without issues. This gave me a little more confidence that we would be OK in most situations.

More on this issue later as we travel north, where it is less likely to be as accommodating to those who do not speak nor understand Spanish.

Next up - Day 2: Lujon de Cuyo

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