Roadblock

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Roadblock, this is when all that you have planned and payed for does not go to plan, and the only way through the roadblock is to part with money (lots of it) and time.
I think at our last entry we were in El Calafate ready to leave Patagonia and back to Buenas Aires for 1 night before flying into Bolivia and the next phase of our journey. Sounds great in theory, right?Something about the best laid plans of mice and men rings true from here on in.
Arrive at airport on time, confirmed (twice) ticket in hand.
LAN (not LAN Chile but a new division in Argentina) inform us our travel agent in Australia hadn´t reserved our seat on the plane. (we later find out that LAN have a history of overbooking flights). So handing over our money and receiving a ticket which we confirm twice isn´t quite enough to actually secure a seat on that flight.
Sorry, maybe you could try Aerolineas Argentinas next door, I think they may have some business class seats which you could purchase (at our own expense of course but which they didn´t have anyway) or a 36 hour bus ride.
To cut a long story short, LAN offered us nothing, no alternative seat (nothing for 2 more weeks), no accommodation back in El Calafate and not even a taxi back into town, just a sorry and pointing to the exit door.
Get ready LAN, I´m coming to get you. You better get a lawyer son, you better get a real good one.
This meant we would also miss our connection to La Paz Bolivia the following day.
Next day we plant ourselves on the doorstep of AA at opening hours to try to buy a ticket back to BA. Bingo. They had 2 seats left leaving in an hour and half which would still give us a chance to catch our connection in BA.
Miracle 1 - we pack bags and dash to airport on time.
Miracle 2 - flight actually leaves on time.
Miracle 3 - our bags are first out at other end.
Miracle 4 - our taxi driver is Fanggio reincarnated and gets us to the international airport with an hour to spare.
At this point I am reminded of an old song whose name I can´t remember with some lyrics ¨´they will build you up just to let you down´´.
Our next flight is with Lloyd Aereo Boliviano - LAB. When those surveys are done asking for the worlds top airlines, the usual suspects pop up - Singapore, Cathay, Emirates, even Qantas gets a jersey. I don´t recall ever seeing LAB on the podium. Maybe that´s because they have a competitive history of breaking down, falling out of the sky or just running into mountains. Maybe its because they´ve got less planes than the number of scheduled flights and what planes they do have spend an inordinate amount of time under repair. Maybe its because the owners of the airline couldn´t organise a vine to crawl up a wall. Whatever the reason, I´ll break down our few days into;
- 2 cancellations -1 of which meant 2 extra days in BA (not a bad place to spend a couple of spare days)
- 1 x 12 hour delay
- 1x 4 early departure but which was then delayed for another 3 hours, and
- 1 x 2 hour delay.
All this and the actual flying time from BA to La Paz is only 3 and half hours.
We had to spend a night in a city called Santa Cruz in Bolivia (the driver of our bus from the airport got lost but still managed to pick up 2 paying passengers enroute to the hotel) but we were the lucky ones. One poor woman had been stuck in SC for 4 days, most people sleeping in the airport on the floor until they could get a flight.
The airport itself was UTTER, UTTER, UTTER chaos, bedlam, mayhem - you name it. Hundreds of people cramming in, shouting over counters, tempers flaring and the frazzled staff behind the counters copping the abuse. ( can I just add Penny displayed stringent anger management throughout the entire ordeal).
SOMEHOW, SOMEHOW, we landed a couple of seats and 3 days late, cruising into La Paz airport 4000m above sea level, viewing from above the incredible location of this amazing city lining every square inch of a dormant crater, the world´s highest capital city, the previous few days were almost immediately vanquished from our minds.
If this kind of stuff is character building then we have character oozing from every pore of our body.
Gary and Penny in Bolivia - at last.

Update - LAN have offered to refund our unused tickets from El Calafate. We´ll wait and see.

More images at:

www.colvinyeates.zenfolio.com

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Photos

Museum, BA
Central Buenas Aires

San Thelmo
Sunday traffic

Pesos
Good bye Argentina