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Published: December 31st 2006
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Dec 26-27, The Saga Begins…
So much has happened since I last posted. Where to start???
We’ll start with my “Lost Luggage” Our journey to El Calafate was and extremely long one. We flew from Rio to Sao Paolo to Santiago, Chile where we had a 7 hour overnight layover. We slept in the airport like a couple of homeless kids, each taking a bench to try and get a little sleep. Then at 7am we boarded our international flight to Buenos Aires to then take a cab to the domestic airport, to catch a flight down to El Calafate. All in all it took about 24 hours to get down to El Calafate. The flights were ridiculous. It was like flying from San Franciso to Reno, then from there flying to Denver, laying over, and then boarding a flight to San Jose, CA and then down to Mexico City all within a 24 hour period. Then once at our final destination we realized that it was cold in El Calafate. I had pants, and a jacket on, but Russ had a T-shirt and shorts, in 50 degree weather and to top it off it was raining. What were we thinking?????
Perito Moreno Glacier
This was just spectacular! Oh, it gets better. Russ’ duffle bag arrives and he promptly puts on his fleece jackets as we wait for my bag. We wait, and wait. The airport is now starting to empty….. still no bag for Nou. Mind you, I’m standing there in a pair of leather flip flops staring out the window as the rain falls. We check in at the counter and let them know about my lost luggage.
We then we board a cab for the 20 minute ride into the small town of Calafate. We book a room and I hole up in the room while Russ goes to find and outfitter for me so that I can get a pair of shoes or hiking boots. Success, there are quite a few places that we can get me some shoes. I now have myself a nice new pair of Gortex Timberland boots. Woohoo! It’s late so we decide to get some food and get some internetting done.
We turn in early that night because it’s been a long journey and we’re both beat. Russ starts unpacking and rummaging through his bag and realizes that he’s missing his Swiss Army knife and his belt.
Perito Moreno Glacier
Here's a vertical stitch to give you a better idea. Strange….he was positive he packed it…..Now thinking back we realized why people were shrink wrapping their bags back in Rio. It was a strange site to see. We wondered why but it didn’t occur to us that it was because our bags would be ransacked and items stolen.
Dec 28th, Glaciars and The Return of my “Lost Luggage”
We woke up early on the 28th to grab breakfast and cruise the town to book a few tours for our stay in Calafate. Once in town we realized that nothing opened before 9am as we wondered around at 8:30. We were fortunately enough to find one tour office open before 9 and we headed in. The nice lady walked us through all of our options and to my dismay dissuaded us in taking a minitrekking tour of a glacier. The one thing I had my heart set on was either going hiking on glaciers or go ice climbing. Both were not viable options for us for the time of our visit. So we settled on taking a bus to go see Perito Moreno Glacier, which was actually great! It was gorgeous and we actually got to see chucks break off and fall into the water. Quite a spectacular site! The bus ride was a little over an hour and we were at the glacier for 4 hours with the hour plus return bus ride. I hadn’t mentioned that I was actually sick. I had a case of the stomach flu. It wasn’t pretty. I don’t need to say more than that I was surprised I was able to walk around and go see things. It was pretty miserable.
I had been trying to contact the LAN Chile Airlines all morning to no avail. Really it wasn’t surprising to me that they wouldn’t pick up the phone. They have by far the worst customer service that I have encountered as far as Airlines go. Even when I tried to speak Spanish, granted it was broken Spanish, they were rude. After dialing the same number over and over and getting more and more frustrated I found the number for the airport and called there to see if I could get a live person. After 4 transfers and two wrong numbers I was given to a real person that told me I had to go back to the airport at 1pm. So we go on down and of course, with LAN’s top notch customer service the same girl I was on the phone told me that my bag will arrive at 4pm and that’s when I should return to retrieve my bag. How do I know it was the same girl that I talked to on the phone you ask? El Calafate has the world’s smallest airport and LAN had only two people working their booth, a guy and a girl. Sorry, going back to the story, 4 o’clock, she really wants me to go back into town (30 minute cab ride, at 40 pesos each way- a total rip off) wait for three hours and come back? They were the ones that lost the baggage why should I be punished for their screw up. I told them that I would be away at 4 o’clock and asked them if they could have my bag delivered, like it was such a friggin’ novel idea! They agreed and I took the cab back to town. Round trip cab fare, 75 pesos, and over an hour of my precious vacation time. Grrrr….
We got back from our little glacier watching trip around 9pm and I was pretty miserable. I went straight back to our room, while Russ went to the store to get my crackers and Sprite. I would’ve been great if I had my bag since I have a small pharmacy in it for cases such as this.
I keep saying “Lost Luggage” because I don’t think that my bag was ever really lost but more likely held up so that it can be thoroughly gone through and items removed. Once my bag finally showed up all I could think of was getting to the Alka Seltzer and the Imodium. I didn’t notice at first that my running shoes were missing. I did notice how it looked a little different in the bag, like why are those pants packed on top? Did I do that?
The more I go through my bag the more I find that items are missing.
Missing Items:
Running Shoes
Adidas running cap
Silver necklace
Perfume- barely any left but they took it any way!
Tweezers
And goodness know what else I haven’t thought of….
I am beyond pissed, but have come to terms with the fact that it’s the tourist tax. What I’m not so upset about the monetary loss, although it does really really suck, it’s the violation. Someone rummaged through all of my belongings. It’s so, so, just intrusive and violating.
Well enough of that I just got that shoulder pat from Russ, which means I need to hurry up already…..
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Cristina
non-member comment
Totally Understand
Nou and Russ, My heart goes out to both of you as Artin and I went through the same thing in Prague...It sounds like your trip has been good since this experience and that you are both safe. Enjoy the rest! The pictures look amazing! Now-I also understand the purpose of the shrinkage wrap on the bags-hmmmmm