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Published: April 14th 2012
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So, the day was finally upon us when we would get to see a friendly face from home. Donna and I were looking forward to seeing Matt (Donna’s Brother) and so got a taxi down to the airport terminal early doors in order to wait in anticipation for him to land. We had been dropped off at international arrivals and began to wait for his plane to get in. Once the plane had landed, we stood and eagerly waited for Matt to come round the corner of immigration. After a while of waiting, we got a little paranoid as to where he was, and so we checked the screen again to see if the plane had indeed landed on time as we thought it had. This was when we realised that next to Matt’s plane information, there was a large ‘Terminal A’ next to his plane. Was this terminal A, or was there another terminal here? We had been dropped off at international arrivals, so should be fine…..but what if we were wrong? Matt would be wandering round a strange country’s airport with no one to meet him without being able to speak a word of Spanish, and would therefore be
pretty lost…. I’d better go check.
I wandered off leaving Donna to cover the arrivals we had initially gone to, in search of a potential other terminal. After 5 minutes or so of walking, I came across ‘Terminal A’ ….ah, this must be it! We had been waiting at the wrong terminal! So, after about 30 minutes of waiting there on my own, I decided to risk Matt coming through and went to grab Donna. Now that we were both waiting there an hour after Matt had landed, we became paranoid that he had already stumbled through and that we had missed him, so whilst Donna waited at the arrival gate, I was on surveillance seeing if he was wandering the terminal. Eventually though, after around another 15 minutes or so of waiting, there he was, drifting through international arrivals…Thank God for that!
Once the airport debacle was behind us we headed back to our hostel in a cab and caught up with Matt about our trip as well as what was going on back in Blighty. It was clear to us that the weather in England must have been awful, and Matt confirmed this both verbally and
physically as he seemed to be whiter than any human we had ever seen before! So after a good natter on the roof terrace of the hostel, we decided to go for a bit of a wander around Buenos Aires. We started off in the plaza and took in a few of the sights there including the Casa Rosada and the Cathedral before heading for a cheeky beer and some well-deserved lunch.
Not wanting to tire ourselves out too much on the first day of Matt’s arrival, we decided to go back to the hostel, have a few beers and eventually go for a quite meal and get a fairly early night. This was a plan with no draw-backs …..until we met Steve from London. The four of us sat up on the roof chewing the fat with a good few beers until we all felt a little peckish. From here we decided that you couldn’t beat a nice bit of steak and a bottle of red wine and since we were in the best place possible for both things, we hit a steak house and ordered a couple of bottles of extremely good red Malbec. All this for
the same price as a common table wine and a fast food burger back home. What’s not to love! From here we decided to hit a pub or two and came across a strange little place Steve had frequented a few days previous called simply ‘The red door’. We were lucky to finally stumble upon it when we noticed a huge red door down one of the street s, without any signs or clues as to what this place was…’Ah, I think this is it?’ Steve declared.
The pub itself was a good one, and again the banter and chat was flowing, however by 2.30am, it was clear that the 13 hour flight and all day travelling had finally caught up with Matt as whilst in the bar, he was barely able to keep his eyes open, and for once, it wasn’t because I was trying to tell a story….the poor lad was knackered! So, off to bed we went.
The next day we decided to go see the popular cemetery in the Recoleta district of BA where the famous Evita and her president husband are buried. On arrival though, we were all quite shocked to see the
scale of this ‘cemetery’ as it was the size of a full neighbourhood block with tombs as big as some of the houses we have seen throughout South America! This place was just vast, and really interesting to see. Donna and I have mentioned before that we do love a cemetery, and this was therefore right up our street. Evita’s grave/tomb itself was actually very understated compared with an lot of the other ones in the cemetery, and the three of us just wandered round gobsmacked at the vastness of this place, and of some of the intricacies and beauty of the tombs here.
After this, Donna and I had to run a quick errand, we needed to have X-rays on our chests as part of our Visa requirement for New Zealand to prove we do not have TB. This was a real pain, and something we could have done without, however we had to get these done, plus, it’s always good to know whether you have TB or not….
So, after a real arse about face afternoon of getting sent here there and everywhere, it turns out that we were TB free and everything was in order.
We had sorted this just in time to be able to get back to the hostel, pick up our bags and get a cab down to the bus station in order to get to the next stop on our itinerary…Iguazu Falls. We managed to get back well in time to the hostel, however I had a plan. As the hostel had a scanner I decided now would be the time to get the forms for the visa scanned in to our computer by the hostel in case we didn’t come across another place with a scanner. The hostel receptionist started to do this for me, and we were cruising. Then, out of the blue, he had to go and do his job…… how selfish! This put us back somewhat, and by the time he was finally finished and had called us a cab, we were dangerously close to missing the bus we had paid about £70 each for…..not good.
If we missed this bus, not only would it screw up our whole 2 week itinerary, but we would have to buy new tickets for a different bus, plus, I would have to see a doctor for bruised testicles
as Donna would have no doubt booted my man region out of anger and frustration with my hair brained plan that put us unnecessarily off schedule.. We needed to catch this bus!
So, after an agonising 10 minute wait for the cab, we had just 20 minutes to reach the bus station (usually around 15 mins away) in rush hour….it was going to be close.
The cab driver, having no idea as to our predicament was currently buying food from a shop when we came out with all our bags, and was in no rush to help us out….18 minutes til departure.
After stopping at what seemed to be every single red light on each of the blocks, we were finally within reach but with no idea what the time was or where the bus platform was that we needed. We therefore decided that Matt and I would carry the bags and that Donna should run to the platform and stop the bus from leaving. So, with Donna sprinting towards the terminal and with Matt and I loaded up like cart horses, we made our way to the platform. After a quick look at the clock on
the wall, it suggested the time was 6:50pm….we had made it with 10 minutes to spare, and our bus wasn’t even in the bus station yet…..phew.
My nuts would see another day, and the schedule was back on! Iguazu falls, here we come!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Ahhh...you decided to backtrack with Matt. Understandable, but I hate to backtrack...
Sometimes it has to be done.