South America - part 1

I drove to my friend after work on Wed 7 Jan arriving about 4pm after a good drive. The following morning I was up early to watch HAL's Rotterdam arrive at Southampton.

 

Our adventure proper began at 3pm when the cab collected us to drive us to Terminal 1 at Heathrow. I should perhaps add that this was my first long-haul flight - ever! Checking in our bags was easy, although for the first time my bag had a "heavy" label on it but at leas tit was within our 23kg limit - just! We then headed to the LAN/TAM gate to await our flight being called. As Terminal 1 is due for closure it was fairly quiet. Eventually the flight was called and we boarded quite quickly. There was ample leg room but very squashed widthways as a large man sat on my right. Fortunately the flight was not full and my friend was able to move to another seat and I took her aisle one. The problem here was that as I settled down to sleep, people kept knocking my arm and waking me up! The flight was smooth and we landed at Sao Paulo on time. It was another long walk to the gate for our Buenos Aires connection but again all went smoothly, aside from an awkward couple in front who insisted on fully reclining their seat even though it was only a three hour flight.

 

We again landed on time, although it was a very bumpy final approach through heavy rain clouds to Buenos Aires airport. At immigration we had to give our flight no, hotel, photo and thumb print. Then to baggage reclaim - it was such a relief to see our cases had arrived and survived the connecting flight. We soon found our pre-arranged transfer but had to wait quite a while for the car and driver. Since we had left in winter I was wearing trousers and a heavy coat. At Buenos Aires it was in the high 80s and sunny so I soon began to wilt. It took around an hour to drive to the Savoy Hotel. Our travel agent had warned me not to be taken in by the name but the hotel was wonderful - very Eva Peron, who in fact had stayed there on occasion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Faded grandeur, with marble, stucco and amazing plasterwork. Our room, 117, had a marble wet room with shower, bidet and toilet, a huge walk-in dressing room with wash basin and open clothes storage. The bedroom area had twin large beds, desk and an old stone balcony overlooking the street - where we watched a man selling melons from his van. After check-in, a shower and change, we set off to explore the immediate vicinity.

 

The hotel was very close to Constitution Square so after a walk around we refuelled on cake and cold drink. The street was full of cafes and restaurants. Back to the hotel and our complimentary glass of Argentinian wine. Then we walked down the street to find a restaurant for dinner.

 

Saturday 10^th January Buenos Aires

After a lovely lie-in we went down to breakfast around 9am. Argentina is three hours behind the UK so jet lag is not much of a problem. The breakfast buffet was laid out with cereals, fruit, cold meats and salmon, breads etc and champagne. After checking with the concierge, we set off to walk the ten blocks to the Ho-Ho bus stop. It actually took about 2 hours as we stopped to look in shops and have an ice-cream. It was hotter than yesterday but not quite as humid! When we bought our bus tickets, we were given a nice bottle of red wine, which we kept to take on board. The full round bus trip took 3 hours but we stayed on past the beginning to get off nearer to the hotel. It was a good tour and covered a wide area.

 

We finally got off about 4pm and walked back via a coffee shop for a mango granita and half a muffin. As we had an included tour to a tango show and dinner that evening we returned to the room for a shower and to change. I phoned the tour company to check it was still a 9pm pick up.

 

At 9.15 a minibus arrived and took us to La Viejo Almacen where we were greeted with free champagne ... but no food. It transpired we had been given the wrong voucher! The show was amazing with live music, dance, singers and an Andean band in the interval.

 

Got back to hotel at 1pm but needed food so we walked across the street to buy an empanada before retiring to bed. I found it amazing that there were so many families, with young children, eating out at that hour!