and now for the continuing storrrrrrry of a vacation that's to be expected of me...
el riesgo (the risk): while still in santiago, i booked an Aerolineas Argentinas (in and of itself a risky airline!) flight from mendoza, argentina to montevideo, uruguay, via buenos aires. faced with two options: arrive at the domestic airport (aeroparque) and take a 40-minute shuttle to the international airport (ezeiza), or spend $100 more dollars to have a shorter connection at the same airport (the "international" flight to montevideo is half the time, 35 minutes, than the domestic from mendoza). with a three-hour stopover, frugal-by-nature me took the airport transfer option.
la paciencia (the patience): checked flight status at hotel around midnight before having to leave at 4am to catch the 6am domestic flight. wouldn't you know it, but aerolineas decided to delay the domestic flight by 2 hours, thereby rendering my connection therefore impossible. despite trying to reassure myself that everything would work out, there are more z's in "ezeiza" than i saw for the proceding 4 hours. just in case, i arrived at MDZ as scheduled, and sure enough...no 6am flight.
la recompensa (the reward): 90 minutes after i arrive, aerolineas check-in staff arrive. first in line by, oh, half-an-hour, i explained the dilemma. result? with smiles and multiple hands of help, aerolineas changed my montevideo-flight to the $100-more "aeroparque" connection flight i had originally wanted - at no extra charge!
thus, as written in the previous blog, taking risks on this trip have seen incredible stresses, but a heck of alot of patience has yielded some pretty cool rewards. a life lesson indeed.
join us next time when our weary traveler notes:
in bold letterhead, the aerolineas argentinas in-flight magazine proclaims: "NATIONAL GOVERNMENT TO INCREASE POLICE PRESENCE IN KEY NEIGHBOURHOODS"
immediately facing, and looking like a continuation of the same article, the tourism argentina ad caption reads "WELCOME TO ARGENTINA."
bienvenidos a la argentina indeed...
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