Day 0-1: SFO – Miami – Buenos Aires – Port Madryn (Argentina)....more songs of travel and food

Day 0-1: SFO – Miami – Buenos Aires – Port Madryn (Argentina), Nov 1 and 2, with a 4 hour time change ahead of E-ville

Weather: Cool in dark of E-ville, mid 80s in Miami, way too hot inside the BA Intl aeropuerto, cool in early morn of BA, raining at Trelew aeropuerto (and only at the aeropuerto) and mild and 60s in Port Madryn (an hour from Trelew aeropuerto)

QOTD: It looks like we’re the only one on this flight that wrapped their bags

So far so good: we were in the SFO lounge around 5:30am, plenty of time before the American Airlines flight leaving at 7:12am. Flight arrives in Miami right on time and we take a very long walk to the 2^nd Admirals club lounge as it is closer to our next flight and DB got the word it was nicer, and so it was.

THB stuff for overnight flight: Bose, Kindle, giant i-pod

American Airlines stuff for flight: good news, THB gets a small "dry" bag that might come in handy for Zodiac rides on cruise

THB missed the announcement, bottle of water was not an "extra" it was an essential

Another essential

Bulgur and feta stuffed portobello mushroom; very spicy, unusual for airplane food

the antidote

Next flight, from Miami to the Buenos Aires Intl aeropuerto is good and bad: the pods in business class are terrific (easy to spread out and put stuff away and yet keep accessible) and the service was perfunctory at best, including no water, hot or cold, in the restrooms and indifferent flight attendants. 

And, damn, the flight is over a half hour early and THB is having déjà vu all over again when it comes to flying inside or to or from Argentina. By being a half hour early, we’re at the gate around 5:30am and from sad experience THB knows the airport staff doesn’t usually start until at least 6am. 

The ground crew can’t connect the jetway to the airplane; immigration is grossly understaffed; and the customs staff is non-existent so even though 99% of passengers have nothing to declare it takes over a half hour to exit airport (ironically: for unknown reasons we are one of few to get waved through without our bags being scanned). Our transfer to the domestic airport is waiting for us, and now we make our way slowly to the domestic aeropuerto (almost in downtown BA), about 50 minutes in rush hour traffic.

THB has a first: we’re on a small domestic flight with carry-on constraints, so THB pays to have the two checked bags wrapped (mostly because the walking poles we’ve brought won’t fit in the bags and most likely won’t make it through security as carry-ons), $10 per bag (and a horrible waste of plastic). Now to find out if they will make it to the Trelew aeropuerto on the same flight we’re on (THB has had some bad experiences with luggage and domestic carriers in Argentina).

ATMs don't work in your town

Another déjà vu moment: the HSBC ATM in the domestic aeropuerto isn’t working. This plagued us years ago in BA; along with not working, the ATMs often wouldn’t spit out many pesos. Good news: everybody takes US dollars and at 35 pesos to the dollar the conversion is pretty easy. It won’t matter much, it’s just for the few days on either side of the cruise, and we’ve brought lots of small denomination US bills with us for just these situations.

After a mediocre breakfast on the plane at around 3am (11pm by our body clock time) we decide to eat another breakfast (i.e., lunch) in the cafe through security (turned out we didn’t scout enough, there was a reasonably uncrowded café at the very far end of the terminal). Either a bunch of flights were delayed (we hope) or delayed and about to be cancelled, and it’s standing room only in the terminal.  We learn later from our Trelew transfer guy that there had been a one-half-day union action at the domestic BA aeropuerto and Aerolinas Argentina had to cancel a bunch of flights. THB and DB escape what could've been another tragic travel day in Argentina: our bags checked and no flights to Trelew. Good news: we have planned an extra day into the itinerary for just this type of disaster.

Every seat in aeropuerto is occumpied

THB is trying to stay awake during daylight hours

"mystery" meat for breakfast

Lunch at 8:30am: very large ham and cheese quiche for DB, a “Milanaise” sandwich (deep fried something, THB has no clue and doesn’t bother asking even though the waitress spoke English and THB speaks un poquito Espanol) and papas fritas for THB, aqua y café Americano, $17.50 with generous tip (pesos come back in change for US $20 bill).

Our flight changes gates several times, or so it seems, and we actually board on time. THB has a great view of the guy loading the bags onto the conveyor and notices a) he’s working really slowly (THB didn’t know about the union action yet) and b) no sign of our bright green bags being on-boarded.

Filler: a pic of an empty baggage van

Adios BA

The plane doors close right on time and then we sit for an hour without moving. THB and DB didn’t know about the union action yet and the pilot doesn’t make any attempt to explain what is going on other than we’re taking on fuel. Just maybe THB rests his eyes for a moment or two.

Biz class meal on the flight to Trelew: THB picks out the banana chips and cedes them to DB

Since we're staying in Puerto Madryn, 50 miles away, we're going to miss out on a visit to the see Patagonia dinosaur bones

We leave an hour later, the flight time is same as advertised, and as we’re taxiing to the terminal (a very small terminal), it starts to rain. Everywhere for miles around it looks like a desert. Our guide said the rain was very unusual (and they've just had spring)…and there’s moisture on our green plastic wrapped bags. Best $20 THB has spent in a long time.

Lots of reminiscing with our transfer guy: he has done guiding and been to a lot of the places we visited in the past on our Patagonia trips. He even wants to know the name of our kayak guides (A&S: remember that day? We got out of kayaks and sunned ourselves the day after hiking in the snow just a few minutes from the lake). He also confirms that Argentina is experiencing 40% inflation this year, another excellent reason for the ATMs to be out of service (though you’d think the banks would want US dollars and give away pesos like crazy).

There's just a bit of an overhang (see that dry patch on sidewalk), enough that THB and DB and bags don't get tooooo wet

Hotel Peninsula Valdes

Our room

Finally, 31 hours after leaving the loft, a body in motion comes to a rest, at the Hotel Peninsula Valdes in Puerto Madryn. The room is lovely, the shower is awesome, we’re on the 8^th floor with a view of the harbor (sorry, no whale sightings…yet), the windows open, so we’re breathing fresh ocean air (though BA air was very clear, even Miami seemed decent).

There's a stall shower on left tucked in behind the door, along with one in bathtub

No need to unpack much, everything we brought transfers to the boat a day and a half from now. We actually wash out our travel clothes. 

Not our ships:

Sunset is now 8pm for THB, sunrise is at 6am. Ahhhhh, the trips to the Southern Hemisphere in the winter.

Our dinner spot, pic taken from our room

Brew pub for pre-dinner drinks

THB has local Brewery Berlina  IPA

IPA excellent, wine is not even "generic" good

Dinner at La Estela doesn’t start until 8 so DB and THB do something totally unusual: we go to the beer place on the corner and have a glass of vino and a brewski for pre-game tail-gating. The IPA is excellent, the vin ordinaire was very ordinaire, and we don’t finish either, $7.

THB is in heaven...very fond memories for this style meal; the lamb is served on a warming grill over hot burned down coals

Chicken (with lemon squeezed on top of flattened chicken breast) and fries, also very good

$13 in restaurant and very good. Note: it's the 2017 vintage so almost like a Beaujolais 

La Estela is a parilla, with the meat grilled over a hot wood fire. We share a quarter of chicken con papas fritas (excellent, with limon squeezed on top) and a ¼ kilo of cordero (lamb), also excellent - and fatty - and about 60% of a Malbec riserva (pretty decent), along with a freebie of grilled and fresh bread and cannellini beans in a spicy oily sauce. With a 10% tip, the total is $60. Another déjà vu moment: the food in Argentina is generally above average and very reasonable.

THB reaches into the archives for a twins chair shot; we miss you, Grandpa (awwwwwwwwww)

Book Review: The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai (novel): Alternating chapters of the gay scene in Chicago in the mid-1980s, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and 30 years later in 2015, mostly set in Paris as a few characters (with overlap of some of the survivors of the 1980s) reconcile family dysfunctions. The 1980s chapters are heartbreaking, interwoven with a 90 year old’s attempting to donate to Northwestern some sketches and studies by famous artists she knew from living in Paris the 1910s and 1920s. Easier to keep track of than it is for THB to describe. Recommended

Twins most current chair pic, complete with hints as to which is which. We miss you too/two, Grandma!