Argentina Day 1-2 – Flying to Buenos Aires

Our trip has progressed with many flight updates being (what felt like) constantly updated over the summer. We scored a crazy good deal from Vancouver to Buenos Aires with AirMiles and managed to be Business Class the whole way. I think every single flight (we have 9 separate flying days on this trip) has been changed at least once if not more. Welcome to post CoVid travel industry restart. Deals can be had but chaos reigns. Kris, per usual, has planned and organized the trip to include tons of awesome experiences and then had to constantly readjust as flights changed, places closed etc. All in all she says this is the most complicated trip she’s ever organized. If it all works out in the end, it will be a miracle!

The fun continued this morning when we discovered Air Canada had cancelled our Vancouver -> Toronto leg as the plane was delayed by storms in Korea. So overnight our departure went from 1320 in the afternoon to 1105. Good thing we are used to travel and were prepared ahead of time! What should have been a leisurely start was suddenly 2 hours less free time to get the airport.

Being in business class we were treated well. So much so that Kris got given someone else’s glass of wine. The flight attendant realizing her mistake asked if we were driving after the flight. Nope, more time in the lounge in TO.

Our next flight was Toronto -> São Paulo Brazil. Thankfully we were able to sleep most of the way. We thought we were just touching down in São Paulo and could stay on the plane while others left and new folks boarded. Nope. Brazil decides we need to do a secondary security check before continuing on. So after getting off the plane, walking down some stairs, going back through security, we got back on the exact plane (and seats) we just left. And they didn’t like the fact that our boarding passes are not printed out, just on our phones. Not sure what difference it makes. Have to love government bureaucracy.

Eva Peron (Evita) was the wife of one of Argentina’s presidents and died from uterine cancer at 33. She is still very well loved by the people. The Evita museum is just up the street from our hotel.

The Awwa suites and spa is a nice small hotel near the large garden parks in the city. We are only spending the night in Buenos Aires but will be back later in the trip to see more local sites.

We wanted to find some gluten free bread/crackers/corn cakes for Dave as we are picnicking a few times and GF is not a thing we can count on in Argentina. We found a couple interesting brands in the local Disco supermercado.

The only thing left to do now was dinner. And since meat and wine are big in Argentina we figured this was a good way to start things off. A few blocks from the hotel is Parilla la Josefina.

The word parrilla translates as ‘grill’ and refers to the actual open-fire hearth and grates where meats are cooked in a traditional grilled meat dinner. Colloquially it means a ‘steakhouse’ that specializes in grilled meats. And oh so tasty. Definitely a big meat experience! We tried the eggplant and grilled provolone before sharing the steak and pork special!

And wine, oh the wine. They do it so well here. This is a winery we will have to go visit when we get to Mendoza. A 2020 Malbec blend that drinks like a 2010.

Tomorrow we fly to Trelew and start with nature. We’re not sure if we’re really ready for more planes but that is this trip. So much ground to cover, not enough time.