Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in

One thing I know about travel, especially international travel, especially international travel to places that do not have the ultra-polished infrastructure in place for the tourist set, is that it teaches flexibility. I knew this would be something it would teach me, anyway, because it really is not innate for me to just go with the flow and take what happens.

So, yeah. I am writing this entry from home. As in, California. As in, the US.

It's a really long story, and it involves two and a half or so days of the longest, most miserable, most impotent-feeling, most depressing days ever.

But no, the trip is not off. It's just now my round-the-world trip includes a mini stop in California. I go to New Zealand next week.

OK, so for the full version: When I first arrived in Argentina, during that rough start that involved my late flight into Buenos Aires, I went back to ask the flight attendants about my flight on Aerolineas Argentina, one of them got a big,, wide-eyed look and said, "But Aerolineas is on strike. There were riots yesterday." Well, it turned out that it was a strike that only lasted a couple of days, and it only affected international flights anyway. I didn't worry about it too much, especially since they were able to help me get to Ushuaia only one day late.

Turns out I had reason to worry. I have since learned that Aerolineas is a fairly dodgy airline. I was pretty ready to get out of Buenos Aires, and really eager to get to New Zealand, from at least Friday on. Saturday went pretty quickly, and on Sunday I checked out of my hostel and spent the day wandering about the city - my flight was originally scheduled to leave just before midnight, but was pushed back before I reconfirmed, so was now leaving at 1am. When I came back to the hostel to pick up my bags before taking a bus to the airport, the guys at the desk told me that Aerolineas called that morning, and my flight was pushed back another 8 hours, and was now supposed to leave at 9am.

I was not happy, and a little skittish about the 2 delays before the flight was even supposed to depart, so I decided to go to the airport anyway and try to suss out what was going on in person. The trip to Ezezia airport was miserable - it took an hour for the bus to come, and then it took ages to get that far out of town, but I made it. And apparently, sometime in the 3 hours I took to get to the airport, my flight was cancelled.

There was a long line to speak to an agent about the flight, and when I did, there was not much information. While one woman ahead of me was told that a strike was back on, the ticket agent I spoke to denied it, said the flight would definitely leave tomorrow, they just didn't have a time yet. For now, they were giving us taxi vouchers, hotel vouchers, and covering our food costs. They would contact the hotel tomorrow with a departure time, and bring us back in time to check in.

Really worried, irritated, and feeling pretty trapped in Argentina, but nothing to do at 1am, I went ahead to the hotel, and chose to have faith that everything was as they told me. By the time I got to the hotel, the airline had even already called with a departure time of noon - they would pick us up at 9am.

It was late enough, and between my nerves and calling home, I barely got any sleep (though it was in a hotel room, where I got to watch Fight Club and fall asleep in front of House). The next morning, I woke up and showered, repacked, and went for breakfast. But when I stopped by the front desk, apparently Aerolineas had already called, and the flight was once again cancelled. No departure time was on the table. But have a good breakfast!

I called Aerolineas myself, and the official answer I got as to what was going on? We don't know. We don't know why the flight is cancelled - though they did claim there was no strike, that other flights were taking off just fine, OURS just wasn't for the forseeable future. And he was also very confused why it was not enough that they were putting me in a hotel - it occurred to no one that the hotel was on the WRONG CONTINENT, and perhaps I made reservations to fly to Auckland because that was where I wanted to be. No one, at the airline, the hotels, anywhere seemed to grasp this.

I called my travel agency next. At this point, I needed to get out of Buenos Aires, however I could. I had done some brief research before, when I was worried about the rumored strike, and sure enough, there were two options - fly LAN through Santiago, or fly any number of airlines. Through the US.

The front desk called with even better news - we had to check out of the hotel, as we were being moved to a different one. Awesome. I got a voucher for lunch at a mediocre buffet, where I met the others from my plane who were housed at the same hotel, and we chatted there and then back to the hotel, sharing what we knew and what we were trying to do.

There were two Swedish backpackers, who were actually ok with having to stay in Argentina, though they didn't like having to stay close to the hotel and on standby all the time. They were told that the plane was in Auckland and broken, so it needed to be fixed and flown here, and that is why we were cancelled.

There was a woman from Sydney who needed to get home for business reasons, and she was the one told that the pilot strike was the reason we were not flying.

There was a guy from Melbourne who had been living in London for six years, and who did a bit of travel in SA before going home. I think he was the one who was told that the pilot was sick and that was why we couldn't go.

There was a guy from Wellington who was in Argentina hiking for a couple of weeks, and who was supposed to be back for work. He wasn't told anything.

And there was another couple, I think she was from Britain and him from Spain. He was the one who spoke to our shuttle bus driver to the other hotel and learned #1. that the airline needs to give 12 hours notification to the hotel, so the absolute soonest we would leave is 1:30 that night, if we got word as soon as we reached the new hotel; #2. that the reason was a mini-strike. Apparently, Aerolineas is not in the habit of paying their pilots on time, so thy keep striking, then the airlines freak out and vow to negotiate, and then the negotiations are bad or they don't really negotiate, so they refuse to fly again, but they are not a full-fledged union walk-out, so they keep it under wraps and there is no news on it; and #3. that we were going to a rather sketchy area, better not to be out after dark.

Aaaaaawesome. We also exchanged many lovely tales about Aerolineas - their domestic flights being 5 hours delayed for a 90 minute flight; the Melbourne guy had been on four flights on the airline, every one of which was delayed from between 6 hours and now more than a day; the British girl said their flight from Madrid was supposed to be 12 hours - how it was listed, what they were told. But then it stopped in Rio for two hours, which they apparently knew they were going to do but opted not to tell anyone. Then they proceeded to circle the Buenos Aires airport for 2 hours because they hadn't paid for a gate. She also knew of a planeload of Auckland folks last week who were kept waiting in Buenos Aires for 5 days for their flight.

All of this strengthened my resolve to get out of there however I could. Back on the phone with the travel agent, I got to work on getting a refund from Aerolineas (which I will evidently get, thank god, without penalty) and got to looking at flights to New Zealand. The cheapest option? Fly to San Francisco, then fly to Auckland. No joke.

So that is what I am doing. For a couple of reasons, I decided not to try to do all the flying back to back. One is that spending time at home will help me recoup the money it cost me to get a new ticket; one is that the shitty days I spent trying to get out of Buenos Aires wore me down; one is that I was already watching my days in New Zealand shrink down to where I know I will not have enough time to do what I want to do, so I knnow already that I will have to go back.

So I am essentially skipping the North Island only. I am not thrilled about it, naturally, but it has its upsides. I have already had a diet coke (FANTASTIC) and Mexican food and played with the beagles. I will go to New Zealand in the next few days, and pick up my itinerary where it was supposed to be, just without going to Auckland and Rotorua.

I know this was ridiculously long, but I left out a lot, if you can believe it - trauma with the refund, the new ticket, getting to the airport a second time, and then some. It's been brutal.

But take from this a couple of things: If you ever fly in South America, avoid Aerolineas Argentina at all costs; from everything I have heard, this is absolutely indicative of their business practices. I flew LAN from Buenos Aires to Miami today (yesterday? I don't even know), and they are lovely. Fly them instead.

Once I know when I go to New Zealand, I will let y'all know so you know when you want to start reading again.

As for Aerolineas, last I heard they had scheduled the flight again. It is currently 5:30 in California; I got here just before noon. If they actually did fly when they claimed this time, then the group I was with was just picked up an hour ago to go to the airport, and the flight will leave in two hours. If they actually fly when they say they will this time, it will have been just over 2 days late. I personally would not place any money on them actually flying when they claim they will, but for the sake of the other 7 people at that scary hotel, I hope they do.

The only other funny thing, that I cannot possibly explain: As I was traveling, I was dreaming a lot more than normal, unsurprisingly. The weird thing is that I had a similar dream, with different details, three separate times. In that dream, for different reasons, I came home briefly, and always specifically between Argentina and New Zealand. Weird, no?