Day Sixty Eight--
Woke up definitely wanting to change my flight from El Calafate to Buenos Aires and skip Bariloche. The bus trip was out for me.
My flight today was at 10:15 a.m. so I was able to get up at a decent hour and have breakfast. Given that Ushuaia is so small I knew the ride to the airport was a short distance.
I had the bleak breakfast again and my oh so important coffee (which also isn’t great) and got a taxi at 9:00 a.m. I thought I would try to see if I could change my flight at the airport.
I taxi ride to the airport was 7 minutes.
When I checked in I was told I needed to pay an airport tax. Apparently all Argentinians airports charge a tax, each city is different. Here is was about $15.00.
I paid my tax and walked to security. I put all my bags on the conveyor belt and when the backpack came through the security man said, “there is a swiss army knife in there”.
“No, I said, I don’t think so.”
He made me take everything out and we weren’t finding a swiss army knife. I knew I had one that was in my suitcase but not in the backpack. So he put the backpack through again and when it came through put his hand very deep inside and came up with my mini pocket knife, keyring size. When he took it out and saw the size, he threw it back in and said, “go ahead, never mind.”
Now I had to put everything back in. Oy.
The flight to El Calafate was a bit over an hour. On the approach we had some turbulence but nothing bad.
The hotel, well B&B, where I had made a reservation, told me to get the “Vez Patagonia” transfer. It was 30 pesos instead of 100 pesos for a taxi. Not being in a hurry I took the transfer. There were about 15 people in the van and I was the last one to be dropped off. Good thing I wasn’t in a hurry.
The B&B, “Casa de Grillos”, was the true meaning of a B&B. Marta and Alejandro Grillos, converted their house into a B&B after they retired from being school teachers.
I booked this hotel because my friends, Ron & Becca, had stayed here last year and told me it was a good place to stay.
Alejandro welcomed me and couldn’t have been nicer. His English was pretty good, much better than Marta’s. He took me to my room which had one double bed and one twin bed. He said if I slept in the twin bed the price was one thing and if I slept in the double bed the price would be more. Really. Whatever, I’ll sleep in the twin bed.
The room was clean but simple as can be. They need to buy new towels for the bathroom as most of mine had holes in them.
Alejandro was quick to ask me about taking a tour to Perito Merino, the glacier near by. He explained the different choices (there always seem to be choices): #1 all day, bus with a guide, a short hike and a boat ride (195 pesos), #2 all day, bus with guide & ice trekking (500 pesos), or just going on a bus to the information center without a guide 100 pesos (on your own time).
As I was only here for two nights and one day, I needed to make an arrangement. The English ladies I met at my hotel in Ushuaia told me they had taken the bus themselves and wished they had gone on the boat. So I took the first option, even though he told me I would be picked up at 8:00 a.m. and I was already feeling tired.
(I later learned, that on the Calle Principal, Libertador, one can find a multitude of tour companies. As a matter of fact I think 50% of this town is just that, tour companies. Let me not forget there is a casino in this very small town as well. I thought Santa Barbara was a tourist town but it is nothing compared to this. Only 20,000 people live here permanently with probably about the same number of tourists in the summer months.
The first order of business was to try and change my airplane ticket. I was unsuccessful at the Ushuaia airport, however I had a local phone number and Alejandro let me use their landline phone.
To make a long extremely complicated story short, I phoned LAN Chile and the person I spoke to said I couldn’t make a change over the phone I needed to go to a LAN Chile office. When I explained that I was in El Calafate and there was no LAN office and then I was going to Torre del Paine where there wouldn’t be an office either, the woman from LAN suggested that I go to the airport in El Calafate. Really, I can’t imagine there is an office at the airport but she was very insistent that there was and gave me the times that someone would be at the airport. I wasn’t buying it.
In my experience with these small towns there is only someone at the airport when a flight comes in and when a flight goes out. If they couldn’t help me in Ushuaia I doubted they could help me here. So I decided I would go into town to find out about the bus to El Chalten, which was where I was going when I returned from Torre del Paine.
The town was a 15 minute walk from my hotel and the weather was fine so I didn’t mind.
After getting information about the bus times and cost to El Chalten, I asked the girl in the El Chalten Travel office if by chance there was a LAN office in town. She told me that I could visit the Rambo Sur travel agency because they represented LAN Chile so maybe they could help me.
I did just that. The woman at Rambo Sur tried to phone LAN Chile and after waiting on hold for probably 15 minutes said she couldn’t get through and that I should try later. She thought the phone lines wouldn’t be as busy in the evening. I decided I would go eat, what else, as it was after 4:00 and I was hungry.
I went to a restaurant/bar called Casablanca and ordered a caprese salad, which was nothing like a caprese salad I’ve ever had. It had chunks of mozzerella cheese, sliced baby tomatoes and leaves of basel. It was not very good but I was hungry. I also ordered a locally made beer that was o.k. When I got the bill I noticed a “service charge” added in, it was not for the tip and so I asked what it was. The waiter went and got the menu and showed me that they charge a “service charge” to eat in their restaurant. O.k. that was the first I had ever seen that.
I went back to the B&B for a rest. On my way back I ran into this horse that seemed to be lost but once he passed me walked down the driveway I was in front of. He knew exactly where he was going.
When I got back to the B&B Alejandro told me he’d booked the excursion for me and I would be picked up at 8:00 a.m.
I asked him about the service charge at the restaurant. He was a little surprised but told me that prices were higher here in El Calafate because the town lives off of the tourists and tourism is seasonal. He has heard some owners complain they only make money 6-8 months of the year but need to pay their rents, etc. for the entire year so they raise the prices to cover the entire year. Not a new idea for a seasonal town. I understood higher prices, but a service charge to eat in a restaurant, was a bit overboard or I wasn't understanding something.
I rested for a bit (on the twin bed) then walked back into town to the travel agency around 7 because they told me they closed at 8:00 p.m.
Making all these arrangements takes time and energy. This style of travel is not for everyone, it’s even wearing me out.
I also had to get money because I knew I needed to have cash for El Chalten. In my communication with the hostel in El Chalten I was told they didn’t accept credit cards and there was only one cash machine in the town. Here in El Calafate there were only 4 cash machines. Several people along the way have told me that when they were in El Calafate the cash machines ran out of money. Did I mentioned there is a casino here?
I returned to the agency and now the young man got on the phone and waited nearly 20 minutes for an agent to come on the line. After a long conversation, most of which I did not understand, he told me they told him I needed to call the office in Valparaiso where I made my original ticket change. He thought this was a bit nuts as well but gave me the phone number. I tried it on my Blackberry and it didn’t work. He then tried it from his phone and it also didn’t work. He said, "this number doesn't exist."
As a last ditch effort this young man made a reservation for me that he could hold for 24 hours. The flight would cost me $225.00. I thought that was my ace in the hole because if I couldn’t get through to LAN at least I would have a way to get to Buenos Aires.
Defeated, but still not willing to give up, I walked back to the B&B intent on calling LAN again myself.
Alejandro said I could use the phone and after a 20 minute wait I got a nice woman, Maria-Teresa, on the phone who said yes I could make the change but she would need to contact her “back office” to see what the cost difference was. O.K. so I guess the philosophy is, just keep calling until you get the answer you want.
Maria-Teresa said someone would either call or e-mail the answer to me. I figured by the next day I would know. So I relaxed for the night.
I took my computer to the lobby and tried working on my blog, as I had internet in the lobby but not my room. There was a nice Canadian women staying at the B&B and I ended up chatting with her about her journey to Ushuaia and she shared about her journey to El Chalten. See I’m trying to keep up with the blog but then I go and socialize. What to do?
I was able to get one day posted but got tired because I needed to get to sleep for my early wakeup.
No comments:
Post a Comment