On the day after our trip to San Antonio de Areco we went to church and then spent the afternoon around the area of San Telmo which, on Sunday transforms itself to a huge antiques fair. Mind you, there was the usual amount of tat on sale as well - after all it was a tourist trap. It was busy and buzzy with tango at every hand’s turn.
That evening, if we but knew it, our woes were to begin!
Chris elected to visit a bar before dinner while I chose to stay in the apartment and pack ready for our onward journey to Mendoza the following day. 
Now before you all die with shock that I stayed back, there was a very nice Malbec with my name on it or, if I chose, Bombay Sapphire East (a new blend which I had bought in LHR) and tonic. 
As I pottered around and finished my packing, all the while sipping on my beverage of choice, which I suspect was the G&T, an envelope with Chris’s name on it was slipped under the door. Aha, thinks I, the bill and even though I was picking up that particular tab I didn’t open it until Chris returned and gave me permission to do so. Was it the bill? No, it was a letter from the management of the hotel advising us that the following day there was a general strike and there would be general disruption including road closures, transport stoppages and flight cancellations!! And we were flying out that day to Mendoza where, on the following day we had a wine tour booked. Immediately we flew to our respective laptops/iPads to check the status of our flight and heaved a sigh of relief that it had not been cancelled although many others had. We checked in and then headed off to an internet place round the corner to print off our boarding passes before heading off for dinner feeling a little more reassured but still a bit uneasy.Bright and early the next morning we were awake and anxious to discover our fate. Our flight was cancelled!
A quick recce of the various sites showed no alternatives and we decided that we would go down to breakfast and perhaps go to the airport to see what was what. While we were at breakfast our driver arrived and Chris went down to deal with it. He came back with the suggestion that we go to the LAN office which was not too far away from the hotel as soon as it was open and then contact the driver once more to bring us to the airport rather than wait till we got to the airport and that seemed like a plan. We were first in the queue at the LAN offices and directed to one of the nicest agents you could wish to meet. This was Tuesday but the nearest flight she could offer us to Mendoza was on Friday!! We explained that we had a wine tour the following day that we didn’t want to miss and in any case Friday was the day we were due to leave Mendoza. At this point the dear lady pulled out all the stops. She pointed out that nearly everyone had changed their flights in foot of the strike and showed us the availability, or rather lack of it, on her screen. There was a 5pm flight still scheduled for Mendoza that afternoon but she intimated to us that it was a high risk option as it later proved to be. The one alternative was to flight to Santiago in Chile that night and fly back to Mendoza in the morning. Hmmm! 
Seemed like a plan although the schedule had us leaving at something like 10pm. However I spotted that there was an afternoon flight to Santiago and suggested we take that rather than a late night one and take the early morning one to Mendoza. At this stage we were booked to go from Aeroparque, an airport near the city and much more accessible than EZE. However in the schedules was a flight from EZE to Santiago on a Dreamliner!!! And there was no way we could get there in time to travel on it!!! Hoooowwwwwlllll!!!!! 
We thought that there might be a problem as Chris had had to get a visa for Brazil and there had been certain formalities on entry to Argentina for him but we were assured that it was OK and all he had to do was pay a reciprocity fee on arrival. I, for my part, was grateful that, having shed the shackles of Spanish government, the various countries in South America were sufficiently forgiving to allow easy movement for EU members. Finally we were booked on an early afternoon flight from AEP to Santiago and also checked in. Once back at the apartment, we rescheduled the driver and Chris had a shedload of Marriott points courtesy of travel on behalf of the US government and managed to snag a room in the Marriott in Santiago - in fact that was the easiest of our transactions that day! At noon our driver re-appeared to take us to Aeroparque, Buenos Aires’ second airport on the banks of Rio de la Plata. It was very easy to get to but when we arrived it was to a scene of total chaos!
The place was full of people, mainly backpackers and foreigners who had arrived in the airport totally unaware of the strike only to find that their flight had been cancelled. It wasn’t helped by the fact that Aerolineas Argentinas had cancelled all their flights and people were seeking alternatives and with whom? Yep, LAN! There was also another airline flying that day but its routes were limited so that the main thrust was to LAN. We were so grateful that we had gone to the LAN offices first thing rather than going to the airport as the lines at the ticket desk were horrendous! 
We joined the check-in line as there was no bag drop desk, which was equally horrendous and not helped by the fact that there were only two desks open and that everyone checking in seemed to take an age. We were two and a half hours before our flight but with the speed that the line was operating I surmised that we would be lucky to be there before the cut. What was making it worse was that people were checking in who were unaware of the strike and instead of directing them back to ticketing, check-in were trying to reschedule them so that was delaying everything. We joined the line and shuffled along at an excruciatingly slow pace. A process which should take roughly 3-5 minutes or less was taking 20 minutes in some instances! At one stage another person came on duty and opened up another desk but not before she had kissed all her colleagues hello. The crowd immediately perked up but one of the agents on duty, signed off, kissed everyone goodbye and then headed off! Of course we had to wait until her computer booted up so that there was only one desk that was operational. Eventually she was ready and the line started to move once more. Occasionally someone would be sent to ticketing but then would return to go back to the agent with whom they had dealt, so more delay. Eventually it got to the stage where staff were beginning to pull passengers out for various flights but it didn’t really ease the congestion. At some stage a staff member who had been circulating opened up a desk to a sigh of relief from us all but just as things were looking up, someone who wasn’t even in the queue went up to the desk and was dealt with much to everyone’s fury but protests fell on deaf ears! While this was going on, the guy in front of us had been looking around agitatedly. At one stage he left the line and I, generously thinking he needed the loo, kicked his bag forward to keep his place. However once he had done this a couple of times my generosity failed and we just left his bag there and continued forward 
and later on we noticed he retrieved it and headed to the ticketing desk. At long, long last someone arrived to take control and divided the line to people going to Icantrememberwhere and everyone else. This really helped, especially as the number of desks available had magically doubled and moreover there was a guy managing the line. What was even more noticeable was that everyone else was being processed more quickly, mainly because those who should have been in ticketing were being directed there. Finally our turn came and we were through in less than two minutes - just as it should have been all along.Having been released from the mayhem that was check-in we headed for security and the gate and both were deserted. As was the departure area. However there was a slight problem as the gates did not have monitors to say which flight was departing from each gate and as the gates each had an A and B component it made it more confusing. We had to rely on our very limited knowledge of Spanish, but heck, we had done it last year in SE Asia and survived, so this should be a doddle - and it was. Just before boarding I looked at my boarding pass and all of a sudden I was presented with an unexpected bonus. Clearly printed on my boarding pass was “One World Sapphire”. That meant I had priority boarding and was able to bring Chris along with me.
The load on the flight was light, no doubt due to the strike. We were offered the ubiquitous snack box and coffee and really the only things of note were flying over Mendoza where we had been due to arrive earlier on in the day and that as we approached the Andes we were instructed to fasten our seat belts and to keep them fastened. The captain advised us that we were passing Aconcagua but alas, we were on the wrong side of the plane.
Shortly after that we landed in Santiago. Chris had to go and pay the reciprocity fee while I collected our bags. Our bags were screened before we left the airport just as had happened when arriving in Buenos Aires for the first time. Outside there were desks offering different and registered taxi companies rather than a taxi line outside. We took one and soon we were installed in the Santiago Marriott.
A very fraught journey - well at least at the start. Was that the end of our troubles? Read on, dear reader, read on!
