Fly to Buenos Aires

3rd December 2024 

All day today was spent travelling, leaving for the airport at 8 am to catch a Qantas flight leaving at 12.20 pm, gave us plenty of time to walk around the airport. Although there was a major traffic problem on Wakehurst Parkway which made the trip longer than usual.

Departure was on time, in a nice new Boeing Dreamliner, and Premium Economy exceeded our expectations. 

Whilst our departure was about 25 minutes late due to late arrival of the aircraft, we made up a bit of time and had about an hour and a half stopover in Santiago before catching our next flight to Buenos Aires. We walked a few kilometres in Santiago Airport to get from our arrival gate to departure gate, and by the time we got there, we only had a 10 minute wait before boarding. It was another Boeing Dreamliner, this time owned by KLM. The whole experience made Qantas look outstanding. The plane looked like it had been fitted out on a low cost carrier budget. They call their Premium Economy "Premium Comfort", just economy with seats a bit further forward would be a better description. It was only a 90 minute flight so it didn't matter too much, but the food was nursing home quality.

The view flying over the Andes more than compensated for KLM's shortcomings.


Arrival at Buenos Aires was 30 minutes late due to congestion on the airstrip at Santiago, and getting through immigration there was slow due to shortage of manpower on the booths. I had arranged transport to take us to our hotel, but we were more than an hour late given the departure delay and delay getting through immigration. They had advised that they allowed for an hour waiting time and had supplied 2 phone numbers to call if we were going to run over that time. Neither number answered, but eventually the driver called and after a few disconnections and a few language barriers, we sorted it out and were at the Intercontinental Hotel in Buenos Aires at 4.30 pm. 

We had a bit of a nap, a nice shower, and then went for a walk to stretch our legs around the local area. it is a stunning city with beautiful architecture, and a lot of history.







Also a stunning Church "St Michaels " of course

We also found an informative mural explaining the evolution of cyclists.


We were pretty tired, so headed back to our hotel for a simple meal before seeking out some long overdue sleep.

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