Airports, Taxis & Sleepless

(story time)
Wow, in the past 18 hours there has been challenges galore. Everyone who knows me knows I love a great adventure, and even the challenges that come with it. This morning I was almost pushed to the limit.
After a great day at Iguazu falls yesterday, things started to get rough. Keep in mind we are in very remote areas of the world and hardly speak enough Spanish passed, “Gracias.”
Yesterday’s flight from Iguazu >BA delayed again and we wouldn’t have made the connecting flight from BA>ElCalafate. Instead of a nice meal and hotel night in Iguazu we went straight to the airport to explore the options. We found a late night flight to BA that would get us in around midnight, just 5 hours before needing to head to the International airport on the other side of BA. So we planned ahead to get as much sleep as we could by getting a Holiday Inn as close to that airport as possible.
Every minute of sleep counts at this point.
As the taxi is taking us across town on the freeway at nearly midnight, Austin looks up and notices our hotel as we pass it by. The taxi driver had no idea where he was going.. The reroute to get back to the hotel would have us driving up the freeway and coming back through some type of traffic jam and adding 30 minutes to our drive. After settling in, we got three hours of sleep before the alarms went off to make our next flight. Feeling the burn in our eyes and that horrible sluggish feeling of running on too little sleep , we hustle downstairs to get the next taxi.
Whew…… all good, right?
After a long line at security we get up to show them our boarding passes only to be told that we are at the wrong airport. 😳
Everything on our itinerary from my booking showed the flight leaving from the international airport, except for the official airline boarding pass.
OH CRAP!!!
We immediately went into Amazing Race mode… showing taxi drivers out front the panic in our faces as we pleaded to get us across town in less than 30 minutes through Monday morning traffic. We had a superstar taxi driver, who did all he could and amazingly had us to the airport with 15 minutes before departure. There is still an ounce of hope but it would require a physical fitness test and some pleading to get through security.
The three of us nearly sprinting through a long terminal, carrying backpacks and 50 pound luggage and sweating like we’re running a marathon .
We ran right to the front of security and they waived us right through…. We’re going to make it…. ……NOT!!! We got to the gate with five minutes to spare and there was not a soul to be found. No plane, no people, just dead silence. Ugh…
Me feeling deflated is an understatement as everything on our schedule is dependent on us getting to ElCalafate today.
Austin took the the reins, and started doing his fast fingered iPhone search for flight options. He found a flight that would get us there just 12 hours behind schedule (to be followed by a 4 hour drive into Southern Patagonia with very few signs of life outside of cows).
So, we pay for the crazy expensive tickets and quickly decide we just need some sleep. Where can you find sleep at 6:30 in the morning near an airport in a different country?
After trying to find some type of hotel, that would be flexible with us (No Go) we found a hostel and grabbed another taxi ride to take advantage of the four hours before our next flight. Of course it wasn’t that easy….
Just like my experience 35 years earlier in downtown, Milan, we found ourselves wandering the streets, trying to find the hostel with luggage in hand 😅.Finally success… dorm style room with complete strangers BUT who cares, we just needed sleep.
Here we are on board the new flight and ready to depart to fly up north to Cordoba to get our connecting flight and turn around and come back down south to explore southern Patagonia.
Another day creating memories ✅
Grateful to share this craziness with my boys❤️
I have a feeling there is more to come in the days ahead.Leggi altro