Day One: Many Miles Traveled

Twelve years ago, Brenda and I spent four weeks exploring Chile and enjoying some of the country’s great wines as we celebrated our honeymoon. We’ve always wanted to return and, this year, we’ve finally given in to our desire. Our tradition is to always spend our anniversary in a different location each year so, rather than flying straight to Chile, we’re starting with a ten-day pitstop in Mendoza; Argentina’s largest wine producing region.
Unfortunately, Mendoza isn’t that easy to get to and our original route took us from Vancouver to an almost seven-hour layover in Mexico City, to a two-hour stop in Santiago before we hop onto our one-hour flight to Mendoza. Oh yeah, and our initial flight took off from YVR at 7:01 AM, so we had to get up at 3:00 to be there on time. But traveling these days is never simple and, just before turning in for the night on Sunday, we were informed that our flight to Santiago is delayed by two hours, which means we won’t make our connection to Mendoza. Ugh! On top of that, Visa has changed their airport lounge provider and they no longer offer access in Mexico City. Double ugh!!

Brenda did some research and managed to find a route that takes us from Mexico City to Lima to Santiago, which would allow us to make our original connection to Mendoza. But alas, by the time we got through customs and security in Mexico City, the Lima to Santiago flight had sold out and now we're heading all the way to Sao Paolo on Brazil's East Coast (with another eight hour layover) before crossing almost all the way back across the continent to Mendoza, where we arrive eight hours later than our original itinerary.

So, by the time we get to our accommodations in Mendoza, we'll have spent over forty hours, all day Monday and most of Tuesday, getting to our destination. On the plus side, we will have lounge access in Sao Paolo.Read more