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With a later flight we were able to get a leisurely start to the day, getting up as normal and finishing packing.
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At 1pm, after a snack, we were off. Tony our friendly taxi driver took us to the bus station for the 1.25pm bus to Heathrow which left on time with us as the only passengers, though on reaching Milton Keynes we were joined by a group of Polish and French women tourists, so our tranquillity was somewhat disturbed!
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We left the drizzle of Britain behind on time and set off first on the short hop to Madrid followed by a long 13 hour overnight haul to Santiago arriving ahead of time at 9.40am local time. We had hoped that we might be in time to catch an earlier flight to Buenos Aries, but no such luck, so it was a 5 hour wait in Santiago departure lounge with views of the monumental Andes.
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I was amused to see that the company that supplied most of the equipment in the airport toilets went by the name of Pisa.
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After our 5 hour wait we were off again on the final leg of our flight having gained both an entry and exit stamp on our passports without getting any closer to the ground than the aircraft ramp.
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After quickly passing through immigration we went to the baggage reclaim and within a couple of minutes our first bag arrived, however, with dwindling numbers of other passengers and with growing nervousness we waited a further 15 minutes for our second bag to finally turn up.
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Following the advice of Lonely Planet, to get from Ezeiza Airport to our hotel in the centre of Buenos Aires, we used the Manuel Tienda Leon bus which took us 45 minutes to reach 'El Centro', passing along the 3 lane '25 de Mayo Highway', with a 50m strip of parkland to the side that was being enjoyed by the locals. As we came into Buenos Aries the parkland disappeared but there were still many smaller parks on which the youth were playing football. As with any major city there was a mixture of modern buildings and more run down areas, but in the main the area seemed quite prosperous, the huge loans that the country has taken over the last 10 years seem to have been well spent.
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On reaching 'El Centro' we transferred to a mini bus to negotiate the narrow one way streets of central Buenos Aries to reach our hotel at 7pm, picked up our key and a note to tell us that there was a group meeting at 7.15pm followed by a walk to a restaurant for our evening meal. Splashed on some water, dug out a change of clothes and we were off again to meet the rest of the party.
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Buenos Aires Restaurant
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The group, with the leader, numbered 24, so there were plenty of names to learn, except for Peter's who had been on the Alpujarra Holiday only a few months before. Following a brief outline of the general program for the holiday and the next couple of days in particular, focusing on any problems and possible solutions with changing and spending money, we set off on our short walk to La Chacra, one of Buenos Aires many steak houses. In keeping with the spirit of the country we enjoyed a steak.
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Finally got to bed about 11.30pm, having done the minimum of unpacking and set the alarm for 6.20am for another busy day.
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Our hotel room faced the street and for a few more hours we shared the shouts of joy and the tears of the local night life but sleep overtook us and 6.20am came around all to soon.
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Following a hasty breakfast we set off at 7.15am for a walk to the port to catch the 8.30am hydrofoil for the 50km journey to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, which we boarded after more form filling, they do seem to like their paperwork in South America, in two days we've more that doubled the number of stamps in our passports.
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50 minutes later we were in Uruguay and setting off on a guided tour of the old citadel of Colonia del Sacramento, a National Heritage Centre, with a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese influence. The town was founded by the Portuguese to provide a contraband route into Spanish controlled Argentina for their own and British goods. The Spanish didn't take kindly to this and the area was fought over for a number of years before gaining it's independence in 1828
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Colonia Harbour
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The town was very quiet and quaint and provided a number of photo opportunities.
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After the tour we walked around the coast (that should be bank as we are on the River Plate rather than the ocean, even though the other side was 50km away) of the peninsula and sat in the sun watching the birds and the flowers growing beside freshwater pools.
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Bird on shore Colonia
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Caught the 4.30pm ferry and were back in Buenos Aries by 5.30pm. Walked back to the hotel via a leather shop at which we were able to exchange dollars for Pasos at 1 to 1.7. This made us a little late and so it was a rush again to be ready by 7.15pm for our evening meal.
Back to the hotel to repack and grab some sleep ready for a 4.00am alarm call to leave at 4.30am for a 6.30am flight.
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