I took an early light rail to the Seattle airport and I found the crowds large but not overwhelming. Even the pre-check line was long. Americans are traveling again with gusto and a bit less anger than I experienced during the early Covid era.
My flight took off around 9 o’clock and as we climbed over the Cascade mountain range, it was covered with smoke from all the forest fires raging.
It was a clear flight all the way to New York City and we passed over Manhattan. You could clearly see Central Park below and all of the skyscrapers.
After landing at terminal seven I wandered around a bit looking for the international flight with LATAM Air, but there was no information until a Customs agent showed me that I needed to cross the street to the Air Train and go to terminal four. After that, I quickly found my plane that was currently loading up for the night flight to Santiago, Chile which arrived at 7 AM.
I was scheduled for a flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires at 4:15 PM. It was going to be a seven-hour layover, but I saw there was another flight leaving at 8:55 AM and the gate agent took me for that flight, but it was going to the other Buenos Aires airport closer to town which was OK.
I had a window seat on this 2-hour flight, but I gave it up to a little girl sitting with her father. It was a beautiful view going over the Andes Mountain Range with snow-capped peaks with jagged edges and ravines. The little girl was excited to see out the window and she thought it looked like ice cream.
After clearing customs I found the ATM machine for local currency and the place to buy a SUBE card which I needed to take the bus and subways in Buenos Aires. My Google Maps showed me which bus to take to El Centro just a 5-minute walk to my Che Juan Hostel.
Number 45 bus took me just 30 minutes to get to downtown El Centro with a short walk to the Che Juan Hostel on the 3rd and 2nd floors. The caged elevator was really ornate.
The place is beautiful with lots of gathering places, kitchens, and very clean bathrooms and showers. In the rooms, all of the bunks have privacy curtains, charging stations, lights, and lockers.
After checking in, I went across the street and had a chicken dinner with a salad. I then returned to the hostel and crashed until morning at about 9 o’clock. I was beaten by my 24-hour travel from Seattle.
In three days, I visited some of the major highlights in Buenos Aires knowing during the end of my stay I would be returning for about a week.
I first walked down to the Plaza de Mayo, one of the central areas where celebrations and protests are held.
The balcony of Casa Rosada at the end of the Plaza de Mayo was where Eva Peron famously addressed throngs of admirers and was made famous when Madonna portrayed her in the movie “Evita“.
On Thursdays at 3:30 as with all other Thursdays, the protest was led by the Madres de La Plaza de Mayo. A few of the women were in wheelchairs and others chanted and were led by reciting the names of the “disappeared”. The Disappeared were victims of the “dirty war” that went on between 1976 and 1983. They estimated over 30,000 people disappeared who opposed the regime of General Jorge Videla.
On a lighter note, I visited opulent Galerias Pacifico filled with high-end stores.
I did return to the Palacio Barolo For a noon tour in Spanish. The design of the building was inspired by Dante’s “ Divine Comedy”. This 22-story building with a height of 100 meters is a reference to each canto or song, the 22 floors represent verses per song and its divided structure represents hell, purgatory, and heaven. We climbed a number of stairs up to the lighthouse on the top for a spectacular view of the city laid out below.
I went to a number of other sites, but they were either closed because of Covid or required reservations. Those places included the Teatro Colon, Palacio del Congress, Teatro Nacional Cervantes, and Palacio de las Aguas Corrientes.
I walked down to the San Telmo area with its cobbled streets with some colorful homes. I stop for a rest at the Plaza Dorrego where a rock band was playing interspersed with a couple performing the tango. I preferred the tango performance.
I continued on down past the National Stadium where lines were filling up with eager fans to see the soccer match.
I saw some more tango dancers performing at various restaurants in the La Boca area with its colorful buildings and restaurants with sculptured characters hanging out the various windows.
I started to walk back but used Google Maps and then I realized that Google Maps showed different bus numbers and routes to get me back to El Centro and my Che Juan Hostel. What a cool feature.
The day I left, I went to the Seacat ferry terminal expecting to catch the 10:30am ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, but they had closed that office and the Buquebus ferry next door only had a noon sailing. I checked online and saw that the Colonia Express had a 10:30 am sailing.
I caught a taxi to the Colonia Express expecting to get on the 10:30am sailing, but they had canceled that sailing. I was stuck with the 12:30pm sailing. It was a pretty rough crossing and several people got seasick.
In Buenos Aires, we went through the Argentina and Uruguay immigration so when we landed in Colonia del Sacramento, we just had to go through customs. It was a pretty simple process and I took a short walk to the Viajero Colonial Hostel where I stayed for 2 nights. I was the only one in the four-room bunk for both nights.
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