Hola! Around South America on LAN

[RooFlyer]

How did you get the pic without the throngs? It certainly is some cemetery! We loved it. So over the top.

There were about 7 people looking at Evita's tomb when I was there; people looked, took their turn and moved on; surprisingly organised

 

[RooFlyer]

My first night in BA, I just had to go to Cabana los Lilas, a steak restaurant in the old docks area recommended to me by JohnM. The old docks area reminds me a bit of SouthBank in Melbourne, but they have converted old warehouses rather than built new.

I forewent lunch in preparation for a big meal, and by 8pm I was famished, so I went down to the restaurant (it was Sunday evening) 'early' (for Argentina) and sat on the patio; it was cool but not cold and there were overhead gas heaters to keep off the chill later. The kitchens looked good, as I passed them by:




I liked the set-up in the restaurant; (LH pic) but look at the RH pic, in the middle. Some twerp is using a 'selfie stick' to take their photo - in the restaurant! Call me old fashioned, but I loath those things (and 'selfies' in general).




One thing I didn't like was that they kept setting things down on the table that I didn't order and didn't want; I knew I'd pay for them (an unknown price!) and I also knew that I didn't want to eat any more than I had ordered, so I kept sending them away.

Anyway, the LH pic is 'action stations', ready to go! I started with a "Chirozo Bonbom", half serving size, to which I added some salsa.




For mains I ordered ojos de bife (rib-eye), jugoso (juicy) with baked potato and mushrooms. It was nice, but not sensational. A bit over-cooked for my liking and a bit of gristle in there as well. They also lost points for the pink label thing stuck in the steak.

I was surprised that I still had room for desert (I hardly touched the spud or the mushroom), so I had 'cold mango soup with ice cream'; a nice ending.



This place is quite expensive (I can't recall how much the meal was but I remember doing a double take when I did the currency conversion.

 

[RooFlyer]

By the time of my second night in Buenos Aires, I knew I would by flying the next day not to Mendoza, but to Calgary, to help my major client out of a pickle. See here. So I made a bit more of the second night's dining opportunity; I looked up Trip Advisor and was intrigued by the highly rated The New Brighton (rated #11 restaurant in Buenos Aires). I was hooked; it was about 5 blocks from the Novotel, good walking distance so I made a beeline. It was Monday night, so it was still quiet at 8pm.

Its a wonderful old fashioned jewel:



With old fashioned service to match. Even in Spanish, you knew what they were saying. Champagne is offered (and accepted) as you sit down; but I soon moved across to another great Mendoza Malbec.




Starter of cold gazpacho and the bread selection was good, too.




Main course I chose a T bone, done med-rare, and it was simply perfect. Dessert was a stewed pear and ice cream.




The loos is gracious too, of course and this was the coffee machine!!



A great night; quite a bit of fun and the waiters were good - if I struggled with my Spanish, they happily struggled back with their English. Quite a bit cheaper than the previous night too.

 

[JohnM]

Looks like Las Lilas has gone touristy now . Selfie-sticks OMG :shock::evil:. A few years since I've been.

 

[docjames]

Disembarked via the inevitable stairs and a bus.

View attachment 49316

That's a small bus! :shock:

 

[RooFlyer]

The Novotel has a 'helpful' scale in its elevators ... but I was not impressed to find that I was just 1 person going out to dinner, but coming back I was 2.5 :shock:




Time for some exercise. The docks area is really nice; the old warehouses have been re-developed into shops, restaurants and new condo buildings put up. the Hilton is in this area. Looking back up Avenida Corrientes to the Obelisk, and there are several old ships in the docks. The dance hall is called 'Luna Park'.

 

[RooFlyer]

Probably the main sight to see in BA is the Plaza de Mayo and buildings around it. Possibly the most recognisable is the Casa Rosada, the office of the President. The main façade is actually on the other side, facing Parque Colon which at the time of my visit was fenced off for what looks like a long term renovation.








Protest seems an ingrained part of the Argentine psyche these days - the 'Mothers of the Disappeared' who formed during the Argentine dictatorship these days act on many causes in the Plaza de Mayo. But I saw two other big protest marches and a couple of smaller demonstrations in the 2 days I was there. Most seemed to be a good excuse to fling lots of paper about.

 

[QF WP]

I do want you to keep going but I know it finished here. What you do for that client! I presume you didn't need anything from Tassie to help you with the work.

Wow, what perfect timing - you posted more as I was writing this post

 

[RooFlyer]

I do want you to keep going but I know it finished here. What you do for that client! I presume you didn't need anything from Tassie to help you with the work.

Wow, what perfect timing - you posted more as I was writing this post

I will continue the TR into Canada - adventures on United and wine tasting in the Okanagan Valley, BC .

 

[RooFlyer]

BA I reckon doesn't have many 'must see' sights - its more a city for walking around, having coffee, going out to restaurants etc. I was a bit disappointed in the architecture - from my visit 20+ years ago I remember it being more interesting (more identifiably 'European') - but maybe I was more easily impressed then .

You can't go past spending some time at Avenida 9 de Julio at the Obelisk and Plaza de la Republica - the people and traffic are good to look at; but again, I recall that when I was here before it was virtually something like a straight 10-15 lanes each way and a real challenge to cross. Now there are park islands, bus stations and lanes etc.




At the Plaza de Mayo I looked for the Catedral Metropolitana which I imagined would be pretty fancy. I couldn't see it - just these law courts or library or something where the Catedral should have been:




But it was of course the cathedral - just with one of the strangest fronts I have seen (completed 1827). Detail of the frieze along the top; at the front is the eternal flame commemorating Liberator General Jose de San Martin, one of the country's greatest heroes.




Inside, its not as grand as I thought it might be. I mean its not bad, but when you consider the country and the setting, I was expecting a little more exuberant for the national cathedral of an overwhelmingly RC country.




Inside is the tomb of San Martin.

 

[RooFlyer]

A last round up of some BA architecture before we head north.

Just around the corner from my hotel is Plaza Lavalle which has some interesting buildings.




Teatro Colon (Colon, for those unawares means 'Columbus'), over-looked by some Argentinian General




Roca was an Argentine President in the 1880s but I'm not sure what the building does.



The Bank of Argentina building over looks the Casa Rosada on Plaza de Mayo. Another General on his horse.




A smaller church on the Plaza de Mayo and a statue on the Casa Rosada.

 

[kpc]

BA I reckon doesn't have many 'must see' sights - its more a city for walking around, having coffee, going out to restaurants etc. I was a bit disappointed in the architecture - from my visit 20+ years ago I remember it being more interesting (more identifiably 'European') - but maybe I was more easily impressed then .
]

We loved BA which we visited in 2010.....unfortunately it seems the government hasn't got the funds to maintain all those beautiful (European) buildings. Did you go to La Boca to see all the colourful buildings and watch the Tango? It is a shame that QF cancelled its Syd-Eze direct non stop flight which we took back in 2010....it made it very easy to get to BA via a "quick" 13.5 hour flight

 

[RooFlyer]

We loved BA which we visited in 2010.....unfortunately it seems the government hasn't got the funds to maintain all those beautiful (European) buildings. Did you go to La Boca to see all the colourful buildings and watch the Tango? It is a shame that QF cancelled its Syd-Eze direct non stop flight which we took back in 2010....it made it very easy to get to BA via a "quick" 13.5 hour flight

No, didn't make it there, unfortunately. By the time I was in BA, work was looming; in fact it had already landed .. and I was busy editing reports prior to my de-camping to Canada thereby missing Mendoza and its Malbecs and a last day in Santiago! People may think that that's a bit rough .. but in my own business the deal I have with the client is that with few exceptions, they can call on me at any time (and its a suitably lucrative 'deal ).

So, in the afternoon I was in a car to Ezeiza airport, or to give its formal name: Ministro Pistarini International Airport. Past the Obelisk and some more Evita pop art:


Edit: Note how iPhone treats sky colours; these pics with minutes of each other .. maybe one window of the car was tinted?

The airport has 3 terminals; I was booked on United and it was terminal A for me. About 40 mins drive from the centre of the city departing at 4:50pm, including some freeway snarls. Aerolineas Argentinas is Terminals C and B. Terminal A is OK; large, fairly organised check-in area and a straightforward airside concourse. The UA agents began checking in just as I arrived, 3.5 hrs before departure (I was budgeting that the drive would take much longer and didn't want to leave after 5pm).




Check-in agent insisted that I could 'transit' Houston on my way to Calgary; no need to pick up my checked bag. I thought this was wrong, but it turned out she was right! Security OK; exit immigration OK.

Big tip! There is no currency exchange airside!!! If you have Pesos and don't want to keep them, you gotta spend! And I found out (luckily) that the relatively few duty free shops on the airside have very different prices for very similar things. I wanted to by some carved rhodochrosite (baby pink rock); $500 in shop A, $150 in shop B for visually the same thing.

I found the Star Alliance Lounge OK. Oddly, there is both an AA lounge and a LAN lounge in terminal A. The AA one looked nice through the windows. the *A lounge was OK; medium size and medium facilities; ordinary food (rice, noodles etc). Sorry about the blurred pic on the left.




At least the wine selection was OK Bodegas Salentein was one of the Mendoza wineries that I missed out on visiting, so I had a mini tasting right there in the lounge. :mrgreen:

 

[RooFlyer]

On board UA818 EZE-IAH, overnight. I had the choice of AA or UA but AA appeared to only have recliners in J ?? I may have mis-read it in my haste to get the client's TA (Who also happens to be my own TA ) to get me booked and ticketed, in a hurry. Having status on Air Canada made for a sensible choice between OneWorld or Star Allance easy - it came down to comfort, not status!

UA was running a 2 cabin (3 in you include their effective Y+) 767. In J it was a 2-1-2 configuration and I was towards the rear of the cabin, on an aisle (but the RH pic shows the middle, single).




Seat is OK, and standard US airline type width, but with a small, pointed feet space, so that if you lay on your side, you couldn't be stretched right out as your feet won't fit sideways in the space. Not a huge deal.




We left at 9pm and with the slim pickings in the lounge I was looking forward to dinner. orders were taken immediately after take-off and drinks served. The Malbec this time was from San Juan, the next region north from Mendoza. (And Escondida is also the name of a big copper mine, so a great choice!). I forget what the starter was.




Mains was a decent bit of steak, with nice veges and a 'biscuit' (yeech!)




Ice cream for dessert (there was also a monster cheese plate, but I declined). Breakfast was the usual egg-and-sausage type thing at OMG o'clock(we landed about 5am local).

 

[docjames]

UA was running a 2 cabin (3 in you include their effective Y+) 767. In J it was a 2-1-2 configuration and I was towards the rear of the cabin, on an aisle (but the RH pic shows the middle, single).

Enjoying the TR - shame they didn't do 1-2-2 or 2-2-1 and then all except one would have direct aisle access....

 

[RooFlyer]

Enjoying the TR - shame they didn't do 1-2-2 or 2-2-1 and then all except one would have direct aisle access....

And the people in the middle wouldn't have aisle traffic on both sides . Like Embraers, I'm sure they could balance the craft OK with cargo etc.

 

[RooFlyer]

I forgot to mention the amenities kit I got on EZE-IAH - United is a golf sponsor, so the kit got into the spirit.




Landing at IAH I found that I was sort of allowed a transit; in reality my bag was allowed to transit; I wasn't. Experience recounted here.

This United trip north was organised in a hurry and I didn't do any pre-searching of lounges etc. I didn't even realise IAH was a United hub until I saw the huge lounge and realised that the entire terminal was United and that I didn't see a plane of any other airline from arrival to departure!

Lounge is over 3 levels; bar was where most people were at 6 in the morning. I didn't even look at food & bev as I had breakfast on board (and would be offered again).






A 737 in J for IAH-YYC; OK. Breakfast choices limited by the time they got to me; I had French Toast (well, it was 5 hours since First Breakfast); I was curious and with the dipping cream it was pretty good! I'm sure there were zero calories in it.




Arrival in Calgary pretty normal; short immigration queues; long immigration grilling as to my business in Canada (was I working? etc); bags pretty quick. I picked up a hire car and headed to my hotel. I usually get a condo here but I was just stopping the night before heading west some more, so client booked me into Hotel Arts. I had never stayed here - it was apparently a bit of a trendy place (QED) but it was close for the one night. The building is old, but had been re-furbed. The room was still a bit meh, but for one night, who cared.




I shall present the next picture, of the hallway of my floor, in all its glory, in the next post.

Stand by. Eye protection recommended.

 

[RooFlyer]

OK, can you imagine opening your hotel room door, after a big night out, and seeing THIS: :shock:



Hotel Arts, Calgary.

 

[TomVexille]

Was that the UC in E?

 

[RooFlyer]

Was that the UC in E?

Star Alliance lounge in EZE, United Club in IAH.