"Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."
We have been very lucky on this trip. There have been stressful travel days and visa issues, but nothing major enough to interfere with our plans.
Until April 9th.
April 10th was supposed to be a long domestic travel day for us within Argentina. We had booked a rather expensive flight with one layover. The day before our flight, we got an email from the airline with an update on our flight. With Google Translate's assistance, we were informed that there was a national strike occurring on the day of our flights. There would be no flights, buses or even taxis throughout all of Argentina!
The airline made it clear that it was due to unions that don't work directly for them so there would be no refunds. Our only option was to fly out a day early - in two hours! We quickly packed our bags and Jan ran a half mile through pouring rain to the laundromat to retrieve our laundry.
Argentinians take siestas seriously. The laundromat was closed from noon to 4pm! Panic began to set in as our flight left at 3pm and we would not leave without our laundry. When you only have five outfits, loosing 70% of your laundry isn't an option!
Our hostel began making calls to notify the owner of the laundromat of our dire situation and with literally five minutes until our departure to the airport, they opened the store for us.
We were soaked from the pouring rain but happy to have a flight to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, we got stuck there for two days until the strikes ceased and we could move on to our final destination. We ended up nixing the one hour flight after it was cancelled for the third time in three days and instead took a 20 hour bus ride.
At the end of the day, we missed out on two days in a town we had been looking forward to visiting because we were stranded in Buenos Aires. But considering we arrived safely, we won't dwell on the memories we could have made.
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| Enjoying one of three luxurious 20 hour bus rides we took in Argentina. We imagine it's like flying first class. |
I've had the "travel panic" before, (misplaced passport an hour before leaving for the airport in Belgium), so I can really empathize with you on this. Glad it all mostly worked out. And think of the memory you made instead of the ones you might have missed. Isn't that what traveling is all about? :-)
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