Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th January 2025 - - Whaley to Salta

We dropped off Fuchsia at 4 Paws and the Meezers at Mrs Harris' on Friday.  Our friens, Anne and Nick are looking after Clementine.

Having packed, we left home at noon.   The roads were icy and the fields were still covered in snow.

The journey to Heathrow was uneventful, except a 30 stoppage near Luton.

We are leaving our csr at the Sheraton Skyline.  Built in 1971, it was one of the first hotels to cater for mass tourism by plane. In its heart is what was called El Caribe Paiio, a whimsical fake tropical garden, replete with bamboo shack and pool.  It features in the Status Quo video for Marguerita Nights.

The area was closed for cleaning, but Joan got a few snaps.

We booked an Uber to Terminal 3 for £15 via a machine in the hotel lobby.  

It was several hours before our hysical chevk- in opened but there were machines in the terminal where you could print off your own baggage labels.

We cleared security and went to a crowded departure lounge.  It was too early to check into our No1 Lounge so we read for a while.

At 6 we moved to out airport lounge.  We were offered a crammed table.  Joan asked for somewhere quieter and we were offered srats in the upgrade section.

The lounge overllooked the runway and despite it being dark, you could see planes taking off and landing.  Still a magical experience!

We whiled away the time with a wine or two, and luckily graxed heavy on the buffet.

Our flight to BA voa Rio was due to lleave at 2210. The gate area was pretty crowded and a very loud airport official was getting flustered by a group who had cleared the gate without boarding Passes. 

We'd booked seats right of the back of the plane so boarded last. 

There wasn't much space to recline so itwas a long flight.   Despite having checked and recjecked our dietary requirements, no special meals were available. Joan ate a lot of melon!

The flight entertainment was good and Joan watched a couple of episodes of the last series of Celebrity Race Across The World which includes some of the places we will be visiting.

There was a brief stopover in Rio but we couldn't see the big statue of Christ. 

The flight to Buenos Aires was just under three hours.  Still no food.

We had forgotten how hot BA can be.

We booked a remise (taxi) to Aeroparque and sped across town on motorways with what felt like 100s of lanes.

On the way we could see the docks and the brown Rio Plata.  A grand terminal building on the quay reminded us of Liverpool.

Aeroparque was rammed with people.  The signeage was terrible.  British Airways have brought our return flight home forward by several hours so we tried to rebook our flight from Salta to BA.  Despite being a flexible ticket, the price to change it was 10 times the original cost.  We decided to re-evaluate our travel plans.

We found out that our ticket did not include hold luggage. So we had to pay extra.  (About £40)

heck in for Salta and fiscovered ee had n

Upstairs in Departures, we found a place that didvegan food but they had none in stock. Another place adbertised vegan options but the only offer was carrot cake.  Joan negotiated a salad that came with egg!

 then it was a bus out onto the tarmac ans a 2 &h[ur hop toSal/a.

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