Here I am at Gate 7 Auckland International Airport, waiting for Lan Chile LA800. My boarding time is 16:55.
This is my first time into South America and I will be visiting 4 countries.
Weather in Auckland looks beautiful – maybe summer is coming.
We got away on time – seats on the Airbus 340/300 are very close together – not much leg room when the passenger in front puts their seat back.
I had a large Brazilian man beside me and it was not the most comfortable ride – when I was by the window and he blocked the way out to the loos.
We crossed the pacific so there was not much to see, except for the sun setting.
Interestingly, we flew down over Rotorua and Gisborne before heading out over the Pacific.
When we arrived back over Chile – it was daytime – and I could see lots of large shed on farms – later learned these were for Chickens (Pollo) very popular meat in South America.
The day was perfect – blue cloudless sky – which showed of the snow covered Andes. Santiago is inland and is surrounded by the Andes.
The transfer from Flt 0800 to Flt 445 was a bit of a mess. Only two staff on the transfer desk – I only had time to use the loo (Bano) before racing down to gate 10 – only to find the flight was delayed.
My seat was an aisle seat – but as we were getting ready to takeoff – the lovely hostess told me I could move to the window seat. This was great as the next 2 hours where in daytime. The first part of the flight to Buenos Aires was over the Andes – then over Argentina.
What a great sight – BUT I was not able to get to my camera. Most of what I could see was flat farmland.
Buenos Aires is a huge city – we could see it in the distance long before we landed.
When we arrived at Buenos Aires Airport there was a guide waiting for us – now by us, I was on a World Expeditions Package tour for three weeks.
There are 15 people on this Tour – all bar me are from Australia – so should be fun.
We arrived at the Hotel Bristol at 10.00am Sat NZ Time – 6.00 pm Friday local time.
Hotel Bristol ( one with the Mercedes Sign on roof) is on the Main Central City road called Cerritto Avenue – but this is only one of the roadways that makes up this road. On the building sides of the road there are three lanes and in the middle of the roadway is another 7 lanes each way called 9 July Avenue in Spanish. This is after their Independence Day. Each of these four roadways are separated by grass and tree areas.
That’s 10 lanes each way (145 metres) – making this the widest (145 metres) main road in the world. BUT thats not all – there is also another motorway and rail running under it.
After a bit of a walk around – getting tired – so must be my bed time.
Today only did 9398 steps – should improve in the coming days.
chau