9-11 (Thursday)

We had breakfast at the hotel and then decided to go to a public internet because the machine at the hotel was so slow. It was misty but not real cold as we walked to Florida Street.

We left our luggage in the lock up room at the hotel and took a small carry on for two nights. We hailed a cab (with a meter) and Barbara told him the domestic airport. As we were driving I commented that it looked like we were going to the international airport. She said if we weren´t there in 10 minutes we should question the guy who didn´t speak a word of English. As we approached I finally said to him, "no international." He had a horrified look on his face and started jabbering away. Barbara gave him a paper with our information. He pulled over to the side and read it and jabbered some more. Finally he pulled off the main highway and turned around. After we had been driving for an hour I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "pardon." Then I made the motion of driving a car and asked if he was driving us to the airport or to Iguazu FallsÇ He said the airport. Then we began to wonder if he was driving us to the airport in Uruguay. Finally we got to the domestic airport. It cost us a fortune but we felt blessed because he was also driving on a tank that was way below empty.

We got checked in and made it to the gate just fine. Barbara walked away from her carry on bag which I noticed right away so she recovered it. The couple sitting next to me on the plane were from south Florida. They had been in Mendoza.

When we landed the people clapped. Maybe I was missing something although I´m always extremely happy when the wheels hit the ground.

We found transport in a mini van ($5 each) to our hotel, The Liberator. It was a three star place but it was very nice with many tour groups staying there. I had a pool and the weather was hot enough that people were sitting around it. our room was very nice: a king size bed and two twins plus the bathroom was lovely.

We walked around the town and ate dinner outside along the street. We finally had our Argentine beef and it was wonderful. We split a beer. Yum, yum. Before we made it back to the hotel the sky opened up and almost soaked us before we could get back to the hotel.