The Worst Airline Ever! (Taca)

Every seasoned traveler can expect at some point to experience some bumps and bruises when it comes to flying international.  I am incredibly lucky and my wonderful stepfather works for a major airline which has allowed me to travel to various countries using standby.  This means once the plane fills up I can ride in any of the left over seats.  It is cost effective but it can be a pain because traveling standby during high seasons, ie: major holidays, spring break, etc. can be impossible.  Nonetheless, up until today I have never had a traveling horror story to tell.  That has all changed…

So my husband Thomas and I decided a couple months ago that our Argentine adventure was ready to come to an end.  It’s time to go back home to Denver and begin something new.  Originally we had planned to spend Christmas in Buenos Aires.  That was until my family in Mexico graciously purchased airplane tickets for us and invited to spend the holidays with them.  Wonderful.  We were/are very excited and spent these last few weeks preparing to leave.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30am and we were flying Taca airlines which we have never flown before.  Things started off bad from the beginning.  It was like a black cloud of bad luck blew in and loomed over us the entire morning.  First off, it was raining very hard.  A friend of mine offered to drive us to the airport.  It was pouring when his car’s windshield wipers decided to die.  We were flying down the highway and my friend could barely see out the window.  I’m not going to lie.  I have never felt so close to death before.  I prayed a lot.  We managed to make it to my friend’s home where we proceeded to dump the car and take a taxi to the airport.  We arrived a bit later then we would have wanted but with time to spare.   In order to leave we had to pay a special fee which involved running from one side of the airport to the other, but we secured the proper papers and went to check in with Taca.  This is where things nose dived.  We were told the system was closed, that we had arrived too late, they were already done boarding.  I checked my watch and saw  we had over an hour.  After some moaning and pleading the guy at the counter said fine, he’d check us in.  Then he proceeded to tell us we had the wrong papers.  We had to argue that we had in fact secured all the proper paperwork and finally he relented.   Then he asked us to see our vouchers for our flight we showed them.  Then he asked to see our tickets for when we leave Mexico and go back to the US.  I explained that my family had bought the tickets for us to go to Mexico, and that we would be flying stand by back, which means I never have or receive an actual ticket until the day I leave.  The Taca man then proceeds to tell me that we cannot leave without tickets proving we have no plans to illegally stay in Mexico.  I proceeded to tell him that he we had no plans to illegally stay in Mexico, and that nonetheless, the authority of who is allowed to enter Mexico does not belong to him, that right belongs to Mexico.  MEXICO DECIDES TO ENTERS MEXICO NOT ARGENTINA!  Things got ugly.  We fought, I turned into the ugly American and terrible words came out of my mouth.    Then when I demanded he show me in print where this policy is, the Taca man proceeds to print out a paper saying we need a visa.  Americans are given visas and permission to enter Mexico upon the actual arrival in Mexico, so this idiot was basically just making things up.  Then we saw the man look over and spot a suitcase sitting on the conveyer belt next to him.  He asked the woman next to him who worked for a different airline if the bag belonged to them.  She said no.  Then he just shrugged and tossed it aside.  So basically we witnessed someone’s bag get lost.  I doubt if it made it on the plane in time.  All in all, our flight left without us and I returned back to my friend’s home angry and frustrated.  We called Taca immediately and demanded a refund. Of course this took three phone calls since they disconnected us twice.  We were told the tickets were refundable but it would have to be done through the website in which they were purchased which is called despegar.com AND my father who purchased the tickets, would have to be the one to make the call and ask for the refund.  I notified my father of our mishap and he told me he would straighten it out.  A couple hours later he informed me that Taca now claimed that the tickets were no refundable and my father had to pay a penalty fee so that we can now leave on the 23^rd.  I have never in my life seen such an incompetent airline.  I went online and discovered some pretty nasty horror stories about this airline.  This airline flies all over Latin America, so if you are planning a trip south, DO NOT CHOOSE TACA!  They are rude, incompetent, and if they feel like appointing themselves the job of another country’s immigration officer, they will! In conclusion, I havemany wonderful traveling experiences, but I guess it was time to pay my dues.  Life doesn't always shit rainbows and sunshine, so I guess I'll take my lumps and hope for the best on the 23rd.

The Kiss...

"The Love Birds" My friend Gisela and her boyfriend Facundo

 

Greetings differ in different parts of the world.  There is the handshake, the bow, the fist bump.  If you come to Argentina, it’s the kiss.  Yes, we kiss a lot down here.  It doesn’t matter if you are meeting someone for the first time, saying hello to a good friend or saying good morning to a coworker.  The standard salutation is a quick kiss on the cheek.  The kiss is also has no gender limits.  Woman/woman, man/man, man/woman, adult/child.  It is just how they do it down here.  I think some foreigners might be a little taken aback by the kiss, but I can honestly say, it doesn’t take people long to warm up to the idea.  I think what I have enjoyed most about this Argentine custom is the fact that I was allowed to kiss my students goodbye at the end of the day.  I’m an affectionate person, I love to dote on my students and little kids are cuddle bugs.  Back in the US kissing students is a no-no, you don’t do it, and you might even be pushing it with a hug.  I remember one time at the end of the year, pecking one of my third graders (whom I adored) on the forehead.  His little face lit up and my stomach did a flip flop thinking, “Crap, I shouldn’t have done that, what if he tells his mom?”  Here however, I was delighted to see that not only did parents and teachers kiss on the cheek when saying hello, but we were allowed to hug and kiss our students when saying hello and goodbye.  It was wonderful.  So all in all, if you come down here for a visit, don’t be shy, and if you’re a guy, yes there is a chance another guy might lean in for a smooch, just remember an open mind is the best mind.

Christmas Time in Buenos Aires

So the past few days I have honestly felt like I live in Florida, minus the sandy beaches.  Heat and humidity.  90 degrees in December.  Although, Argentina does have palm trees.  It will be Christmas soon.  Back home in Colorado, houses would be strung with lights and people will have placed their inflatable snow globes on their lawns and stores will have been advertising Christmas goods and sales since Thanksgiving.  Living here for almost a year, I have discovered that holidays are not the commercial fanfare like back home.  I’ve spotted a few stores in the neighborhood selling typical Christmas décor: lights, plastic trees, bulbs, Santas, etc.  They put up a big metal Christmas tree thing in Plaza de Mayo and I’ve seen a few homes with Christmas trees in the windows.  Otherwise, there is no hot cocoa, no Christmas music playing incessantly on the radio or in the supermarket; I doubt I will watch Frosty the Snowman on TV this year.  I don’t know whether this lack of commercialism is a good thing or if my nostalgia for home will set in as it gets closer.  I am sad that I won’t taste a Christmas tamale or one of those little hotdog things you eat with a tooth pick that my mother serves every year for our Christmas open house.  Nonetheless, it is what it is and I’m happy for the opportunity to experience new things

"Christmas Goods in Almagro"

The Urban Ballerina

My husband and I left our apartment and were on our way to the bowling ally when I spotted this little girl, all decked out in Ballerina gear gracefully prancing on the corner in front of the pharmacy.  It was so stinkin precious.  Luckily we had the camera with us and I was able to catch a picture of her in all her ballerina glory.

Spring in Buenos Aires

So I guess I have never quit gotten used to living in a country with reversed seasons.  With the warmer weather and budding trees, I keep thinking its April.  The other day I walked by a shop advertising Christmas décor and for a moment I thought to myself, “Why the hell are they putting out Christmas stuff in April?  Oh wait, because it’s November…duh.”  The trees here have been budding these pretty purple flowers that are unlike anything I have ever seen.  Girls are breaking out the shorts and skirts and the number of times you get cat called in a day triples, but what the heck, it’s spring the temperature is perfect and before long everyone will all be complaining about the heat and humidity.  

"A View of Parque Velez Sarsfield"

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Four Days.

"Street Protest"

This week was a difficult week.  A series of unfortunate events that ended with a street protest.  This week started out like any other.  Monday came and went in its normal fashion.  Work, home, dinner, bed.  Nothing out of the ordinary except that on Tuesday it was unusually hot.  With the seasons being reversed, we are now experiencing spring.  Temperatures don’t usually begin to climb until December, but by Tuesday afternoon an unusual heat had descended on the city and then the power went out.  Where I live, power outages are actually quite common.  We have endured them in both summer and winter, however, they usually only last for a couple of hours, a day at the most.  So when the power went out we didn’t think much of it, a pesky inconvenience.  Yesterday was Friday and the power was still not back on.  Electricity is not exactly essential.  I can work on my computer from an internet café, and yeah it sucks to walk up and down seven flights of stairs every time we come and leave the apartment, but for us, no electricity also means no water and these past four days I have been reminded of just how essential water really is.  So we get our water from a big tank that sits on top of our apartment building.  Once the tank it empty an electric pumps feeds more water into it.  By Wednesday morning the temperature at nine o’clock in the morning was hovering around 80 degrees.  I took the bus to work early and “bathed” in the sink.  I teach a private class in Floresta and the walk from my school in Flores to my next class in Floresta was hellishly hot.  My luck continued to nose dive from there, my student forgot about our class, so another twenty minute walk to the bus stop only to discover traffic was backed up due to a car accident, I had another private class to get to so I wasted money on a cab ride back home.  I only had twenty minutes to get ready for my next class and I prayed the entire cab ride home the electricity would be back so I could take a quick shower before class.  No dice, our apartment felt like Hades and I ended up sleeping on the balcony that night.  You need water not only to bath and brush your teeth but also to wash dishes, your clothes and to flush the toilet.  This night a large portion of the Caballito neighborhood was without power.  We were told it was due to the heat wave.   On Thursday evening a student of mine was gracious enough to allow me to shower in her home.  Another night on the balcony.  Yesterday morning when I woke up I could feel that the temperature had dropped significantly.  The sky grew dark and it rained like crazy for a good hour.  Feeling grimy and gross, I stripped down to my shorts and a bikini top, grabbed a bottle of soap and took a “shower” on the balcony.  The heat wave was over; the electricity should be back on.  Nope.  I ended up working in the afternoon and the thoughts of spending another night in our dark apartment made me want to cry.  However, I am a very lucky person.  I have very good friends here in BA.  I made arrangement to stay at my dear friend Mariel’s house and planned to pack and retreat to her house as soon as I got home from work.  When I rounded the corner of my neighborhood I could hear the distinct sounds of a protest taking place.  When people in Argentina protest, they bang pots and pans with spoons out in the middle of the streets.  The people of Caballito were angry.  I spotted my neighbors in the middle of the street holding signs that said: 4 DAYS, NO WATER, NO ELECTRICITY.  I ran up to apartment and grabbed a pan and a spoon and joined it.  Someone dragged trash bags into the streets and lit them on fire, this was to ensure no cars would be able to pass, if we have to suffer, everyone was going to suffer.  The police arrived but stood by; they had no plans to intervene unless things got ugly.  The news van arrived and they filmed us in all of our frustrated glory.  I am not sure how long the protest lasted, after about twenty minutes I decided to head on over to my friend’s home where we enjoyed long showers, homemade pizza and the company of some wonderful people.

"Hot and Miserble" Poor Ula suffered this week while trapped in a stifling, hot apartment, we had a terrible joke where every time we found her like this we would shout, "The cat died again!"