A Saturday (10.19.13) visit to the suburbs of Buenos Aires - Olivos - for a traditional Asado in the home of Amber & Hugh

Today, is - (was to be) our last day in Argentina.  We enjoyed a walk around the Recoleta area before taking the train to Olivos. We were told that a cab would cost about $50 each way.  The Park Hyatt suggested that we NOT take the train.  As is the case many places the trains and stations are ripe picking for thieves and pocket pickers.  But we had plenty of time and both Beth and I love to try and experience what locals do we choose to take the train.  For both of us round trip we paid 12 peso's.  During our time the bank exchange rate was 6 pesos to 1 dollar (you could get up to 9.4 pesos per dollar on the "blue" market).  So the trip on the train cost us a total of $2 round trip for BOTH of us.

We went to visit a women who used to work for Beth at Charles Schwab named Amber Alexander & her husband Hugh, along with 2 girls, 1 live in house keeper plus 1 additional helper all at their rented house in the suburb of Olivos.  Walking from the train station to their house it reminded us a little like Burlingame.  We enjoyed a wonderful Asado.  The food keeps coming off the grill.  First sausage, then like a small ribs, and on and on, it was delicious.  The also turned us on to the amazing local ice cream!

Our discussion was about Argentina, how corrupt it is, how much crime there is, yet how low cost and incredible their medical system is, etc.  They even admitted they have buried money in their back you so it wouldn't be stolen.  This all started with a question about the Blue/Black market for money exchange and how they keep and or deal with money living in Argentina.

There is only one flight per day, on Delta, going back to SFO via ATL it departs at 8:50 pm.  With this being my first International "standby" trip I was a bit worried we would not get on the plane.  But as I kept checking availability it looked good for us to get on the flight so we went to the airport, which is about 30 to 40 minutes away from downtown Buenos Aires.  I used a priority listing S2 to make sure we were high on the standby list.  Everything seemed perfect.  The gate agents checked our bags and allowed us to go through immigration.  With this being an International trip I knew they would NOT check our bags and let us go through immigration unless we had seats on the plane.  Everything was great, when I herd my name called I thought for sure it would be to give us our seat assignment (for international standby this is done at the gate).   Well the gate agent told me 1 person checked in AFTER the cut off time, but the took them as they were a paying customer.  So when I got to the desk the agent said I have some bad news...I have only 1 seat therefore only 1 of you can fly home tonight.   Even though I was to be back at work on Monday, October 21 I could not go without Beth and she did not want to go without me.  So we decided that we would try again tomorrow, Sunday, October 20!

What an ordeal to take us back through Immigration and get a note that clearly states that even though our passport say we depart Argentine, we did not leave.  We had to pick up our bags that had already been checked etc.  Once all of the was done, say 10:30 pm THEN we had o start looking for a hotel.  Which we booked on HOTELS.COM - when we showed up the Front Desk Agent said "I have your reservation, however  I do NOT have a room for you"  He helped us booked another hotel walking distance around the corner so we could spend the night.  We ended up at the Krista Hotel Boutique
it looks nice....that's what we thought when the Front Desk agent showed it to us at midnight.  Well the Krista Hotel does not even show the UGLY room we were in (ALL BLACK floor to ceiling WOOD
PANELS).  When Beth started to take a shower, there wasn't any towels, hot water, etc.  I came walking in and she was crying from the whole experience......what a day!