9/4 Goodbye El Calafate, hello air travel day to Iguazú – Easter Sunday – 9 April

Nice mid morning pick up at 9.45. A 20 minute or so trip to airport with Rumbo Sur (the tour company that has been looking after transfers and tours for us)

We had tried our own check in to our two flights yesterday at breaky. Steve is on one booking and we three on another so we needed to synchronise our online check in. We could manage it for the second flight from Buenos Aires to Iguazu, but the flight from El Calafate to BA just errored out at seat selection. Later in the day Mary checked again and where there had been a few rows with 4 seats, it now said there was only 3 seats – uh oh!! We figured we could do nothing so best to wait and sort it out at the airport.

There was not too much of a queue and we had no one behind us. The puzzled looks and efforts of not one but three Aerolineas Argentina staff had us a little concerned. No need. They informed us (as if we already knew) that we could change seats to be together at Bariloche. We didn’t have any info that said the flight had a stop. So we were separated for the first leg but had our luggage checked through and seats together from Bariloche where people would be leaving the plane.

Steve had front seats row 13, Mary and Phil in 26 and me in 27. Mary had a window with stunning clear skies and views. This included clear views of Mt Fitz Roy and Torre (the same ones that we went to see at El Chalten to find them cloud shrouded all day) , as well as the Argentino and Viedma Lagos and the Viedma glacier. Mary took some good pics. I also used the flight time to catch up on a few days of diary/blog notes.

Landing at Bariloche we were advised to take our allocated seats. We got lucky – exit row with plenty of leg room. They came on and vacuumed the plane and eventually the new passengers boarded and we took off for Buenos Aires.

By this time it was about 2.40ish and we were feeling peckish. We did get a cold drink and small nuts. Thankfully Mary and Phil had some left over muesli bars and cake things from their lunchboxes which were easily accessible.

Mary and I reviewed some photos, Mary was looking at the Condors and choikas from two days ago and I was back at Prospect Point in Antarctica which seems like an eon ago. We are up to day 33 today and only two weeks or so to go.

Off at Buenos Aires, with a couple of hours to play with. We had a bite to eat, charged phone and computer and I got a couple of blog posts uploaded.

The plane was late boarding and almost an hour late departing. Our row is the same as before and the same model so we were hoping for exit row again. Not only that we have 6 seats for the four of us. BONUS!!! Much better than we could have done checking ourselves in. Thanks to the Aerolineas Argentina staff in El Calafate.

We arrived finally at our Puerto Iguazu hotel – the Panorama Grand just before 11:00 and just in time for something to eat…and drink. We are getting the hang of Argentinean late meals.