Bariloche, cont.

Monday, Mar 31 – Day 105

I’ve got to make a move today because time is getting scarce. I called Tony George’s office at the Speedway and tried to get him to push the race date for the Indy 500 back by a few weeks, but he was having none of that. The best I could do then, was to push my return back to mid-May, which only cost me US$150.00.

Once I settled on that, I figured that I could go ahead and firm up the details for Machu Picchu. I was able to do some of it on line, but not the airfare, so I went to the LAN (the Chilean national airline) to do that. After an hour and a half of haggling over why I have to come back to Santiago when trying to get from Calama to Lima (Santiago is 3 ½ hours flying time in the opposite direction), we have an itinerary. Five airplane segments that are going to cost me about US$1,200. No other choice, however, as the distances are long and/or hard by bus, and I don’t have the time. For example, Lima to Cusco is a 45 minute flight, but it takes 26 hours to get there by bus.

Anyway, I give her my credit card, she ring’s it up, and comes back to tell me that the card has been rejected.

You’ve got to be kidding! I just stopped at the ATM to get some cash just before getting to the LAN office. I gave her my ATM receipt, which showed a balance of some $73,000 pesos. She tried to run the card a couple of more times, but it never worked and she said that there was nothing more that she could do. I asked her if she could just hold the reservations for 24 hours so I could clear up the problem with my bank, and she said no – if I didn’t pay for the tickets right there, the seats could not be held. Wow!

So later that evening, I called to yell at some poor customer service schmuck at BofA, and he said that my account had been blocked for suspicious activity. Within a couple of hours that afternoon, I had booked a hotel through Pay Pal, so that transaction originated in the US; I then bought a rail ticket that originated in Peru; got cash from the ATM in Argentina; and then tried to buy the airline tickets from LAN, which originates in Chile. Hmmm…., what’s so suspicious about that? Anyway, the guy apologized and said that going forward, I shouldn’t have any problems.

That evening we had dinner at fondue a very small place called Swiss Chalet. It was like eating in the family room of someone’s home. There were only two other tables of diners that night, and an old man that was playing the accordion. He sat at a table by himself, wearing a tie and a vest, and sipped on a cup of coffee between songs. I don’t know the accordion very well, so I really know if he was good, but I’m quite certain that he was very passionate about his music.

We were the last to leave, and as I gave him a tip, I asked him how long he’d been playing. He said “60 years”. That led to a half-hour conversation about his family history, the changes he’s seen in the city over his lifetime, and the music scene in Bariloche. He said that with all the Brazilian tourists that come to the area now and listen to modern rock, it’s hard for him to find accordion gigs. He was really cool.

Tuesday, April 1 – Day 106

A guy at the hostel went to watch in a 10k race yesterday. It was organized by the Mothers of the Desaparados - remember the Dirty War and the mothers of missing children? Well, they’re here in Bariloche also. He said there was no entry fee for the race, you didn’t need to register, and everyone was welcome to participate. The event wasn’t about raising money, but to continue to create an awareness that nothing is being done to answer for the disappearance of these children. He said that one of the class winners was a local kid who had no socks, and his shoes were so worn that you could literally see the toes of both his feet through gaping holes. He said that it looked more like he was wearing sandals than running shoes. An American guy that finished some distance behind him took off his nice pair of $100 runners and gave them to the local kid. Later on, the kid was presented win a medal for winning his class, and he promptly went over to the American, put the medal he’d just won around the other guy’s neck, and gave him a big hug.

I went back to the LAN office, armed with a working ATM card, found the same girl, and asked her to book the same tickets we had worked on yesterday. I had a print-out of the itinerary to make it easy for her, so I didn’t think that it shouldn’t take more than 15 or 20 minutes. After that, I’m on the bus to Mendoza.

Of course, the girl says that the one of flight segments is now sold out, and that we have to re-work the entire schedule. This took another hour, but we got it done. I then raced to the bus station and got there just in time to catch the bus. Luckily, I bought my ticket yesterday. We left at 1:00 pm, and are expected to arrive in Mendoza at around 9:00 am the next morning. I have a 1st class seats for the overnight trip, but once again, there are no hot chicks in 1st class. Rats.