30m
Well, kind of a boring day. Travel from Iguazu to Buenos Aires. Got to find out what the buffet was like at the Belmond; huge! Champagne, juices, pastries, hot buffet, pancakes, waffles, decent coffee…
However, once breakfast was over we had to sit around until our pickup at 1pm. So, killing time in room, killing time in bar with a coffee, getting more bored. At 12:20 we got the hotel shuttle bus to the entrance of the park and found our driver waiting, apparently since 12pm. He drove us to the Brazilian border at speed, doing about 60km in 40 zones. Get out of car, hand over passport, get stamp, get back in car, head across bridge back into Argentina. Hand passports to driver, who hands them over through his window, get passports back, drive on. Easy. Obviously our driver was in a hurry to get home as he now accelerated up to 100kmh through 60 and even 40 zones, so we arrived at the Argentinian airport early. Too early to check in so more waiting. Check in was easy and then of course more waiting after security.
The flight was ok, and we arrived in Buenos Aires 5 minutes early. Picked up bags and met by local guide who took us to our hotel. TISA again. Check in with passport, no problems. Credit card? No. Debit card, yes. ApplePay, yes. No! Credit card or cash! Well, we have a problem here then don’t we. Man at desk went back to looking at his computer ignoring us, stating an amount in the tens of thousands of pesos or no room. I am about to ring our local agent when Fran works out that the deposit for incidental expenses is US$60. No problems and we can check in. Dinner? No. They offer room service, that’s it.
We walk out of hotel after dumping our bags and find a very nice local restaurant that does pizza and Malbec. Problem solved, except for the olives which appear on every pizza here!