We dropped Casper at the Metropaws LuxuryLodge for cats and got to Auckland Aiport in good time. I had booked a space in park E and managed to almost get lost finding the car park and then finding a space. Eventually got sorted and checked in ok. We spent about an hour in the Koru Club then set off to change money and get to the gate.

We got some $US as that’s the currency in Equador and also some Argentinian Pesos. $1000 Argentinian is about $26NZ. We travelled on a 777 with AirNZ direct to BA. I had selected 2 seats in an exit row. There is nothing in front and you have lots of space to stand up and have a stretch. I was worried there would be loads of people queuing in front for the loo but they pulled the curtains forcing our cabin to the back so we had a quiet time. The seats themselves are VERY narrow and it was much colder than down the back but overall pretty good. Actually much colder should read “ 2 blankets and still freezing”. The food was ok. We watched a silly movie then I slept most of the time, listening to my book for a while after breakfast.

The views over Chile and the Andes were spectacular- not that I had a window. That’s a downside of the seats with leg room. However I could look around my seat to the window in the row behind and took what photos I could. We left at 8pm Friday night and arrived 2.30pm Friday on a stunning, blue sky day.

It was quick through customs and immigration but then we struck our first problem – no transfer person. Another traveller also had no transfer and we found this really accommodating young man that rang the office of our transfer and got to the bottom of things. He was a rep for one of the other companies and had his own people to collect but was rang up for us. In his limited English (1000 times better than our Spanish) he explained that our transfer was wrongly booked to collect us at the Buenos Aires domestic airport which is right in town. Oh to have Jen Forret back as our travel agent. She was the best but alas now works for Kiwirail in charge of all their crossings. Anyway we were directed to the place where you book and pay for a taxi. We had to wait about 30 minutes and then had a slow trip into town through the Friday afternoon traffic.

BA is a city of one way streets lined predominantly with plane trees. It’s very leafy and green but a bit chaotic with no organised lanes. They drive on the left hand side but that doesn’t really matter with one way streets.

Our hotel is in Bulnes, a suburb of Palermo which is BA’s largest neighbourhood. It is a wealthy neighbourhood with lots of hotels and bars/restaurants. We are on level 8 of Eco Bulnes Suites. The room is large with a terrace, non-appointed kitchenette and en-suite. I suspect it was built as apartments and has been converted to basic but clean tourist accommodation. Very comfortable and very quiet up on the 8th floor.

We got settled then headed out for dinner. I had a recommendation for a restaurant called Don Julio which is a 20 min walk away. We were unable to book but it said you could try as a walk in. We found our way there ( it was still about 20 C ) and saw the huge line of hopefuls so went across the road to La Popular de Soho which is an Argentinian restaurant that is football themed. We ordered steaks with fries and grilled veges and it was delicious. The Malbec wine was also delicious.

We had an extended walk home. First we got part way and Mike forgot his jersey so had to go back. Then my phone kept losing the internet and resetting the route so when I followed on the phone it took us in a complete circle. At this point, having walked about 10kms in total we decided to Uber and were rewarded with a ride within 5 mins. We had sorted out that the All Blacks Ireland game would play at 7.15 in the morning so set our alarms and were quickly asleep.