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Patagonia: Buenos Aires
to
Trelew then on to Puerto Madryn
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Sunday 11th November 2018
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We were finally going to be back on schedule
and flying south to northern Patagonia. The start of our
expedition cruise was in sight, but there were still a few
loose ends to deal with... like getting me and some of my
fellow travellers from Iguazu to Buenos Aires first! (Derek
and the rest of the group had arrived in BA in the early
hours of the morning and had hopefully managed to get a
little sleep).
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Our flight approached Aeroparque airport
just after dawn. Judging by the heavy clouds, the storms
which had affected the schedules yesterday were still hanging
around, so I felt lucky a) that we had missed the bad weather
altogether and b) I would be in time to catch my onward
flight in a few hours time.
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It was another day of firsts for me. My
first flight on Austral Airlines (a sister company to
Aerolineas) and my first flight on an Embraer E190, which
I liked very much. The cabin, although smaller than the
usual Airbus or Boeing aircraft that I normally fly on,
was very comfortable and I especially liked the 2-2 seating
configuration. It also helped that the flight wasn't full
and I got a window seat with a free seat next to me.
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The efficient and long-suffering local
agent was at the airport to greet us and take us on the
short ride to the Sheraton Hotel. I got into the room
at 7:30 am, just as Derek was getting ready for breakfast.
I joined him in the club lounge and we swapped stories
of our separate flights, as we ate another delicious meal!
Afterwards, we went back to the room and rearranged our
packing for the umpteenth time to take account of the
local airline baggage restrictions, which are not fun!
(max 15kgs for checked baggage and 5kgs for hand luggage
- both are routinely ignored, but we were prepared for
anything!)
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By 10:30 we were
back at the airport! |
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Yet another first for me; flying with
Aerolíneas Argentinas, although this was not for
the want of trying, as both of the two previous flights
were supposed to be with them, but had to be changed to
other airlines at the last minute. The aircraft, a Boeing
737-800 was not new to me. We departed about ninety minutes
behind schedule which was par for the course... at least
we were going!
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Our flight of approximately
1,100 kms took around 1 hour 45 minutes. |
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Landing at Trelew
airport. |
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We were met by another
very pleasant local agent, who gave us many facts about Patagonia
during the one hour ride to Puerto Madryn. The landscape looked
rather bleak. |
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The Rayentray Hotel
in Puerto Madryn. We had a room on the top floor with excellent
views. |
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The view from our
balcony. |
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After a bit more
rearranging of luggage, we were taken to this restaurant for dinner. |
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Later, from our hotel
balcony, we could see the Island Sky in the port, looking
serene. I had been tracking its progress, so I knew that it
had arrived early this morning, after sailing from Praia,
Cape Verde about two weeks ago. We were both looking forward
to embarking tomorrow afternoon and being able to unpack fully. |
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