The travel day from hell.

It’s the last day of a mediocre 19 day cruise.  The ship is arriving in Buenos Aires early in the morning and we are eager to get a start on our busy day.  From Buenos Aires we are scheduled to take a quick one hour ferry to Colonia del Sacramento and from there an autobus to Montevideo where a car service will take us to the apartment we are renting, after stopping at an ATM for cash to pay the agent…….

Sounds complicated?  It is, kind of.  We are coming from Europe, our ship used the euro and was unable or unwilling to change money, we had spent two days in Brazil, we were going to need money in Argentina, the real estate agent required US dollars and we would be using Uruguayan pesos for everything else (food, drink, etc.)

The ship was an hour late, no problem; we had planned around this by requesting to be in the first departure group.  This is possible if requested 3 or 4 days in advance.  If requested too far in advance the cruise line will typically tell you to resubmit your request later or will simply forget.  Actually, our mediocre cruise line screwed it up anyway but Marilyn was on it and helped them correct this particular error.

All passengers had been asked to vacate their cabins by 7 a.m. so the housekeeping crew could get the ship ready for the passengers that would be embarking at noon.  Breakfast was available so this didn’t pose too much of a problem.  Everybody was then required to be at various disembarkation locations by 8 a.m.  The ship was supposed to have docked at 7 a.m. to handle the required paperwork and begin disembarkation at 8 a.m.  Unfortunately, the ship did not dock until close to 9 a.m. 

By 10 a.m. the lounge we were sharing with 200 or 300 people started to smell rather rank and we were beginning to be concerned.  Finally, the announcement……there’s a baggage handler strike in the port and nobody can leave the ship until the baggage has been delivered to the terminal.  No further information, in five languages.  Things were not looking good for catching our 12:30 ferry.  Good thing we had made the decision to spend the extra few dollars for changeable tickets.

Marilyn located an open bar on another floor of the ship and I spent most of the next hour and a half speaking with a wonderful Argentinian gentleman who tried to apologize on behalf of his country for the strike.  He was good enough to allow me to practice my pitiful Spanish provided he could practice his very good English.  Finally at 12:00 the strike was settled somehow and we all crowded off the ship, through the terminal and into baggage claim where the baggage for 3,000 people on a 19 day cruise was just now being unloaded….what a mess.

We eventually located our four heavy bags, put them on a cart, struggled through the mass of humanity still in baggage claim, and then struggled through a larger mass of humanity in customs and then through more between the exit and the taxi stands.  We had no Argentinian money, a few euros, twenty American dollars and some Brazilian reals.  There was no place to change money at the cruise port or if there was we couldn’t see it for the crush of people.  Thank God the taxi supervisor agreed to accept our last 20 American dollars to deliver us and our bags to the ferry terminal; it was close but a surprisingly long trip in the Buenos Aires port traffic.

We entered the ferry terminal and approached the check-in counter.  After looking at our tickets the lady jumped up and called across the terminal to a gentleman on the escalator who shook his head.  It was nearly 1 p.m. and we had nearly made our ferry!  But no such luck today.  Unfortunately, now we had to change our tickets and wait for the next available ferry at 4 p.m.  Although we would make up some time because this ferry would travel direct to Montevideo, we would still arrive 3 hours later than planned.

This was a problem because we had no phone, limited or zero access to WiFi and therefore no real ability to call another country to reschedule our pickup.  Taking a taxi to the apartment was an option but we would still not have had a way to contact the rental agent in order to tell her what time to meet us at the apartment.

We were able to change some euros into Argentinian pesos so that we could buy some empanadas and drinks in the café while we waited with enough left over for refreshments on the ferry as well.

Changing the tickets was certainly a new experience.  The very helpful lady at the check-in counter rebooked us on the next ferry and printed our tickets, we thought.  She then directed us to line up at the cashier’s window in another part of the building to pay for the changes (the ferry direct to Montevideo is more expensive than the route through Colonia).

After waiting in line and paying the change fee we had to return to the check in counter where we received our boarding passes.  We were then told that we couldn’t check our luggage in until 2 p.m.  So we hauled our luggage into the café in order to have a little lunch.  The empanadas tasted wonderful.  So did the beer.

Meanwhile, the ever resourceful Marilyn, after wasting several pesos trying to call Uruguay from a pay phone, sweet-talked a supervisor at the check-in desk into letting her make a call to our rental agent who agreed to meet us at the terminal since the car service would not drive to the port that late in the evening (8 p.m).

At 2 p.m. we returned to the check in counter, checked our bags and headed for immigration.  The Uruguayan passport control clerks conferred over our relatively new American passports (issued in 2010 with a new information stripe across the bottom) and stamped our documents; passport, boarding pass, immigration document.  After relaxing for another hour we noticed a line forming at the ferry puerta (gate).  We wondered about this since our tickets showed that we had been issued specific seat numbers.  Not having traveled in this particular area before we figured we better do as the locals did and got in line.

Good thing!  The ferries operate much like a discount airline, Southwest, EasyJet, SpanAir, etc.  You get on early, find a good seat, sit down and hope that nobody sits between or next to you.  On the ferry the legroom and seats are similar to the first class section on an American airliner but, there is no place to put your carry on luggage except in front of you or in an unoccupied seat.  They pack these ferries full.

The ferry ride was comfortable, had a snack bar and a duty free shopping area on the lower deck.  We actually took short naps and the ferry arrived on time and no baggage worker strike!

The ferry terminal in Montevideo is under construction and it took forever to work our way through the lines at customs which consisted of an x-ray of all luggage.  Finally, we were outside, in Montevideo and, after a little hassle, located our rental agent and loaded all of our bags into her small station wagon.  Off to find an ATM for those US dollars we would need..

The port in Montevideo is located in a part of the city know as Ciudad Viejo.  This portion of the city consists of one way streets and the shops close down completely at a relatively early hour.  Since there is quite a bit of graffiti and the shops have steel shutters rolled down when closed it did not give me a favorable first impression of Ciudad Viejo.  Did I tell you that the apartment we are renting is in Ciudad Viejo?

We finally found an ATM (most are on the pedestrian only streets we found out later), entered the secured area and started our multiple withdrawals.  If this sounds convoluted, it is, here’s why; the rental market is quite complicated in Montevideo and the rental agent insisted on US dollars.  You can withdraw either US dollars or Uruguayan pesos from ATMs in Montevideo.  The banks do however limit withdrawals from their ATMs to $300 per transaction.  We needed $1,100 for the rental agent and a few bucks for ourselves.  This required 5 transactions.

Just before completing our business, the lights in the small ATM room went out and a steel shutter rolled down.  It was 9 p.m. and we were locked in the bank!  The rental agent who had remained outside in the car with our luggage was frantically running up and down the block to find a neighbor to call the bank or find another entrance with a security guard.  Meanwhile we knocked on the inner glass wall and called for assistance.  After about 5 minutes a bank security guard came out and let us into the bank apologizing and explaining that the outside steel doors shut automatically at 9 p.m.  We were just happy to be out and thanked him as he let us out of the security door which functioned like an airlock where there are two doors and one has to be shut before the other can be opened.  I’m liking this neighborhood less and less.

I thought we had stopped in traffic when our rental agent pulled up to the dead end street by our apartment building.  Dead end is an exaggeration because it is simply where the street is closed to automobile traffic near the apartment (30 yards).  Surprisingly, the building is clean and secure and the apartment interior is modern and functional.  The agent showed us how everything worked in the apartment and we went over the rental contract with her (in Spanish), paid the rent (we had previously sent her a deposit)  and were suddenly on our own in a country we had never been in and where we knew nobody for the very first time in our lives. 

The next issue was that we were in a neighborhood where all shops, cafes and markets were closed down.  There were few people on the streets except for the hoodlums (my term, probably not fair) sitting out on the street drinking (probably soda) at 10:30 p.m. on a Friday night with 400 American dollars and no water or food.  We had heard that there is lead piping in the plumbing of most buildings so you don’t want to drink the tap water.

An American 100 dollar bill is a large bill late at night in Ciudad Viejo.  We hiked about half a mile and found a plaza that had some activity and a McDonalds.  We thought surely McDonalds would accept an American 100 dollar bill.  Of course they only accept bills smaller than $20.  We finally wandered into a restaurant with a very nice ambiance and were assured that they accepted American dollars.  The wait staff was wonderful and friendly.  They could tell we were exhausted and really worked hard to help make us comfortable.  After sharing a chivito (local Uruguayan sandwich), a glass of wine, and taking some bottled water (sin gas) to go, we strolled back to the apartment and fell into bed.