Afoil Boats Holding Pennies

January 18, 2011 Today

short update our blog. Still, we are Ushuaii, because still goes on strike. Our decision to resign from the National Park Torres del Paine in Chile, was absolutely right, because today we met the Poles, who just got stuck there, then encamped in the camp of the Red Cross in Puerto Natales, and spent the last 24 hours trying to get out, first for the smuggled money to the border, and then combined the road on foot and by bus arrived here. It turns out that sometimes blocked the ferry passed a single ferry, but it is totally unpredictable.

decided to do so again an overview of last minute deals to Antarctica, the next day, unfortunately, nothing like that is beyond the 19-day trip, which for us is a little too long. It is a vessel that will sail today, but we are today We did not know what's next, so we have too little time to get him take it. We stayed stocks plane to Puerto Natales. Initially we tried to buy tickets for it already yesterday, turned out to be very complicated. First, on the Argentinian airline reservations we did, hoping that you will be able to pay for it once the card, but none of that. With this book you must go to the airline office or travel to another office, which deals in such things, and there just to get a ticket and pay for it. In addition, it turned out that prices for foreigners are two times higher than for residents of Argentina, which we completely freaked. But we tried to do a first approach to buy a ticket yesterday in the office of the airlines, but cignela August kilometer long queue there. So I tried again to buy a ticket on the Internet, this time by another page, where one could pay the tab. Everything looked beautiful, we got a confirmation and also an accessible price, but in the evening I received an email that unfortunately may carry out this transaction, because foreigners are valid for different prices and I have to apply directly to the airline. Damn man can find directions, especially as I could my system immediately kick from the payment Keidy gave your card and passport number, but of course it did not. On the occasion of a curiosity: in Argentina, with every card transaction you have to hold a document of identity, they have proofs similar to our old ksiazeczkowych, so when they are being used so often are much more worn out than we ever were.

Bearing this original reservation on the plane in hand, we moved again today to buy a ticket. First, the travel agency because liczylysmy the lower queue. Unfortunately, in the office could not travel to get to the airline system, because it is so overloaded and so many volunteers. So we remained waiting in the office of the airline. Finally after about 3 hours there, we received koczowania our tickets, even managed to pay the tab, although the agency has no card reader, but all card transactions are carried out by the telephone system and called for help. Irons, a small card imprinting Prague and so totally antediluvian conditions. But I managed to beat it and tomorrow.
A wiec nastepne wiadomosci juz z El Calafate, miejmy nadzieje.

18 Janaury 2011

A short update on our situation here. We are still in Ushuaia. We decided today to check if there were any last minute offers for Antarctica because lot of people we met here seems to go there, among them Ruth, a very nice woman from Switzerland we met on the buss from Rio Gallegos. Alas, no offers at the moment so Antarctica has to wait. In the meantime we met a couple of Polish toursists who just got here from Torres del Paine. They told us how they had been practicly smuggled across the border and confirmed that situation in Puerto Natales and Torres was very bad. As of now the Park is entirely closed. My personal view is that regardless of the strike reasons this is going too far. It is no longer just a way to make yourself visible. These people do not let pass even the sick, mother with childen and the trapped tourists who have nothing to do with their country. This is going over the edge.

Knowing that we are not going to Antarctica this time we went to buy flight tickets from Ushuaia to El Calafate, further north in Argentina. We had booked them the day before but it turned out we needed to go to the airlines office to pay and receive paper tickets. There we saw, same as the day before, a huge crowd of customers and picked a number 66 (the desks were serving number 18). We sat down and waited nearly 2.5 hours for our turn, frustrated and annoyed that serving one customer takes such long time. When it came to paying the Mystery solved you. This rather large state airline does not have any credit card reader. To make a payment the staff need to call a number, press Several options and credit card number and finally They get a transaction code. They then use a press to get the image of the credit card, fill it in and finally it is done.

Anyway, tomorrow in the fly out of here and get back to sightseeing hopefully.