The big (and looong) leap to Buenos Aires.

Erik's entry:
After much consideration and debate, Talor and I finally decided that we'd had enough of Central America, the heat, the mosquitos, humidity, unchewable beef, etc.. As much as we loved the Corns (I'd actually considered staying 6 weeks longer to do my dive master training on Little Corn), we needed to move on. We'd planned on breezing through Costa Rica to get to Panama, and making further plans from there. After some research, though, we found that one really needs to fly to get to South America from Panama - there are no convenient, nor safe, overland routes into the continent. Further research revealed that flights were more expensive from Panama than from Managua, which makes no sense at all. That got us thinking, and finally we abandoned our Panama plans altogether, which also allowed us to avoid the 25 hour bus ride to Panama City.

But where to go? A whole new continent was open to us, but we didn´t know much at all about South America, and Big Corn Island doesn´t have any book stores, much less a guide book on South America (um, do you have one in English, please?) After 5 months in Central America, we were craving a large, cosmopolitan city with cool temperatures, good food, and wine. (Wine! I never thought I´d get tired of beer, but when it´s the only option, it can get tiresome.) So, with all that in mind, Buenos Aires seemed the place for us. It also didn´t cost much more to fly there than to the other countries, so we went ahead and booked a ticket from Managua to B.A., via Miami, of all places. How can it be cheaper to fly 2.5 hours north to catch a connecting flight south? But, hey, we wouldn´t mind a few hours layover in Miami so we could get a quick fix of American food before heading off for more months abroad...

After a bit more research, we found that hotels and hostals in B.A. were expensive - a cheap room with private bath began at around $40, which is half of our combined daily budget! Hmmm...maybe B.A. wasn´t such a great idea after all. We´d heard it was cheap since the financial collapse in 2001, but we´d also heard along our travels that inflation was out of control. Apparently so! I remembered my cousin, Lauri´s story about renting an apartment in Buenos Aires for her stay a few years ago, so we began searching around on CraigsList and elsewhere, and we ended up finding an affordbable loft apartment in the San Telmo area, which seemed nice. So we had an apartment, and a ticket, and were all set to go.

The evening before we left, we had (yet another) farewell drink with Ike, Kevin, Merle and the gang. We were smart and packed ahead of time, as the drinks went later than expected. Early the next morning, feeling a bit green from the rum, we heard shouting and honking from the road. "Huelga! huelga!" a group of men in the back of a pickup truck were shouting. "Strike! Strike!" Shortly thereafter, Ike came up to our room and said we should leave early, as the island´s fishermen had just started a strike, and they might disrupt car or even plane traffic. Nicaraguans love to go on strike, I guess. We hurried up, said our goodbyes (Cordell, Kevin and Merle were gathered at Ike´s to see us off), and headed to the airport. We saw the beginnings of a few strikers' roadblocks (big rocks strewn across the road), but got to the airport just fine. An hour later we were on the plane and on our way to Managua. We learned later from Ike that we actually got the last flight out the Corns, as the strikers managed to shut down the airport just after, and things had gotten quite bad. They even succeeded in shutting off the island's power and water for a few days. We got out just in time.

The flight to Managua via Bluefields was eventless, except for some tubulence, which didn´t help our hangovers at all. We were both a bit nauseous during the flight, but we arrived right on time, and had about 4 hours to kill before our flight to Miami - so we thought. Turns out that bad weather in Miami had delayed our plane, so we had another 2 hours to kill. 2 hours turned to 3, but our plane finally arrived, we boarded (very slowly, as TSA was making AA personnel re-inspect every single carry-on by hand...) We found some empty rows of seats in the back and were able to nap a little during the flight.

Having been so delayed, we knew that our dreams of a nice, juicy burger in Miami were shot. We weren´t even sure at this point if we´d make our connection. A friendly flight attendent allowed us to move to the front of the plane just before landing so as to rush through immigration. That plan worked well until we got to customs, and waited for our luggage. And waited. And looked at our watches, and waited some more. Our bags were pretty much the last to come out (first on, last off). Normally we take our backpacks carry on, but with so much time to kill, we´d thought we´d check them through. Bad idea! Once they were spat out onto the carrousel, though, we rushed through customs and ran to our gate, making our connection with a hefty 15 minutes to spare.

The fun continued on the flight to Buenos Aires. We pulled away about 45 minutes late, and then waited on the tarmac for another half hour. (Some story of a man who´d deplaned because he was worried about his dog in the checked baggage...) We had our own little TV´s at each seat, and I succeeded in watching all of Casablanca before the plane was in the air. In the end, though, the flight was fine, if very late. After so many bus trips, our welcome back to the world or air travel wasn´t the best.

On the ground in Buenos Aires, after more than 25 hours of flights and airports, we encountered a new problem: we couldn´t withdraw money from any of the ATM´s - odd as we´d never run into that problem before. We had enough US$ on us to pay for our apartment, but we needed some Argentine pesos to pay for the cab ride into town। Finally we cashed a couple of traveler´s checks, and were happy that we'd carried them and the US$ with us for months in case of just such an emergency.

The cab ride in was fine, though we´re pretty sure we got ripped off a little by the cabbie. We were so tired at that point, though, that we didn´t care. We were let in by Ana, who cares for the apartment. The poor woman had been waiting hours for us, but she was still very nice to us. The apartment is wonderful, with a sizable sleeping loft, kitchenette, bathroom with jacuzzi, computer with internet and cable TV. Wow! And this was half the price of a room in a cheap hotel.

We were exhausted and cold, but excited to get out into the city. Could there be a bigger change than going in one long day from a tiny, hot Caribbean island with our daily choice of what to drink: beer or rum, what to eat: fried chicken or fried yellow tail fish - to a cosmopolitan capital of 13 million people in mid-winter, with myriad choices of bars, restaurants, night clubs, parks, theater, cinemas, etc.?

Still cornin' around...

Talor: Ummm... oops, we're still here. We tried to leave, really! Had our return reservations set, and were getting ready to go, but then Cordell, Kevin and company decided to send us off in style with a BBQ party at Cordell's. It was supposed to be a farewell that turned into another, "Why don't you stay a little longer?" party... so yes, we're still here.

Then a couple days later, Ike showed off his cooking skills by putting together a fantastic lobster dinner for us. Making it really really hard for us to leave... think I'll start calling this place "The Hotel California."

... but in the end, I am a creature of seasons. After 5 months of heat and humidity, I am craving a little cold. So we are heading to the cooler climes of Buenos Aires on Thursday after one last farewell on Wednesday... uh oh it's a full moon! But this time, it won't be "farewell," just "hasta luego" ("see you later") because we will surely be back...