My trip to Argentina Part Uno

-note to the reader: I still plan to write about the Akela's World knocking but I have been very busy with work and wanted to get back to the root of the blog and write about an adventure. This will be a multi part entry.

A few weeks ago I was sent to Argentina for work, installing a new oven to cook very many hot dogs or as we called them salchichas. This was my first trip out side of the United States, some consider this weird and ask why I never went to Canada. Just never need to go there, that is about the only reason I can give.

At the end of another job, while sitting in the hotel room, I finally found the time to write this blog. Hopefully I will remember many of the things I wanted to tell people about, many may come back to me as I write. The trip was interesting to say the least, and although I had little time to be a tourist, I did enjoy a number of experiences while down in South America

The Flight

Flying is not something I enjoy or deal with lightly. Turbulence is not my friend and I find few calming moments on the plane. Before this trip, I have flown on at least a flights, currently I am about 1300 miles from earning Silver Elite status in the Delta Skymiles Medallion program. After tomorrow’s flight and some Double Dip points from my hotel stay I should have enough. This basically gets me a few privileges including; no fee baggage claim (work pays for it anyway), priority boarding, preferred seating, preferred security check, bonus miles for flights, and a few other privileges. Thankfully, the one good thing I got out of the flight to and back was over 10000 miles. Unfortunately, little else was pleasing; I did not sleep on the way down and at best rack maybe an hour of poor sleep back to the States.

Ever time, I drifted off to sleep just the littlest jarring of the steady flight would bring me wide awake. This lead to a dead battery on my MP3 player, due to watching episodes of Firefly, and reading all but 50 pages of World War Z. The flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires took over 10 hours which would not have been so bad but I started my day at 7 am and arrived in Buenos Aires at 6 am the next day, with no sleep. I was lucky enough to get a seat next to one of the guys I would be working with on this project, his name is Bob and I will discuss a few of his mannerisms later.

The First day

My first day in Argentina, which felt like it should have been the end of the previous day but was not, was very tiring. This was work travel, not pleasure, so when we arrived it was time to work. Waiting for us at the airport was a taxi service that we would be using during our stay at the work site. Bob and I quickly gathered out luggage and got in the taxi and I caught a bit of sleep during the two hour drive to San Pedro. Before I dozed off I took in the surrounding area of Buenos Aires, I really do not think I saw the good parts of that city and the whole Good Air translation should have been Contaminado Aires. This was the downer on Buenos Aires, for someone allergic and irritated by pollutants and pollen. Pollen, did I mention it was the start of spring for the southern half of the world.

We finally got to San Pedro and the Howard Johnson Hotel Centre, “Uhm we are suppose to be at the Howard Johnson Marines”, oh you do not hable English, well FML. “No this is your hotel.” “But I have a confirmation number right here if I can find it, what do you mean you do not do confirmation number and the internet does not matter. Why did it let me book the room then?” So after wasting an hour and getting no where we said screw it, and accepted defeat and asked for our room keys… “oh, what is that you say, one of the rooms is not available yet, good that’s the best news I’ve heard so far. Thank you for not fucking us big time.” A long day made even longer, and then it was finally time to head to the plant after we changed our cloths.

The Plant

Finally getting to the plant was a relief, mostly because they feed us and they were very friendly and we had a translator and my sleep deprivation was kicking in full steam and the polar opposite feel of the situation just made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. It was a euphoric feel of being a child that had a bad day and in one fell swoop, it was washed away, sort of.

Since the day I started and before every project I have been a part of, I was told to expect nothing to be ready and for people to ask me why I showed up a week too early. Yep, I have yet to have an example to debate this painful truth, but it did help me learn on word in Spanish very well, mañana, which means tomorrow. “When will we have power?” “Mañana.” “ Well it is mañana, do we have power?” “Mañana.” “How about steam?” “Mañana.” “Why for there is no production of product in the oven yet?” “Well we asked for ammonia for the refrigeration zone and we were told mañana. That was five days ago.”

"When will I get to read Part two of this Blog entry?" “Mañana.”