So we FINALLY (and I emphasize the word finally) made it to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, and damn, it definitely wasn`t a pleasant experience. We had been pretty psyched that we had gotten a flight to Ushuaia, as opposed to the three day bus experience, so we were loving the idea of a convenient and easy 3 1/2 hour flight down South…..WRONG. Our flight left the Buenos Aires airport at 6:30, so we had to arrive at 5:30 in the morning, which of course, meant waking up at 4:30….painful in itself. Well, we arrive at the airport, and immediately see that there is a huge line out of the Austral/Aerolineas airline counter, but nobody there to attend to it. I ask the security guard where we go, he points to the line, and so we shrug our shoulders and say ok. We wait for about a half hour, still no check-in people, and then we realize that all the Austral flights say “Consult Agent” on the teleprompter. I go up to the counter, ask some random stranger, and he tells me that we essentially have to wait. By this point, we know something is going on, but unfortunately, we have no idea what it is. We wait for a few more minutes, pretty sure everyone is missing their flights now, when Steve finally taps some nuns on the shoulder and asks them to explain what is going on…..Long story short, we learn that the Austral pilots went on strike at noon the day before, and no flights were going out until noon that day–a 24 hour strike. Of course, everyone knew about it, but our taxi driver and the people at our hostel didn`t feel the need to tell us. We even met one guy who had been at the Austral office the day before and they hadn`t even mentioned it to him. Anyway, we see that our flight–along with all the rest–has been cancelled, and we`re are pretty disappointed. I was wicked excited to get to Ushuaia, and now we are at the airport with a ton of other people and nobody really knowing where to go because their was no staff to be seen ANYWHERE. We finally find a group of 10 or so people that have travelled from all over the world to go on an Antarctica cruise from Ushuaia that left that night, and as of then, they were all going to miss their $5000 vacation. We all hang out for awhile, amidst the hundreds of angry people, when one of the TV reporters comes over and decided to interview Steve: hysterical. She obviously doesn`t speak English, but has memorized a few English questions to ask the tourists, but clearly doesn`t understand his answers when he responds……consequently, there were a lot of awkward silences and Steve kinda bobbing his head a lot to signal he was done answering. She then asks him what he is going to do, and he goes, “What do you think I should do? Wait?” with a lovely tone in his voice. Of course, she doesn`t understand him and just kinda nods her head and says thanks, and then walks away….it was brilliant. I really wish we could`ve seen the BA news last night to watch it!
Anyway, after about an hour, they announce that they are going to send one plane to Ushuaia as part of the strike agreement, and of course, this triggers a mad dash to the counter cause everyone from the past two days wants on this single plane. Talk about a mob scene. People fighting and shoving and being incredibly selfish in a typical every-man-for-himself type scenario. We end up getting standby tickets and check our luggage, but of course, so did everyone else there, so it doesn`t mean anything other than I am pissed that we paid for tickets and now we are standby and may or may not get on a plane. The bright side was that we got to go upstairs to the gates and get away from a lot of the people…..of course, the day didn`t quite end there.
So we go upstairs, get to our gate, and realize some people had apparently been more persuasive than us and had actually got seats on the place. When we realize this, we think we are screwed and that there is no way we will get on the plane, and no one seems to be able to give us a better option other than wait. Of course, it is around 10 in the morning now, and the strike doesn`t end for another two hours, so we have to hang out until 12 at least since that is when the pilots agreed to start flying. Around 11:30 we see that all of the Ushuaia flights–about 4 or 5–had reappeared on the teleprompter as “delayed” flights, but that there were possibly leaving later today…..I mean, all flights except for ours. We ask, and it turns out that the strike will be ending at noon, but that all flights except for ours will now be labelled as delayed, while ours is just cancelled. What this essentially means is that everyone who had a flight to Ushuaia this day has a confirmed seat on their original flight, but everyone from the cancelled flights are still standby….which meants us, as well as EVERYONE from the cancelled flights the day before. We see this and I just felt so depressed cause we were all pretty damn sure that we were not going to get on any flight that day.
Anyway, we hang out for another few hours, waiting for this one sacred flight, when a herd of people run over to gate 7 where the 9am plane apparently came in and is boarding. Of course, all the confirmed passengers run to get on it, as well as tons of the standby since they are hoping to get on this one that doesn`t have a list like ours does. Unfortunately, we didn`t see it in time, and essentially decided not to bother and to just wait for our original standby plane. Now, it is like 2 in the afternoon, we have been at the aiport for around 9 hours, and I am just exhausted and dirty.
Another hour goes by, and we find out that our plane has arrived, and they are boarding all the passengers with confirmed tickets, which of course, isn`t us. We stand around kinda waiting for the standby bit, but not really hoping for anything. I was even talking to the First Officer of the Antartica cruise whose flight had gotten delayed, and he was saying that his boat might have to leave without him cause he didn`t think he was going to be able to catch the flight! Anyway, they board the plane and start calling out names from the standby list, and after awhile, we realize that our early arrival at the airport doesn`t mean anything, and that they just picked people randomly off the standby list to give tickets. People that had flight after us get called, and people that checked in after us get called, but not us…..so we keep waiting, I keep translating the play-by-play for some people who can`t understand the Spanish well enough to keep up (pretty bad when I am the translator!!!), and finally, we hear them call “Santoro, Steve” and we are psyched. We get to go to Ushuaia, wahoo! Steve hands them the two passes, and then, as lovely as this is, she tells us that only Steve is on the seated list, and I am not. They apparently didn`t give any thought to keeping travellers together, and had not given me a seat. We look at each other and Steve tells them if I don`t get a ticket, he doesn`t go. She nods her head and walks away, and I`m like sweet, we lost those seats….anyway, she ended up coming back with two tickets and giving us the head nod, so we bolted through the gates to the plane. 
Never have I been so excited to get on a plane, albeit in the middle seat crammed in the back. It was wonderful (This was a guy that we had to sit behind that smelled SO BAD and kept purposefully coughing on people so they would move and he could push to the front of the lines)
We arrive in Ushuaia, however, and of course, nothing on this day could be easy. We have no luggage, and no, they don`t know where it is or when it will be there, if ever. There is another angry mob of travellers outside the airline office who are pretty much staging a protest, and I got a pretty good video on my camera of them clapping and chanting, “We will not leave until we get our bags.” It was great. By now, I look at Steve and Rob, Matt, and Georgie, a Brit, an American, and an Italian that we had been hanging out with, and we all agree, let`s just get out of here and deal with this tomorrow. It was 8 at night, we had been at the airport all day long, and the last thing any of us wanted to do was deal with missing luggage, although only Rob was lucky enough to have gotten his. We found our hostel, went to dinner, and went to bed….and it was lovely!
Steve, Georgie, and I, of course, woke up and went back to the airport this morning where we again met Rob and Matt. The airport guy tell us there is a mound of luggage behind the counter from yesterday, and we run over to take a look because at this point, I am dirty and really want clean clothes–I had to borrow a tshirt from Rob the night before so I had something to sleep in. Luckily, Steve and I both see our bags, and I am ecstatic. Unfortunately, the airline had somehow ripped the pack cover off both of our bags, and those were gone, but in light of the situation, I can deal. (I had lost some clothes from a laundrymat the week before, so now I figure I am accustomed to getting stuff taken!) Georgie and Matt, however, didn`t find their bags, and I think they are still at the airport as we speak, trying to sort the big old mess out….so if we are looking on the bright side of things, I guess we got lucky!
So yes, that is my story, and we are now in Ushuaia, 3040 kilometers from Buenos Aires, and who knows how many from NYC and the States. We will stay here for a few days, and then head north to do some more hiking in Patagonia and Torres del Paine…..should be beautiful!
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