Writings By Date| Flights, Frights, and Tango Nights | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
In the airport, we priced out the minibuses, and found that a cab on the street was just as cheap, so we paid our $8 (215 pesos), and headed back to our favorite place, the Hilton. I checked in, and asked them about my previous bill, indicating that the peso conversion they used was not yet being adopted by my bank. But they said they would have the manager write a letter for me if necessary, indicating the proper charge in dollars so things should be able to get straightened out later. I'd believe that if the list of issues to bring up with my bank wasn't growing faster than this country's debt.
And unfortunately, our suitcase for Antarctica had still not arrived, so the panic started to set in again. The concierge said they usually show up in the lunch hour, but it was already 2pm, so he called DHL at my behest to have them check with the driver. Word was, it was on the way, and should be here within half an hour. I verified he still had the money for the DHL driver ("Oh, yes...that's you!" — funny, we're notorious for that), then headed up to the room to unwind and prepare for our last day in big civilization before heading to Ushuaia for our Antarctic excursion.
Erin and I decided to split up: Erin went in search of a laundromat the concierge told us about, while I made reservations for a tango show and waited for our package. It still hadn't come after an hour, so I had the concierge call again; now they said it was promised by 5, but that didn't make me feel better, since they were closed tomorrow. When I mentioned that they had a "bad address" yesterday, he called yet again to check with the driver, and verified that he did, indeed, have the right address. I sat down in the lobby and tried to take my mind off things by working on my laptop, when about half an hour later, I finally saw the tape-wrapped red suitcase show up. I jumped out of my seat and ran over, discovering to my pleasant surprise that the locks were still intact. I took it upstairs, and practically squealed like a girl (I'm glad nobody was around to hear it) when I saw that everything was inside, including all our clothes and my replacement Palm. I took that, left a note for Erin, and flew out the door for the Oracle office.
