It´s not easy carrying a full rucksack in full sun on an unseasonably warm day, while entertaining a visit from Auntie Flo, especially after a long, stuffy, crowded subte ride (DC Metro at rush hour in July is like an empty air-conditioned room compared to that), for what feels like forever until you reach the Buquebus headquarters, but I managed to stay standing somehow, despite the nausea I was feeling not only from Auntie Flow and the sun but also from the dulce de leche Oreos I´d enjoyed in excess (I know, I know, far be it from me to buy Oreos of all things when I´m outside the US, but come on, dulce de leche is authentically South American). Buquebus is the name of a travel company in South America, and it´s where we were going to buy tickets for a roundtrip ferry to Colonia in Uruguay. I´ve committed a whole plethora of stupid mistakes, including:
a. not making more than one photocopy of my passport. I took one with me when I came here and UB asked for it. That left me with none. Had I made two, I could have had my passport number and bought my tickets there, and for the better price, but more on the ripoff later.
b. not realizing I´d best have my passport or at least the number, with me when I went, preferring instead to take for granted Profesora Julia´s word that we probably wouldn´t need passports.
The idiots, like me, were advised to buy tickets online. I did that, but first I had to go home to get my passport. I retraced my steps, managing not to faint, got home, retrieved my passport, and headed out to the nearest internet cafe. Were my brain not so fried, I might have caught the tab labeled ¨promociones¨ which would have saved 45 pesos for a roundtrip journey. I ordered an ida y vuelta, i.e., roundtrip, for Buenos Aires to Colonia and back, just taking for granted that roundtrips are cheaper than two oneways. Well, this is true for travelocity and expedia, but not here. And it´s times like this that I miss the industrialized world (America, fuck yeah!) It cost me 250 instead of 205.
What would Mom and Dad say when they found out I spent 15 USD that I didn´t have to?!
I´m just grateful it was only 45 pesos/15 bucks in Buenos Aires rather than my passport and wallet and purse and cell phone in Prague the day I was to return home, or an entire suitcase in London Heathrow airport thanks to Gulf airlines (mierda, I think I just jinxed my suitcase). Well I injected some power into the sluggish Argentine economy. I´m a hero. I´ll tell myself that.
I´m cautiously optimistic about our trip to Calle Florida, and if all goes well, I´ll buy a nice swishy red dress.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment