First leg of journey

Here I am sitting in the transit lounge in Buenos Aires. It is 2.45 pm (local time) on March 7th. and 3 or 4 hours more depending on whether you are in the UK or mainland Europe. I left home 25 hours ago.

Air Europa who were operating the flight between Málaga and Paris for Air France insisted that it was not possible to check my case through to Cochabamba and that i would have to collect it in Buenos Aires. I knew that this was not so but they would not listen, so after the 13 hour flight from Paris to Buenos Aires there was a 2 hour queue to go through immigration and another half hour to go through customs.

As I was waiting to go through immigration they called from Bolivia. They had got things mixed up and thought I was arriving last night instead of tonight!

Buenos Aires airport is being extended so it was quite chaotic. Airport staff working for foreign companies were protesting because their employers do not allow them to join the Association of Airport Workers. The protest was peaceful but noisy: they had huge drums and cymbals and a trumpet and were making a great din and waving flags around.

Spending hours in an airport hauling all your luggage by yourself is not much fun as movement is severely restricted. However, at 1pm I was finally able to check in and am now waiting for the boarding gate to be announced.

One thing about Buenos Aires is that the food is good and you can get fresh fruit juice. Another 6 hours to go before I get to Cochabamba and probably 7 before I get to the hotel and a bed ...