We had an early domestic flight from Mendoza to Buenos Aires. We arrived on time, but the airline employees did not. It was the craziest thing. Not a soul at Aerolineas Argentinas. So we waited and looked around as more and more people showed up for the flight. Finally, almost an hour after we arrived, the employees showed up and started checking folks in. They didn't give any advice on gates, but it was a small airport and there were only four gates. The other funny part was that some people's tickets said gate 3, but the gate 3 line wasn't moving. No one was there to man the gate. So we stood in line at gate 4. People still cued up for gate 3 because that's what the ticket said. In the end, it didn't matter, we all ended up in the same place on the other side of the wall. I guess things work differently at a small airport in South America. We eventually boarded with our wine in tow (apparently you can bring as much wine as you want on a domestic flight in Argentina, so there's that.)

It was a short flight to Buenos Aires. We were warned about taxis when we arrived, so we got in line for an agency that will get you a cab. We had used our accrued credit card points for a hotel for a few days. The plan was to use these days to find an apartment for a month. We were looking to slow down and rest for a bit. It was time to get a bit of a regular schedule going so we could get more regular school work done and writing. Let's face it, this blog is waaay behind.

Our hotel was in the Montserrat neighborhood. A decent hotel, but not a great neighborhood. We began our search, but it didn't go well. No one wanted to show us an apartment for just one month. We had only one appointment. The others wanted cash in U.S. dollars. Well, that wasn't going to happen.

Anyway, long story short, apartment hunting was a LOT of drama. We extended our stay at the hotel for a day and then we still had to get another apartment for a few days on Airbnb because we couldn't secure an agreement for the month with the renter. After a couple of more days, we moved into our apartment for the month in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Now this is a pretty swanky area. Lots of fine shops and wealthy people, so we fit right in...ha. Seriously though, it was a beautiful neighborhood and a great apartment. We particularly loved the old-fashioned elevators.

Up until that point we had only walked around a couple of neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. We took the subway to Palermo (another nice neighborhood where we had tried to find an apartment), but it was too hot and we decided to get a cab back. Needless to say, the ripping off continued. The driver took a long route and stayed in a slow lane when he could have taken the express lane (even his GPS showed this and I could see it from the back). We walked as much as possible.

Maeve took a few more pictures. Liam was content to be in one place for a while even if it meant regular school work. I think we were all happy to be settled for four weeks.

The kids room, they got the bigger room with two large beds.