3 days in South America–our unexpected whirlwind to Uruguay and Argentina

For Conrad’s spring break, we wanted to take him somewhere in the Spanish speaking world.  It was also our last holiday before he turned 2 and we have to buy him a separate plane ticket, so we wanted to go as far as possible.  We planned a 10-day trip to Montevideo, Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile.  Sadly, we only made it to our first two destinations and had to cut our time very short…to 60 hours total in South America.

Our flight was a couple hours late taking off.  This made our connection time in Miami extremely close (we were sprinting through the terminal).  Thankfully, we were the last ones to board the connecting flight and happily on our way to Uruguay.

When we arrived in Montevideo, we went through immigration and then to baggage claim–no suitcases.  Not again…such bad luck with luggage these last few months!  So, we went to the baggage desk who assured us our suitcases were still in Miami (and not actually lost).  They just hadn’t made the plane, but would be on the next flight to Montevideo (only one flight a day) arriving the same time the next morning.  The trouble is, we were taking a ferry to Buenos Aires and would not be able to get our luggage.  So, they re-routed our luggage to Buenos Aires, but that was going to take an extra day…

Great…so this means two days without our luggage.  With a toddler.  Another adventure!  We weren’t about to let this little faff ruin our trip.  So, we headed to our hotel, freshened up as best we could and headed off to explore Montevideo!

After our incredible experience at the Mercado del Puerto, we headed back to our hotel via a little shopping to get some underwear, shirts, a dress, and toddler pajamas.  And diapers.  My college Spanish certainly got a workout!

Then, we got a call none of us were prepared for:  my Papaw passed away suddenly in Knoxville, Tennessee.  We were all shocked and a little disconcerted to be thousands of miles away on holiday when this happened.  So, after processing the news, we knew we had to get to Tennessee–I’m close with my grandparents.  But, because service plans were not yet finalized, there was nothing we could do.  So, we continued on with our travel plans, determined to enjoy what time we did have in South America.  Papaw would have wanted it this way.

That evening we headed to what turned into one of my favorite spots from the trip:  Montevideo Wine Experience.  We must have tasted at least 10 different wines and sampled lots of their delicious locally sourced cuisine.

The next morning, we took a ferry to Buenos Aires.  Our ferry, the Francisco, is actually the world’s fastest passenger ferry making the trip in about two hours.  It carries 1000 passengers, 150 cars, and reaches speeds of 67mph.  Pretty cool 🙂

Upon our arrival in Buenos Aires (the trip was especially easy because we didn’t have luggage), we headed straight to our AirBnb in Recoleta.  By this time, my family had confirmed my grandfather’s arrangements, so John (who is an absolute rockstar) spent the entirety of Conrad’s nap time on the phone with American Airlines trying to get us to Knoxville.  I spent the time rearranging/canceling the remainder of our trip (activities, hotels, etc in Buenos Aires and Chile).  And I did a little laundry in hopes of stretching our limited wardrobe.

After what seemed like forever on the phone, John secured us two seats on a LATAM flight to Knoxville (via a connection).  So, we went to dinner and out to explore before John called to add Conrad to the itinerary.  We’d done this several times before–it never takes longer than 10 minutes…

Upon our return to the AirBnb, John called LATAM to add Conrad to our itinerary.  It turns out, lap infants are not allowed in Business Class (John had upgraded our seats because this was the best way to get us back home).  SERIOUSLY!?!?!?!?!  So John started back at the beginning trying to get us back.  Thankfully, a couple of hours later, he was FINALLY able to find a flight on American Airlines that got us to Nashville via Dallas.  Once in Nashville, the plan was to rent a car and drive the remaining three hours to Knoxville.  And then go shopping for funeral appropriate attire.  Hopefully, we would have our suitcases back by then, but they were filled with holiday attire.

Flights sorted and wine drank, we went to bed to get some rest before our final half-day in BA!

One of the highlights of our trip was our Food Tour with Frank from Asado Adventures.  He very kindly rescheduled our tour with literally 12 hours notice.  In fact, the tour we had originally booked wasn’t available so he did a shorter version just for us.  To say we are grateful is an understatement.  We learned so much about Argentina and Argentinian cuisine from Frank and he captured some amazing photos!

Bellies full, we had to head to the airport to catch our flight.  Frank went above and beyond and arranged our transportation.  If you go to Buenos Aires, you need to meet Frank!

Was this trip hard?  Yes.  It would have been frustrating enough to have our luggage delayed by two days, but to have the loss of a close grandparent and the subsequent complexity of getting to Tennessee quickly turned the volume up.  Would we do it again?  Absolutely.  In fact, despite all of the horrible news, we really enjoyed Montevideo and Buenos Aires and can’t wait to go back.  The little time we got to spend there just peaked our curiosity.  And, our little guy was a trooper.  We already have the trip planned–just have to book!