Plane finally left the gate at Dulles closer to noon than 11, so I guess that's around a 14 hour delay. Flight was uneventful. Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires has a few interesting features. As soon as you get past passport control into the baggage claim area (passing through a duty-free shop, first), the first thing you see is a currency exchange booth offering terrible rates on exchanges. How do I know they were terrible? Because just past that booth, the airport authorities put up a board listing locations, hours, and rates of currency exchanges:
The booth in the baggage claim was offering ARS3.50/USD. I can't imagine the company running that booth is terribly happy that there's a board right behind that points out you can get ARS 4.10/USD from the national bank, which is just outside customs and open 24 hours....There was a similar board advertising the appropriate prices for various modes of transportation from the airport. Very cool.
Because the flight got in so late, I had to take a cab into the city; all the cheaper options had shut down for the night. There goes an extra $20. Got to the hostel, where the very friendly staff got me all set up...and was sort of confused to find that the floor of the hallway leading into my 4th floor room was a giant puddle. I didn't figure out why until the following morning:
The hostel is built inside an old mansion, so some of the interior hallways are open to the sky. And it rains here in the winter - hard.
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