prep for Argentina

I'm new to this blog thing, as a writer anyway. And it's giving me a greater appreciation for other bloggers whose writing I really enjoy, and who are concise. I have wished they would write every day, and now I can see how much work goes into even the shortest blog.

I have a theme for this blog, but haven't yet got the knack of recognizing a topic that means something to me until it's 3 AM and I can't sleep. And so, this topic came to me last night, with an "of course" reaction. And now I only hope I can reproduce the clarity I felt when I didn't have a computer at hand. I don't want to get into the habit of getting up at night to go write.

In just over 2 weeks, Jim and I are setting off on another adventure. We'll be flying to Buenos Aires, for 5 days in Argentina, and then taking a 2 week round trip cruise to Antarctica, and back in Buenos Aires for another 2 days. I think it's going to be wonderful, exciting and I'm really looking forward to it. But in the meantime, I have to finish preparing.

Most of the preparations are done: cruise, flights and hotels booked. We'll see some friends and a cousin in Buenos Aires. We even have a dinner and tango show reservation. There are a lot of little things left to do, stopping the newspapers, writing cat instructions, giving emergency contact info to family and neighbors, mostly routine stuff. But what's really hanging me up is transportation - more specifically how to get from airport to hotel, and hotel to cruise dock.

I've been having a lot of trouble with this for several reasons, not least of which is my own irritation in having to do it in the first place. And honestly, that feeling stems from the fact that I have to do a lot of work because of my disability, and it doesn't feel fair!

5 years ago I would never have thought I'd like cruising. I had too strong an image of seniors at shuffleboard and crappy all-you-can-eat food. But we wanted to see Alaska, and found that not only was it a decent way to see some kinds of places, but it was also a pleasant way to vacation. Cruising lacks the intensity of land travel, when you might have 3 or 4 days in a city and move on. You won't get to know a town as well as if you stayed there for a week or more. But, if the ports you are going to are small enough towns, you can get a feel for them in a day, and if there's scenery you can only see from a ship, then cruising is cool. Plus, having some at sea days to do nothing but read and watch the water isn't bad either. We've picked ships where the restaurants are decent, and for the most part ignore the entertainment and casinos. Some have had lectures worth attending. Cruising is perfect for Alaska, and we've gone twice, plus we've done the Panama Canal. Antarctica will our 4th cruise.

Surprisingly enough, I've also learned I like being on the ship. I love to be on the top deck when the ship pulls out of dock, and the captain blows the horn. I like the evenings when it's warm and a band is playing by the pool, and you can watch the sun go down. I like sitting on a side deck or in 10-forward (different names on different ships, but essentially all have a bar up high up front) watching the water hit the hull, sipping a glass of wine. I doubt I'd want to be on a ship that didn't dock anywhere, and was at sea the whole trip, but I'm not sure- I like the ship for the ship's sake.

And yet, with all those pluses - small town docks, scenic cruising, relaxing at sea - what makes it possible is the ADA. If a ship docks in the US, it has to have ADA accessible cabins. And the ships do a good job.

When we went to Italy a few years ago, and to Switzerland for our honeymoon in 2004, I spent countless hours finding hotels with accessible rooms. I had a list of 17 questions, with everything from height of toilet and bed, to door width (open space vs size of door) to width of hallway to width of elevator door.

Some cities were relatively easy (hit a good one on the first or second try) - like Milan, Lucerne, Zurich. Some were really difficult - Venice being the worst, Bellagio and Interlaken close behind. In those cities, I would send out a fax or email, with my 17 questions, wait a day or 2 for a response. Often they wouldn't respond, so I'd call to see if they got my letter, and then resend to a specific person. Other times they would respond quickly to say they had to wait till the room was empty and then get a maintenance man to take measurements. 2 days later they'd get back to me either with measurements or a pronouncement that it wouldn't work for me. Often from the measurements I could see it wouldn't work out. So, on to Hotel #2. I never counted the number I tried in any city, but I am sure it was more than 10 in Venice, and after I booked a place I found out that it wouldn't work. We set up a personal care attendant to help with getting me around the city - over bridges, up steps, on and off the vaporetto, and in the process someone asked us where we were staying. He let us know our mistake and steered us someplace better. You get the picture, I look for hotels almost as soon as we start planning our itinerary, as far in advance as possible.

With cruises, a lot of this hotel searching is not there. I only have to figure out where to stay a couple of nights before, and possibly after the cruise. For this next cruise, round trip out of Buenos Aires, I had it easy. We've been to Buenos Aires before, so we are staying at the same hotel as last time for 3 of the 5 nights before the cruise, and for 1 night after. The other 2 nights we are going to Iguazu Falls, and I got lucky with the hotel in the park there on my first try.

Overall, for this vacation I've only spent a little more time with planning than anyone traveling might have to do. Yes, I had to book an accessible cabin, and fill out a short form for the cruise ship. And yes, I did have to request an accessible room for the Hilton in Buenos Aires, and the Sheraton at Iguazu Falls. I routinely inform airlines and restaurants about my wheelchair. But these were simple things, and until this week I didn't have to spend hours sorting out an accessibility problem. There's a big difference between informing places of a special need, and having to find accessible facilities.

Altogether I need 6 taxi rides. Sounds simple right? It should be. Anyone without a wheelchair gets off the plane, collects their luggage, hails a taxi, and is at the hotel in no time. Or maybe they set up a ride with their hotel for pickup, tell the hotel # of people, flight time and they are set.

But it isn't so easy for me, in Argentina. There are 2 types of taxis in Buenos Aires. One is a smaller car, perhaps a Toyota Corolla, but I think most of them are smaller. And in the trunk they have a natural gas tank (I think it's natural gas, not that the substance matters, what matters is the tank!) that eats up half the trunk. So those cars will work for 2 people, maybe with 2 bags one of which can go up front. So, where's my wheelchair supposed to go? The other type of taxi is larger, can hold more luggage and people, but they are small SUV type cars, I think often called an MPV, or minivans. And I can't get into them.

To get into a car, I put a sliding board, also known as a transfer board, under my thigh on one side and on top of the car seat I'm headed to on the other. I then slide myself over the board from the chair to the car. My wheelchair seat height is about 20 inches or 50 cm, so it's easiest to do this if the car seat is close to that height. Vans and minivans are impossible, and MPVs are marginal.

There are other cars out there, ones that use diesel instead of natural gas, with better trunk space, but finding them and arranging a ride in them is really hard. Another complication is that the cars aren't the same as we have in the US. In Iguazu, the airport pickup service is in a Chevrolet Meriva, what in the world is that? I did my research today, another 2 hours of my time, to try to figure out the car in the US most similar to a Meriva, so hopefully this weekend we'll go out "car shopping" to see if I can get into them.

So, I've spent quite a bit of time this week trying to email and arrange a ride with suitable cars using the services of the concierges at the hotels, and after about 5 rounds of emails, it still isn't arranged. I'm just about ready to say 'forget it, we'll take 2 taxis'. That means taking our chances a bit at the airports, making sure we get a reputable (read: legal) taxi, but honestly, how hard can that be? The craziest part is that it's only because I've been to Buenos Aires before that I know about this taxi problem. If this were my first time there, I'd go there innocently and probably get lucky with the first cab we flag down.

2 things are making the email process not work. I have this tendency to want to explain everything (look how long this blog is!). I'll explain about needing the seat height near 50 cm, and a large trunk. And I believe the concierges (yes, plural, for more than one has responded to me even from the same hotel, with conflicting answers no less, and I have worked with 2 hotels) aren't fully reading my email either. I don't know if there's a language issue or not, their replies seem to be in good English, just not always answering all my questions.

I should stop complaining. Most people, especially those with disabilities, won't have these opportunities to travel. Traveling is expensive, and some disabilities make travel harder than others. To my friends in power chairs, I don't know how you do it! I'm lucky to be able to travel at all, and I know this. And in the grand scheme of things, a few difficult car rides are a small part of this whole trip. Besides, with a little more of my time, I will have something set up, and chances are it will all go smoothly. No one will know how aggravating it was to set up, not even my husband most likely. So, I wrestle with feeling irritated about all the hassle, feeling petty for complaining about something so minimal, excited about the trip and anxious that something won't go right. And stressed that it isn't all done yet, and I'm running out of time.

I wish there was a Cloud Nine shuttle service in Buenos Aires and all the cities of the world! You don't realize how good a thing it is here to be able to book a wheelchair accessible van any time, till you are in a place that doesn't have it.

But there isn't a Cloud Nine to help me, and tomorrow I'll try another round of emails. And before I know it, I'll be off. I hope to write blogs while on the trip, even if I can't publish them till I get back. Stay tuned.