Argentine visa

OK, so Argentina does not have a consulate in SF.   I am flying out to LA for this.  I  take an early morning flight to be just in time for rush hour traffic in LA. Great! This is my first time in LA and excited to spot the Hollywood sign on the hills. We pass through these oil rigs on the way...what is this place???Oil rigs in the middle of the city, and they have a smog problem.  What is the big surprise here?

Anyway, I am an hour and a half early at the consulate.  I look up for a local cafe and find this place called Sicily cafe. I walk in thinking that it would be a Italian cafe, but it has breakfast burrito on the menu.... :(.   Not what I was expecting.  I just have a English muffin sandwich.  The people serving the food are nice so I guess it was a OK place.

The consulate is empty and I am very happy.  This should go very smoothly. Apparently not.  By the time I get to my turn, the place is full. Still, the staff seem to have things under control. So here is the quick succession of events that happened.  I had the wrong application form.  The Argentine application form  for LA is not available online and is mailed out to you when you make the visa appointment by e-mail. I had missed it and had fought all night to find the application form from New York.  The lady was nice enough to give me the LA application form. I submit my forms and plead with her regarding my itinerary.  I don't have a complete itinerary yet, and explain that I plan to leave the country by bus(for which I can't purchase a ticket 3 months in advance).  She agrees to proceed with my application.

What happens next is great! One of the best people watching episodes of my life. Guy with trendy glasses and a laptop walks in trying to sweet talk the consular staff regarding something.  The girl keeps a straight face and gives him the bad news.  He continues to sweet talk her, she breaks into a smile, but he has little luck with his work and goes away disappointed.  Some staff member calls for a "Gomez" from inside the office.  I run up to the door because I thought I head Venkatez...No luck.  Now I am engrossed in reading my copy of Financial Times I got at the airport, when some dude shakes me.  Apparently this time they did call out for Venkatez, and I thought I misheard again.....confusing.

While this is happening more interesting people walk in and the consulate is really full.  Middle aged lady, who looks like she can break into a tango any minute. A rowdy baby, who is ripping apart the tourism promotional magazine, a family of six and only one of them has official business at the consulate.  Two girls, one of whom is making monkey faces at the baby tearing the magazine , who is now the center of attraction for all the people in the consulate.  Awesome!!!

One thing that popped to my mind was the seating layout at the consulate.  It was so informal.  They had a coffee table in the middle and all the chairs were facing each other.  It was not the usual classroom style seating.  This was so conducive to the kind of human interaction I saw.  People generally seemed to be interacting and having a fairly decent time.  It was great.

After a few more "Gomez" and "Venkatez" incidents, I get to meet with the Consulate General. 2 min interview on what I do etc etc.  He finally agrees to give me the visa!!! Terrific.  I have the wrong mail in envelope, so I walk across the street and get the right one.  I am still waiting for the passport to arrive.

Update: I got my Argentina visa by mail!! Only Chile visa remaining (3 working days until my flight leaves, this is going to be nail biting).