MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

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  redpoll

  Uruguays new airport is the natural hub for Southern America rather than BA where you have to change airports for an internal flight. Argentina refuses to allow feeder flights from Argentina flights into our airport.
  Just another buggeration from Ba against my country

  Mar 21st, 2013 - 03:06 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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  commonsense

  This is a consequence of Argentinas decision to impede UK flagged vessels from landing in argentinian ports, another example of Cruella de Vil shooting the argentine economy in the foot PMSL

  Mar 21st, 2013 - 09:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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  Anglotino

  All that foreign exchange could have been yours Cristina!
  
  I hear you are starting to get desperate for it.

  Mar 21st, 2013 - 11:05 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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  nigelpwsmith

  I saw a documentary about a cruise ship which does trips to the Antarctic. It was Le Boreal.
  
  http://en.ponant.com/Ships/Le-Boreal/(pays)/88/(devise)/livre/(redirect)/1
  
  On the primiere trip, they set off from BA, but one of the passengers was taken ill at the last minute and fell in her cabin. On medical advice, they had to offload her to hospital as quickly as possible. However, the problem was that the Argentine officials refused to allow her ashore (even though she had just boarded in BA!) because they needed her to have an official hospital bed waiting for her beforehand (queues of people with hands out for bribes) and the ship was forced to remain in the port for hours past its departure time whilst they rang around all the hospitals. The ambulance sat near the brow for hours whilst the passenger had to sit in a wheelchair on the ship until the Argentine dock officials gave permission for her to leave the vessel. You could see that the Captain was more than upset by the ridiculous Argentine bureaucracy.
  
  Sadly, they are still using Ushuaia for Le Boreal & her sister ship L'Austral, but they no longer call at BA & stop off at Montevideo on their return to the Caribbean.
  
  If Argentina continues their abusive behaviour towards ships, then I fore see that many of the cruise lines will ditch BA and Ushuaia altogether in favour of Montevideo and ports in Chile, where they would be far more welcome after a visit to the Falklands.
  
  Argentina's loss is Montevideo's gain.

  Mar 21st, 2013 - 01:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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  St.John

  ”“Costa Cruises has decided to have Montevideo (and the airport of Carrasco) as a transfer point for their passengers, which undoubtedly means more activity for our operators” as I predicted could happen after the harrassments of passengers in Buenos Aires.

  Mar 21st, 2013 - 01:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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  nigelpwsmith

  I'd far rather board a cruise ship in Montevideo than BA. At least I won't be robbed by the Uruguayans.
  
  From the article, it appears that the government knows that the more hospitable Montevideo is, the more likely that the cruise passengers will return to Uruguay.
  
  Besides, if I leave Montevideo, at least I won't be robbed of all my US dollars by the customs officials.

  Mar 21st, 2013 - 03:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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  redpoll

  @6 Nigel Thank you for your effusive comments about Uruguay. But a word of caution. Tourists do get mugged in Monte occasionally just the same as any other city worldwide.
  As regards hospital care we have an excellent hospital here, officially the King Edward VII hospital but universally known as the Hospital Britanico. They have excellent contacts with the Falklands and the medical director Dr Jorge Stanham MBE was recently in Stanley to cement our long standing relationship
  There is athriving British Society in Uruguay (britsoc uruguay} most of whose members are second or third generation Brits who dont want to lose thier roots
  We are Uruguayans to a man or woman and are not sepoys (cipayos) and are concerned about our country and its well being. Damn it we live here

  Mar 21st, 2013 - 07:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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  nigelpwsmith

  Thanks redpoll.
  
  I'm aware that many in Uruguay would like to have friendly relations with the Falkland Islands. It could be mutually beneficial.
  
  It doesn't mean that Uruguayans are 'sepoys' though. That's just a derogatory term the Argies like to use, similar to the word 'kelpers'.
  
  What the Argies don't realise though is that the Islanders are not offended by the term. Some Falkland Islanders would collect the sea-weed, as it was a useful supply of Soda Ash. However, the term is out of date and only shows the Argie's ignorance.
  
  Let's hope that the Uruguayan government drops their embargoes & starts direct flights to Mount Pleasant as soon as possible.

  Mar 21st, 2013 - 09:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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  redpoll

  I hope so Nigel. But the Brit politicos should not shooot thier mouth off as happened last time. A flight was scheduled from Carrasco to Stanley, No you cant do that: file a flightplan for Ascenscion. Once you are byond Urugauyan radar coverage you can change your flight plan to go where you want. Some stupid MP spilled the beans to a newspaper which put Uruguay in an awkward situation

  Mar 22nd, 2013 - 12:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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  St.John

  @ redpoll
  
  If you somehow can make a politician keep his or her mouth closed, let me know how you did it :-)

  Mar 22nd, 2013 - 04:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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  redpoll

  StJohn I dont know! But on the basis of the old saying of set a thief to catch a thief my candidate for that job would be the MP for West bradford, one Mr George Galloway

  Mar 22nd, 2013 - 02:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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