Friendly folks in Buenos Aires

My wife and I stayed at the Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel (San Martin 1225, Buenos Aires, 1104, Argentina) on Jan 30 & 31, ’04, as part of a package tour to Antarctica.

Late afternoon on the day we arrived, we took a short walk from the hotel. A heavy rain and windstorm arose very quickly. Soaked to the skin and hurrying back to the hotel, we were less than a block away when I fell flat on my face, gashing my forehead on gravel.

Fortunately, a young man came by, helped me up and walked me to the Sheraton, where the bellhop and security man immediately gave me first-aid. I was bleeding profusely from the wound. They took me to our room, where the security man stayed with me, holding a compress to my head. The manager of the hotel, the manager of the day and so many others were so solicitous.

One of the staff called a doctor, who came and cleaned out the wound, bandaged it and wrote prescriptions for an antibiotic and painkiller. He also asked if I had had a tetanus shot recently. Someone took the prescriptions and had them filled at a pharmacy, and a hotel staff member brought the medicines to our room.

I can’t begin to tell you how kind everyone was. The manager of the day even had a basket of fruit sent up to us. The only charge we had was for the prescriptions.

Everyone went out of their way to help me, and I shall always be grateful.

GEORGE BOSMAJIAN, Jr.
Severna Park, MD