"The bus taking 42 basketball fanatics to the FIBA Americas pre-Olympic basketball tournament bounces along Argentina's Route 2 past open spaces that look a lot like South Texas, minus the scorching heat. It is late winter in the Southern hemisphere, after all, and the temperature today is a delightful 53 degrees.

This is a non-scheduled bus, but the first of only two Aerolineas flights from Buenos Aires' Jorge Newbery Airport was canceled. A plume of volcanic ash from the Puyehue volcano in Chile apparently made it too dangerous for the small aircraft that makes the short hop to Mar del Plata.

Aerolineas' second flight isn't until 6:50 p.m. and there are basketball games to be seen, so Ivan Rivera, wearing a J.J. Barea Dallas Mavericks jersey, springs into action. Rivera is an officer of the Asociación de Turistas Olímpicos de Puerto Rico, which he announces loudly as he descends on the kiosk of a bus company serving the airport.

After 20 minutes of negotiations, Rivera has secured the names of the passengers willing to pay a premium to have a bus to Mar del Plata added to the day's schedule. These include one American sports reporter grateful for the chance to tag along, at what seems a very reasonable $60 — a price that seems to outrage the others."