Highlights: The Journey Home
We had way too much to drink lst night but had a great time on New Years Eve. We got to bed at 2:30 and had to get up at 6:30 am. Ugh! Auntie Mame was hung!
Larry went to breakfast while Tim showered and nursed his hangover. We checked out with reception while they loaded our luggage on the bus. Things are running a little slow this morning as the staff was also partying. Tim laid back on the bed trying to nurse his hangover. John said the checkout with our passports was delayed so we closed our eyes for a few minutes. At 8:30 we went to the lounge and talked to people and bid farewell. They called our group first so we loaded on the bus for a 2 hour tour to the Tiera del Fuego National Park - the geographic southern most point of the South American continent. Everything beyond this point are all islands before you get to the Antarctic continent. Along the way our guide pointed out lots of bunnies and beaver dams. After a short stop at the southern-most point, we headed to the Ushuais airport for our flight to Buenos Aires. Security was again a joke - I set off the alarm and they ignored me.
The ship had prepared box lunches so we had some of that and then loaded on the plane. We 're hoping our luggage meets us in Buenos Aires. The takeoff from Ushuaia was magnificent. It was a clear sunny day with beautiful while clouds above the snow-capped mountains. There were snow-covered mountain peaks for as far as you can see. These mountains are so majestic. They are the very beginning of the Andes mountain chain that goes up through South America. Beautiful.
Tim got ill outside of Ushuaia and slept most of the flight. We will fly back to Buenos Aires nonstop since the runway in Ushuaia is longer and they can fuel the plane for the entire flight - estimated at 3 hours and 45 minutes. We made it in a little over 3 hours and arrived at the Buenos Aires city airport on a hot steamy New Years Day - also a holiday here. We now have to transfer to the Internation Airport for our flight to Miami. We retrieved our luggage and met the tour guides. The buses were waiting so we loaded on them and off we went. Our group is scattering many different ways at this point - some are staying in Buenos Aires, some are going to Chile, etc. It took about 30 minutes to get to the Buenos Aires EZE airport only to find out that American doesn't open for check-in until 6 pm. We we have 2 hours to keel in a VERY hot airport terminal. We shed some of the hot clothes we had on and Tim was starting to feel better.
We got a table at a small cafe and had a small sandwich. I ordered an ice cream bar after my sandwich and it exploded when I bit into it as it was completely melted inside - all liquid - so I drank my ice cream. We got in line about 30 minutes before American Airlines opened. They started at 6 pm and it took us over an hour to check in. We paid the Buenos Aires airport departure tax, went through security and immigration only to find it was hot at the departure gates too.
We walked around and found one area that was slightly cool. We read for an hour then we went to another cafe for dinner so we could sleep on the plane. We loaed right on time and took off at 11:15 pm - this was one hour later than it was supposed to be due to Argentina going to Daylight Savings Time. Tim went to sleep before we even took off and Larry slept and read off and on.
Larry and Tim
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