I made it back from the far southern end of the world earlier this week -- about 620 miles away from Antarctica. It was cold but not as cold as you'd think it would be that far south... but I was definitely wrapped in layers of winter clothes! 
We hiked around on glaciars, cruised around in boats to see icebergs and (more) glaciars, rode bus after bus down through southern patagonia, hiked in the Torres del Paine national park in Chile, and crossed the Straights of Magellan to get down to Ushuaia, "el fin del mundo" (or "the end of the world," as their chamber of commerce markets it), where I was promoted to captain and piloted a boat through the Beagle Channel. More on that later. But in the future you can be sure I will begin a lot of stories with "...it´s like the time I circumnavigated the Beagle Channel as Charles Darwin & co. once did..."
The trip was amazing enough but the return on the 3.5 hr flight back to Buenos Aires was hideous... somehow I was lucky enough to be seated (in the middle seat of course) in the "family day" section of the plane with a bunch of extremely obnoxious, loud, barely-attended children. I had a demon-spawn of a toddler EXACTLY next to me (sitting in mommy's lap, the cheapest way to fly!) that literally screamed for the first 1.5 hrs of the flight for no apparent reason... 
then there was the five year old brat-of-the-year contestant practicing his field goal kicking into our seat backs for the majority of the flight (mom was sitting right by him but sleeping/talking was more important than paying attention to him)... and I basically got to pay twice the ticket price for some surly Aerolineas Argentinas employee service than the locals do. If you're not from this country, they charge you extra for the plane fares... lovely.
then there was the five year old brat-of-the-year contestant practicing his field goal kicking into our seat backs for the majority of the flight (mom was sitting right by him but sleeping/talking was more important than paying attention to him)... and I basically got to pay twice the ticket price for some surly Aerolineas Argentinas employee service than the locals do. If you're not from this country, they charge you extra for the plane fares... lovely. Anyway, that's enough whining. When I get around to it, I'll post some pictures. Somehow I managed to take around 800 photos... that's the problem with the digital photography age! Now I have to pick through them and delete what's redundant, no good, etc, and find a few of interest to post here.
No comments:
Post a Comment