Well, I've finally made it to Argentina after a couple of long days of travel. Ushuaia is at the very bottom of South America and the people here refer to their city as the Fin del Mundo (Spanish for end of the world) because it is the Southernmost city in the world. It sure feels like I've been traveling long enough to be at the end of the world...Wow. When you use frequent flier miles to book a ticket to South America one week before going, you can't be too picky about how you get there. My trip took me from Hartford to Detroit to Houston to
Buenos Aires. Oh well, at least I could shower and get some sleep in Buenos Aires before heading out the next morning for the final leg of my trip to Ushuaia. Well, that was the plan anyway. As I watched the baggage carousel creep past with less and less luggage on it I had that feeling I've had many times before...what if my bag doesn´t arrive? Well, for the first time in all the flights I've taken, this feeling was justified and I would spend the night in B.A. without my backpack. Unfortunately, it was 90 degrees outside and I was wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt. As I was already fairly ripe after 20 hours of travel, I decided not to venture out into the humidity and risk total meltdown. Rather, I'd hang out in the ¨relative¨ cool of the airport until I left (sans luggage) at 5:30 the next morning for Ushuaia. It'd be the third airport I've slept in over the past month and it beats having to wake up at a hostel at 4am. Right? Right? Well, it made sense at the time. After a lot of people-watching and nodding off on various benches throughout Terminal B, I checked in for my flight at 4:30 and went to the gate. There was some 
confusion near the gate as an Aerolineas Argentina employee explained (i couldn't understand his Spanish - or any Spanish for that matter -, but could tell people were not happy) that the pilots had gone on strike at midnight and therefore we would not be leaving at 5:30. That was it. No other info on when or if we'd be departing. Long story short, there were 144 angry people on my flight after repeated delays had us finally taking off 13 hours late. Make that 143. Despite this added delay making my trip time well over 50 hours, I was thrilled. The airline gave us free breakfast, free lunch and by the time we took off, my backpack had arrived from Houston. Okay, things are looking up. Can't wait for my adventure to begin. (photos: my things while packing, my things while stuck in airport for over a day, unhappy Argentinians, view from the plane before landing in Ushuaia, finally, ahhh...)
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