We left our beautiful cruise ship early in the morning, and boarded a bus to take us to the airport for our flight to Buenos Aires. Our carry-on luggage was stowed in the lower part of the bus, we found our seats, buckled up, and relaxed. And then…we all had to get off. They inadvertently put us on the wrong bus. So we got our luggage back and walked over to another bus. Our carry-on luggage was stowed in the lower part of the new bus, we found our seats, buckled up, and relaxed. Until…the agent called Allan’s and my names, along with another lady’s, and said that we were again on the wrong bus.

We boarded a third bus, our carry-on luggage was stowed in the lower part of the bus, we found our seats, buckled up, and tentatively relaxed, and finally…no more playing musical buses; we arrived at the Ushuaia airport. However, once there, we were told that because many flights were delayed coming into Buenos Aires, our flight going from Buenos Aires to Santiago, might not happen, since there might not be enough planes. Yikes…if that happened, we’d miss all our connecting flights.

Buenos Aires was featuring 90+ degree weather, and we had to walk outside in the blazing heat, dragging our luggage, from one terminal to the next. We staggered into the departure terminal, sweat running down our necks, and were assigned a Viking agent to help us find a flight that we could take, since our original flight was no longer available. The agent was on the phone with Viking for quite some time, and we were melting from the heat. The airport wasn’t air conditioned very well.

Suddenly…the agent got excited and said, “I found a flight leaving actually NOW! Take the stairs, go through security, and make that flight!” We flew up two flights of stairs, dragging our carry-on and knapsacks, only to be asked by the security agent after she checked our passports…”Where are your boarding passes?” We said we don’t have them. Even though we are quite cute and often engage in scintillating conversation, she of course would not let us through…but suddenly, another agent who had hiked up the stairs after us, waved our boarding passes in the air and passed them over to us. They had printed boarding passes immediately for us when they knew we’d make the flight.

We ran to the plane, because they were holding it for us, but the folks who had already boarded, were not happy campers waiting for us to arrive. It was terribly hot on the tarmac, and they just wanted to get in the air. They didn’t think we were cute, and they weren’t in the mood for scintillating conversation.

We arrived in Santiago and then had to find our flight to Atlanta. All was going well, until we went again through security. We had to put our thumb on the pad for the fingerprint recognition. I think the agent thought I was affiliated with the mafia and had my fingerprints removed at some point, because my fingerprint would not process. She held my thumb down, she rubbed alcohol on it, she tried another finger, she tried my other hand, and it just didn’t work. I tried some scintillating conversation, but she didn’t buy it. (Note: Most security agents are NOT in the mood for frivolity.) She sent us to another agent and that agent had the same trouble, but finally…my thumbprint showed up and we were allowed on the plane.

The rest of the journey went well, and we are now back home safe and sound.

I know you all have been waiting for the answers to the questions I posed before we embarked on our journey, so here they are:

1. The Drake Passage was not the lake, but it wasn’t the shake either.
2. My seasickness patch worked great!
3. We saw the green buttons in the submarine, but the pilot neglected to mention anything about them. Fortunately, he did not lose consciousness during the dive.
4. I never lost my phone or camera in the water, so I don’t know if they would have kept afloat.
5. From the smell and from everything we saw on the ground, I’d say penguins poop probably every minute. LOL!
6. Capilene long johns keep you toasty warm.
7. No one mentioned any vineyards, and we didn’t see any, but we had enough wine on the ship to make up for not visiting an Antarctic winery.
8. The Drake was about the same going as coming back.
9. The rocks at one shore were extremely slippery, but my orthopedist will not have to perform any heroic measures on me, as I made it to shore without breaking my hip.
10. The answer to “is wombat poop really square” will have to be answered on a voyage to a different continent.

I hope you all enjoyed my journey. Please keep checking into the blog, as I will be posting in Pookie’s Posts…With a Touch of Humor as often as I can, and I will be posting in late March in Irene and Allan’s Travel Adventures when we journey to Japan.

See ya!