Ushuaia 3-8°\37-47F Partly Cloudy
We were at Tierra del Fuego National Park by 9:30am with a plan to be at the airport by 11:30am. We saw a Fuegan red fox on the beach in the park, near the little pier post office. That was new. We took the standard photo at the sign for the end of Route 3. They took us to a former hotel in the park, which is a snack shop and museum now. I finally got a submarino! We heard about this Argentine special hot chocolate when we were in BA in 2008, but it was so hot then we couldn’t imagine having one. Today it was cold and windy, and it was on the snack shop menu. It was steamed milk with 2 sugars and a little submarine-shaped chocolate bar. You drop in the submarino and stir it in. Delicious! The museum was interesting. It was about the native peoples that lived in the area when white men discovered it. The Ona and the Yamana. Yamana is pronounced Shamana.
Our guide told us about 2 big cruise ships being denied the dock in Ushuaia while we were gone. She said it was because the Argentine government was upset again about the Malvinas (or Falklands) because Prince William is currently stationed there and those 2 ships had gone to Port Stanley before coming to Ushuaia, so they turned them away. What a nightmare, for the cruise lines, for the locals who live on tourism as well as for the cruise passengers who missed a port and who knows how it messed up their trips. Oh well, lucky for us we didn’t get in any trouble!
We were in the Ushuaia Airport by 11:30am and it took every minute of the 2 hours to get to the gate to almost immediately board. They weighed every bag this time around, including carry-ons. The good news is that we only had small hand luggage and so we got through all right. But, they were taking a lot of people’s carry-ons as checked baggage. The good news is they did not appear to be charging them overage charges; the bad news is that it was their carry-on for a reason. I hope all those folks got reunited with their luggage.
We got reunited with all of our checked luggage and our stored bag from Buenos Aires at the EZE airport, international terminal. We found a busy spot on the floor and repacked to the new luggage allowances and went straight to check in and through security. There was a terrible thunderstorm with pounding rain, lightening and booming thunder as we waited a couple of hours to board. We spent the last of our Argentine pesos on Havanna cookies and 2 bottles of water. The water we purchased inside security was confiscated after entering the Jetway to board the flight, as they again inspected carry-ons. No idea what is up with that! Havanna is a type of cookie, think like a Moon Pie, but with dulce de leche in the center instead of marshmallow. Delicious! There are shops all over BA, like Starbucks, but Havanna. That is how popular these cookies are. The funny thing is that I don't remember seeing any Havanna shops in 2008, nor hearing anything about them from our guide who talked a lot about popular foods and restaurants here. Is it possible all those shops opened since we were last here in 2008? That would be incredible!
Our flight landed in Atlanta on time. We had to clear immigration, which was a very long and slow moving line. It appeared that they were fingerprinting everyone that had arrived on the flight before ours. Then, we had to claim our luggage and submit a customs form and get cleared to continue on to our next flight. We turned our luggage back in and then we got in another long and very slow moving line to go through TSA security again, this time with a body scan before we could get a tram to our connecting flight’s terminal. What is up with that? We were never out of a secure flight area! We just made it in time for boarding again! We learned as we waited for zone 4 to be called that Delta had an equipment change and some people had lost their seats. When we turned over our boarding passes we learned that we had lost our seats. We went from 17 D & E to 32 D & E. That was ok with us anyway. Then the flight was delayed for about 45 minutes or so because the latch that locks the cockpit door was broken and had to be replaced. We were so exhausted. I think we mostly just dozed through the whole thing. We got to RDU and claimed our bags for the last time. We went out and got a cab for the short ride to Clay’s office to pick up his car and then drove home.
The only thing that had changed while we were gone was that gas went up 20 cents per gallon. Also, my hyacinths bloomed. I told Clay I had to have a nap as soon as we got settled in the house. I laid down about 10:30am and I didn’t get up until 5:30pm! I cooked a frozen pizza for supper and went back to bed by 8pm. I didn’t get up the next morning until 8am. I am not cut out for long flights!
Hopefully soon after we get home, I can begin getting these entries posted and some photos sorted and posted. Until then! Well, if you are reading this, then you know that I was very slow in getting photos up and blog entries posted. All I can say is sorry. I hope you have enjoyed reliving it here as much as we enjoyed the actual trip!
Photos
Photos
