Leaving Argentina - Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Before we left Ushuaia yesterday, we emailed Denise from the hotel lobby to see how the flights looked for the return trip home for the girls. Should they go Wednesday night or Thursday night? Thursday would give us one more day to explore the Capital, but making connections easily was a priority with their families waiting for them at home.

Denise said the flights out of Buenos Aires looked good for either night. They would fly into Atlanta the following morning and those flights to Salt Lake for Marianne, and to Denver for Melissa were the ones to be concerned about. The ones out of Atlanta looked better on Thursday morning than Friday morning. Getting close to a weekend is bad for standby travelers. So Wednesday night it was! They would leave at 8:30 tonight.

Rich went to work at 9:00 to do things that needed his attention, but I stayed home to pack the two inexpensive suitcases we bought for the girls to take back with them. I packed them with things we've purchased along the way which we wouldn't have room for in our regular luggage. We also sent some books and some of my winter clothes home that I wouldn't be needing. It amazed me that both suitcases were filled to the brim. I didn't think we had that much to send back.

The girls got all of their things together and used some of the space in my suitcases for their purchases. It is a good thing they came with carry on luggage so they could each take a big suitcase back with them. It worked out well.

Rich returned at 10:30 with the car so he could take Marianne back to Tigre to repurchase a couple of sourvenirs that were lost or stolen last week. When they returned, the plans for the day were discussed.

There was still an afternoon to do and see more of Buenos Aires. Viviana, Melissa's quilting friend we met last week, told us to call her if we wanted her to show us around the Palermo area where there was fun shopping places and things to see. She seemed pleased to be able to spend time with us and be our guide. We also wanted to take the girls to La Boca where they could see some professional tango dancers in the streets.

Palermo and La Boca are in the Capital area and closer to the airport than San Fernando. We knew there wouldn't be time to come back here to get the luggage before going to the airport, however. The office car was needed today for mission business so using it wasn't an option. Sooooo, Rich took the girls sightseeing on his own and I stayed back to get a remise and meet them at the airport with the luggage at 6:30. That's the only thing that would work.

I went to the office after they left and sorted through the piled up baptismal registers that had come in and got started entering them during the afternoon hours. The Gulbrandsens came by and I visited with Sister Gulbrandsen while the President talked with the Assistants in his office.

The Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires is a famous landmark and represents the spot where the first flag of Argentina was flown.

Rich and the girls met Vivi and spent some time with her in Palermo. Rich was on top of things and took a Book of Mormon to give her since she expressed interest in reading it. But, he grabbed a copy in English. Yikes! She does know English, but it would be better for her to read it in her native language. He told her to keep it and he would have the missionaries bring her a Spanish edition. She said she may try to read it anyway. Is she golden??

After shopping and browsing around, it was time for lunch and Rich suggested they eat at a Parilla restaurant. A Parilla is a grill used for cooking an asado (BBQ) of a variety of traditional cuts of meats consisting of chicken, ribs, steak, blood sausage, chorizo sausage, large mushrooms, and other beef related parts like kidneys, glands, and intestines. A Parilla isn't one of our favorites, but Rich thought they should experience it because it is a big deal here in Argentina. The girls were good sports and sampled a bite of the weird items.

The interesting architecture and building styles dominate Buenos Aires. This is an old, old city, founded in 1536.

The ever present yellow and black taxis swarm the city looking for riders. One time we counted fifteen or twenty at one intersection.

The tortas, pies, facturas, and cookies make panaderias a popular place to visit. But the sweetness in Argentine postres is not the same as we experience in the states. It is very mild here in most desserts.

It seemed to Rich and the girls that they left plenty of time to get to La Boca to walk around for a little while, but the traffic was horrendous and they only had about 10 minutes to take a quick peek and snap a couple of pictures before heading for the airport. The tango dancers had just finished performing for a group of school children. The taxi driver was friendly and he said he would wait for them to walk around La Boca for a few minutes. He turned his meter off on the way to the airport. What a nice guy!

The remise picked me and the luggage up on time at 5:00 and it took an hour and 20 minutes to get to the airport. We allowed for rush hour traffic and it paid off. I only had to wait about five minutes before the others showed up.

The Delta agent checked them in and when the luggage was weighed, each one I sent came to 49 1/2 pounds. How did I do that?? Just luck!

After we walked them to the line going through security, we said our goodbyes and saw them disappear behind some partitions. Gosh, it was over. We have planned and waiting for October 2010 for a long, long time. We did a lot, saw a lot, had a marvelous time together, and made lasting memories. What a blessing for them to be able to come, and a blessing for us to be able to show them where we were called to serve our mission and what we do here in Argentina.

We asked where WiFi was located and were directed to a restaurant in the corner of the airport. We ordered a salad to share and some drinks so we could use our computer to watch the flights and see if the girls got on the plane. Denise showed us how to get on the Delta site and follow the standby status. We were most relieved when we could determine that both girls were assigned a seat.

We packed up the computer and headed out of the airport to find a ride home. A taxi appeared shortly after we got outside so we took it to the Retiro train station in the Capital. We decided it would cost less to just go to the train station and take the train home rather than have the taxi take us all the way to San Fernando. It was still a good distance to the station, a lot farther than we anticipated.

We got home after 10:00 and went to bed happy and relieved that our daughters were on the plane and headed toward home. We shall sleep good tonight!!