Dateline Buenos Aires

Arrived at 8 am September 14 after a loooong sleepless night. Kazuko had an isle seat in the middle section with no one in the center and I moved quickly to grab an empty 3 seat middle section. Little good it did though since this cough I have developed kept me awake. Bottom line…both of us were tired puppies upon arrival at Ezeiza airport. I should mention that the only good thing I remember about the flight is this one flight attendant. His smile was so infectious that I felt better every time he came by. He just didn’t come by often enough.

The Buenos Aries airport is pretty straight forward. Immigration, bags, customs. One lady had some of her supplements confiscated so I guess I am lucky to leave my life savings in pills home and get through with the few pills I did bring.

Another lady in our group got separated and I volunteered to help by standing outside the customs exit looking for her while the rest of our group headed off to the hotel. I have to admit that by that time I would have rather crawled into a bed for a nap but I knew what she looked like and the guys picking us up didn’t and no one else volunteered so…
One good thing came of it though. I got to observe all these folks greeting each other after who knows how long the separation. Men with flowers, women with tears, grandparents with hugs so strong I could feel them ten meters away. Lots of men with signs of names of people they never met. All were anxious until that fateful moment of “the meeting.” That instant of recognition has to be one of life’s great experiences. And I got to watch it over and over again for the next hour or so…

As it turned out I arrived at the hotel only a few minutes after the main group. The lady I had been looking for ended up at the hotel on her own. It was still around 10AM so many of the rooms were not ready for occupancy but ours was. Perhaps a payoff for my good deed.

We napped until about 3 and then went looking for a bite to eat. Most of the eating places closed at 3 but we found a bakery that only did take out. I don’t know how Kazuko communicated this but she convinced the bakery lady who spoke no English that she would like her to heat up a little portion of lasagna. Fortunately I had found an ATM before our nap and retrieved some pesos and changed the large 100 peso notes to something more spendable at the hotel desk. So our first meal consisted of this lasagna, a pumpkin empanada and a deliciouso tangerine. Remember it is spring time here so oranges, grapefruits and tangerines are in season.

Dinners are eaten on a Mediterranean schedule so our welcome dinner started at an early 8:30. Normally this dinner would have started even later. The wine flowed and the cows mooed. Too much food for our jet lagged stomachs. No doggie bags here so we felt bad leaving so much.

Early to bed for us…11:30 caus we are being shown to our apartment tomorrow at 9AM. Both of us kept harmony with our coughs all night…

Buenos noches

Danny and Kazuko

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