We normally have nothing to report on our return travel day/days, which is a good thing. 

But we wanted to share a last small couple of things that usually wouldn’t be worth mentioning in the blog, but since you weren’t able to go with us on the original booking in 2020 (small little world-wide pandemic), or the re-booked trip in 2021 (pesky little pandemic still causing issues), but were FINALLY able to tag-along on our 2022 re-re-booked trip… well, we just wanted to squeeze the absolute last little bit of amusing final experiences out for you.  😊

The bus picked us up at the dock and we started the 15-minute drive to the airport.  Scooting down the main road, the bus slowed down as we drove past an accident (eek!  Four cars smashed together in one lane!).  And the bus continued slowly.  Rush hour was over, but the bus continued to creep along, finally just stopping in the right through lane (yea, causing our own mini-backup).   What are the chances that our bus would suddenly have an acceleration issue and we would have to switch buses?!  Truly a humorous farewell from Ushuaia, Argentina!

The extra time sitting on a bus, on the side of the road, waiting for another bus to come get us, well that gave us time to brainstorm what we’d do to kill time during our 5-hour layover in Buenos Aries.  We planned and we schemed, buuuuttttt, one more less humorous farewell, there were hundreds of people in front of us waiting in line.

Evidently lines are a thing in Bueno Aries.  Our line went waaaay down the airport, cutting across dozens of other airline check-in desks, before it got to the ‘ole zig-zag lines directly in front of our check-in desks. 

In fact, there was one line that was started (that we almost got into because it looked like a second line for our line), that was for an as-yet unopened airline desk for another airline.  They remained unopened for the entire 216-hours that we waited in our original line, and was still unopened after we’d checked bags, and headed for security.  (With the people apparently just happy as clams, chatting away with each other and patiently waiting, so it must really be a thing indeed.)

After checking in and making our way upstairs to security, we found a somewhat formidable looking line to get through security.  But honestly it moved pretty efficiently and only ended up being 15 or 20 minutes max.   Not bad at all.

The line at customs though… it was a liiitttllle bit slower.  We kept chanting 19, 19, 19, because the Border Agent at Station 19 just kept sending them through with hardly a pause (so it seemed).  One of the others, a couple 2 or 3 snake lines in front of us (that’s what Tim calls them when they snake you back and forth through the cattle lanes) with a little boy must have had something irregular, as they were held up a good 10 minutes plus getting approved/released from the Border Agent.

Jackpot!   We got # 19, and yep, pretty much skated through at that point, the gentlemen was very proficient, and we ended up beating the couple we mentioned earlier through, who were STILL “splain’n something” at their station.

Maybe I exaggerated the 216 hours earlier… because of our 5-hour layover, we ended up getting through all the lines and into our terminal in about 3 hours (yep, it was THAT way), but that left us just a hair over 2 hours left till boarding so we were able to stop at an Outback restaurant (I know, right?) for a really nice dinner before the flight.

The flight back to Dallas was fairly uneventful, and getting in at 6 am is like WOW!  We zipped right through customs (just a picture check-in, they literally called us by name as we walked up to the window because our pictures were up on their screen, and they sent us on through without looking at our passport at all, very surreal) and then the rest of the Dallas airport was zippy as well, even having to train over to different terminals.  That time of morning it just wasn’t a lot of people, and it was therefore blazingly fast.

Well, we really enjoyed sharing our trip and were glad to have you following along, and really hope that you enjoyed our Patagonia – Antarctica journey as much as we did. 

Thanks for vicariously joining us, we’ll see next year if maybe the 4th time’s the charm. 

(Yes, it’s already re-re-re-booked…  see you next year!)