The previous night, John assured me that his green corduroy pants would never make it north of Ushuaía.  When we got to the airport, Jack discovered he had left his red polar fleece at the hotel.  I told this to Angel and he went off to see if the hotel could send it out by taxi.  This was 25 minutes before departure.  We boarded the plane.  The last two people on were Angel and Raúl.  They had Jack’s fleece…and John’s pants!  John left his pants on the plane when we got to Aeroparque—on someone else’s seat!

I sat with Judy on the 3-hour flight to Buenos Aires.  I had some nice views of the Patagonian coast.  All of the bags made it so we loaded them into the Manuel Tienda León bus. We said good-bye to the Shropshires who were flying to Bariloche for a couple of weeks. After piling onto the bus, we headed for the bus office on Santa Fe.  We met our city tour guide and said farewell to Angel and Raúl who were flying back to Salta at 5:00.  They did a good job for us.

Josephine, our tour guide, took us on a pretty standard tour with brief walks at the Rose Garden, the Recoleta Cemetery, and the Plaza de Mayo/National Cathedral.  It is amazing how few people are in the city in January.  We didn’t have time to visit La Boca, unfortunately.  I shot a lot of video, particularly at the cemetery.

We drove to Ezeiza and got into line.  Security was impressively tight.  As I suspected it would, my free ticket caused problems so it took me more than an hour to get through.  Barney, however, ended up causing the biggest problem.  When his walking stick was x-rayed, it turned out to have a 2’ blade concealed within the shaft.  The stick had been in his family for decades but he had no idea it had a concealed weapon.  They made him check it as baggage. Once we were in a waiting room a security guard came up and started interrogating Barney and Ross.  I told the guy they had traveled with me for 2 weeks and were part of a group of 32 on the flight. Barney, at 85, was the oldest member of the group and the least likely to cause anyone any problem.  The security guy showed me the blade.  It was impressive but covered with rust.  It had obviously not been used in a long time.  He told us that the security chief would soon be out.  When he came, we got him calmed down.  He did not want to check the stick through by itself.  He asked if someone had a bag big enough for the stick to fit into.  I offered mine so he took my name and went off to see if it would fit.  He returned 20 minutes later to tell us it was now in my bag. He thanked me for my help and I thanked him for the efficiency of the security operation.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 10:55 but minor mechanical problems delayed our take-off until about 12:30.  I was starving.  Fortunately dinner was served quickly.  I read some and tried to watch a movie but was soon fast asleep.
 

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