The Grinch is in B.A.

The last two days have been filled with running (literally) around, checking in with the fam and working out some more. I feel a little out of sorts and disoriented today. Christmas Eve is not the same here as it is at home; no surprise, but it in B.A. It is a time for families to get together. So i was kind of hoping some random South American family would adopt us for the night and take us home for an authentic Argentine dinner. I must not have looked forlorn enough on the street today. I slightly regret not planning our Tango show tonight. We talked to 3 out of 4 kids yesterday and 2 granddaughters, which made me miss them terribly, being Christmas and all. This is the first time I have had such feelings in the 21 days we have been gone.

I thought our workout at the gym today would perk me up but apparently not. I know that everyday can't be merry sunshine while on a trip. Sometimes free floating sadness and depression is normal for me anyway. H reminded me I get a litle depressed every Christmas..I asked since when? He said since my mom died (18 years ago). I should remember these things but I obviously don't...The beauty of getting older is that every year is a new year to remember old stuff! The whole city of Buenos Aires is slowly shutting down as I write this. We plan on cooking our roast and mashed potatoes in our little home tonight. Taxis will be hard to find and restaurants are too far to walk to, the only ones that are open tonight anyway. I look forward to Monday, when all the touristy stuff will be back open and we can start carting maps around again. We may venture out tomorrow. There are a few places to visit and if we plan our trips with runs, we kill 2 birds with one stone.

The cheap massage I got yesterday was disappointing, I guess you get what you pay for. But for an hour of lying down, being somewhat reflective and resting was worth $18 I guess? I am now on a mission to find the best massage in B.A. 

Tonight is here: The day ended on a high note. I talked to my 3 sisters on the phone. H and I pooled our cooking skills and made dinner at "home" tonight. It was actually pretty good! Seems H cooks Argentinian beef better than they do so far. We are watching Local TV celebrating "Navidad Bien" until midnight, when the fireworks will be unleashed. The neighbors that moved in next door have noisy little kids and I lost the cord to download my pictures from the camera. Bah Humbug!

But look, there is always this:

Miracle in Uriburu Street..

Uriburu is the street we are living on for the month. The miracle is this: we walked to at least two places and back without getting lost! We took our map out only once and I think we are actually getting the hang of where the hell we are at any given moment within 4 blocks of our place. There are no landmarks, such as mountain (as in ABQ), to get our bearings and the streets wind around in little mazes. Between the two of us, we manage to have one brain to negotiate the directions. I am a map person and "see" directions by visualizing a map in my head. I am very challenged to memorize this map for some reason.

The biggest miracle is I found a nail place that did nails and waxing for $18 total. Also I am getting a massage today for $18! H reminded me I could have gotten 12 treatments for what I paid for ONE on the ship! I had to remind him that on the sea, the massages are "special" because of all that rocking you know? Ha! The woman who did my nails spoke not a word of English but she spent the hour trying to "teach me " something, or some beauty phrases. Sorry my friend, beauty Spanish phrases are not high on my list! She was very sweet though. Her named was "Esther". I tried to explain I had a close "Amiga" in the states named "Esther". I think she understood! (hi E!) I will get the discount massage today and post how that goes. I hope the cheaper price does not mean cheaper massage!

We found me a pair of shoes that are beautiful and more conducive for walking the miles and miles we will be walking. We then headed to the gym, where we bought a month membership at the "Megathlon". The gym is very nice. It has new equipment, treadmills, weights, but no pool. Guess my swimming training will have to wait until my return to snow country..They even had a "virtual sinning class" You sit on a spin bike, tune into a channel on the radio station, then follow the guys in front of you on the TV screen. It was all in Spanish but I figured looking at the gorgeous guy teachers, I should get more of a workout with my heart race a bit higher..:). As I went through the weight machines, I slowly noticed I was the only woman in the place amoung lots of young guys. Somehow this made me feel weird and old. Probably they were looking thinking "what the hell is this "abuela" (grandma) doing in here?" Finally another 2 women showed up. 

We found a Tango Show to go to on Christmas Day. They will pick us up and drop us off. Dinner, show and ride all in one. Apparently on Christmas Eve., the whole city shuts down, even many restaurants. We plan to get something to cook and eat at home, then go out and watch the many Firework Displays they have at midnight. I wanted to find a beautiful old church to go to on Christmas Eve., but we are having difficulty finding such a place here, so we will wing it. 

Speaking of restaurants, we went to one last night that got high ratings on Trip Advisor. It was close and claimed to have "great steak", the "best I have ever had!" by one patron. Ok, the place was cute, I will give it that. The waitress spoke English. My new favorite phrase now is "Hablan English?". She did..I ordered an appetizer of "grilled cheeses" I thought I would get little slices of cheese grilled with tomato. Instead I got a round slab of "grilled cheese" without the bread. It was inedible to me. We also ordered "glazed sweet potatoes"; what we got was fried yam French Fries, the greasiest we had ever seen. The steaks we ordered had a funny taste and were like leather. The cows here are grass fed and leaner. Please give me back my corn fed cows! So much for trusting Trip Advisor....All the comments must have been the family of the restaurant owners! We have decided we are eternally jaded by our cruise food and service! 

                                                                                         Hartley before we knew the food sucked!

                        It was a cute place..

Our night was redeemed by scarfing down the pudding cake we had purchased back at the ranch and watching the finale of "X-Factor" on the local delayed English station. A little taste of home. 

We once again read about snow, snow, snow in New Mexico! Apparently the freeway was closed for the 2nd time in a week. Very unusual for ABQ. I have been wanting it to snow like this for years and now it does while we are enjoying summer! I cannot complain..the weather here is sunny and in the 80's. The only downside is the extreme humidity but I will shut up now!

We just woke up again at 9:30 and dragged ourselves out of bed. We are obviously on the night track now. We plan on sleeping in totally on Christmas Day and see how long we can really "sleep in". We are taking another field trip to the American Express office again today. It looks like that will be the afternoon today!

Correction: the Tango school was not in the basement of the Armenian Embassy, H corrected me...they used the word "embassy" but it was an Armenian dinner club. I stand corrected. Still seems weird to me..

First full day in our new digs..

Yesterday seems like a lifetime ago! We disembarked the ship early in the morning and were sent into complete culture shock upon entering the city of Buenos Aires by taxi.  We arrived at our new little apartment by 10:00 AM, greeted by the apt. owner right away. It is a very cute little place, small and very much like a NY city apartment of sorts. One bedroom, living room and little kitchen, 2 bathrooms, wooden floors and modern style decoration making it seem like home already. Alejandro, the young fellow who is the apartment owner is also an Ironman triathlete (did IM Brazil-can I say this has intrigued us?) who immediately got the drift of what we liked to do by association, despite our vast age difference. He was so friendly, spent about 2 hours telling us places to eat, shop, Tango, run, lift weights, have ice cream and general sightseeing tips. He is very sweet and was so kind to let us into the world of Buenos Aires in such a personal way! 

I felt a bit out of sorts yesterday because of the transition. I need to "nest" to get settle anywhere we go when we travel. This includes unpacking, even down to my toothbrush. Although completely annoying at times, H has accepted this is part of my neurotic personality thank goodness..so amidst my grumbling, we managed to get to the American Express office, seems money is an important thing to have while traveling..:) There were several hundred people in the AE office, apparently thinking the same thing as we cashed some traveler's checks. This was about a 2 mile walk from our new apt. The taxis drive like madmen here and seem to be oblivious to the people crossing the street! On the route, we found a tourist booth that had the BIG MAP of B.A.. I had something to finally get my bearings about where we are..sort of..somehow we found our way back to our new home, on the way finding the "Disco Supermercado" which happens to be across the street. Well, thankfully I can feed my now every day addiction to food and chocolate! Actually we found the "panateria", where we stocked up on chocolate treats and fresh bread. And a corner vegetable and fruit stand and we are good to go for a few days! 

Some friend from the ship contacted us to join them in their last evening meal in the city. It was about a 10 minute cab ride, in which I closed my eyes alot! Our taxi won the race it seems..after a really wonderful Argentinian meal, we said our goodbyes. A word about the nightlife here in Buenos Aires. It seems that dinner is around 10:00 PM at night, then the evening commences. Argentinians stay up much of the night and rise late in the morning. Gee, I have not done this since I was in my 20s...we have decided to give it a try..we managed to get to midnight last night and slept until 9:30..not bad! It is now 5:30 PM and I feel like it is noon so we are getting there! If we want to live as the people here do, we will have to suck it up and sleep in..things could be worse!

Hartley and I are still pinching ourselves-is this really our life??

We have done absolutely nothing today except Internet stuff, catching up a bit on Facebutt..I am getting skilled at reading the BIG MAP and we plan on doing...well..nothing today! Tomorrow, watch out Argentina. We have so many things to do and by tomorrow we will crawl out of our shell! It is in the 80s and humid with 90% of rain tomorrow late. I can't complain as I read that at home in New Mexico, they got slammed by a blizzard yesterday...I can't say I am homesick yet..:)

Travels with My Hart: Wow!

Day 9 (I forgot to count the day we arrived in Santiago):


This morning we awoke to the most beautiful view out the veranda..huge majestic mountains and stunning views of glaciers as the ship passes by. Glacier after glacier in Glacier Bay, Southern Chile, as we near the most southern part of of the world before you reach Antarctica. We will be passing Cape Horn later today, which really is the furthest tip of the earth...pictures do not even do the scenery justice. It is so beautiful, the glaciers nestled in these huge mountains surrounding both sides of the ship. The captain is giving a narrative as we pass by saying that most ship captains way back when, committed suicide because of the isolation down here. It is truly nature untouched..What a way to start the day, coffee cups in hand, staring at the scenery right outside our window and the veranda..


Off we went to the ship's gym, which by cruise standards is large, new and well situated. As I ran my obligatory 90 minutes, the views continued with the magnificent Andes along Glacier Bay. We passed the last glacier a couple of hours ago but the scenery continues to be something out of National Geographic. Where else in the world could you run while passing these amazing views?


Next trivia contest with new ship friends..cruising is a bit like summer camp when I was a child. You make friends that you hang out with over the course of camp. These were kids you may meet and be friends with forever, but most were temporary playmates you may never see again. And, as with camp there is the playing of fun little games together. Thank goodness there is not Bingo or shuffleboard being played.That would be a little too "old" and stuffy for me. It appears that I know little trivia about anything. The memory bank works hard enough just keeping important facts together, much less little known facts of the world. There are 10 on our little team and with the average age on the ship being around 60, I think all our brains are a little taxed. But it is fun nonetheless!


We hit Cape Horn around 7:00 PM, the southern tip of the world. The seas were quite rough for an hour or so but nothing Bonine and wrist bands could not conquer. We and 100 other people or so waited in the Observation inside deck to round the point. The winds were gusting to 80 MPH so the ship Captain requested we stay inside for a bit. I get the feeling "rounding the Cape" is a big deal. Who knew? It was quite dramatic as the ship cruised around the Cape, with the winds calming a bit as we started going up the other side.


We ate dinner then off to the show, which featured an extremely good pianist. Nightly entertainment on this ship is really, really good! Much different than the last cruise we took in Alaska-that is all we really have to compare it to. Anyhow, we were so looking forward to his show tonight as it would be the last of his this cruise. But alas after 15 minutes or so, they announced someone had "taken ill" in the Showroom the concert was being held in, and asked us to clear out for 15 or so minutes. We assumed this meant someone either drank too much, was seasick, or both. They have been very careful the last couple of days with food handling and asking us to use hand sanitizer constantly.apparently, a few people have come down with some sickness and they did not want to spread it around the ship. So knowing this, we opted out of the remainder of the show and called it a night.


Day 10: We made our way to Ushuaia, Argentina; the most southern city in S.A., maybe even the world? It is a beautiful little city nestled in the mountainside of Argentina.This is our first stop in Argentina, our home for the next 6 weeks. Once again we hired a private tour operator to take us to "Tierra del Fuego", the "Land of Fire" National Park. We asked them to take us to places in the park where we could go running. They looked at us a bit funny but then hey! If you Americans want to pay us to take you running, we will! :)


Once in the park, we managed to do 3 or 4 short runs which proved to be somewhat challenging. The scenery of lakes with the backdrop of snow-capped mountains was stunning! We had alot of fun and were challenged and tired by the end.


Back on the ship, once again we ate...of course.. The amount and quality of food on this cruise is unreal. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are available in 3 different restaurants daily. Oh and room service, which we have only taken advantage of for breakfast so far. There is no extra charge for room service, so I am already hooked..in addition, they serve "afternoon tea" which is a Europian custom that I have grown pretty fond of. The tea and the sweets are to die for. My clothes are becoming tighter by the day, I am trying to work it off in the gym but I can't work out fast enough to overcome the calories. I don't really care too much about this to be honest. I will assume once we are eating meals out or cooking ourselves in Argentina, the calorie intake will get less. I feel like the woman in the book "Eat, Pray, Love", without the "pray" part perhaps?


Day 11: We are at sea today heading for the "Falkland Islands". It is a group of islands which apparently the British owned, although the Argentinians are claiming sovereignty as well. Apparently this is the source of constant strife between the two countries. I do my best to stay out of all political discussion since I never feel like I know enough to sound intelligent! The ocean was like glass when we finally woke up at 9:30 AM this morning. I can't believe we slept that late-between the rocking of the ship, which feels like rocking in a cradle and he blackout drapes, we just slept and slept. We ventured out of our cabin just in time for breakfast in one of the restaurants. I got very excited when they said the buffet was about to close and as I leapt for the bran muffins, I fell...a really hard fall! About 30 people went silent as I lay sprawling on the floor. I was mostly embarrassed. Little did these folks know that I tend to fall while running about once a week or so on the trails! This was my first "dining room fall". I quickly got up and pretended not to be hurting but H took one look at me and got me some ice. The funny thing is, we were dining with a random woman we had never met, who loved to talk, or hear herself talk anyway. She never skipped a beat after I returned to the table. I exited as quickly as possible. After a bit, I sucked it up, put on a couple of band aids and went on with my day, which included trivia, another meal, listening to a lecture on the Falklands and running in the gym.


So onward to see more Penguins tomorrow only thes are called "King penguins" which I assume we will find out why during our tour tomorrow.


I guess at this part of our trip, I am feeling a bit self endulgent. When I listen to the other passengers compar how many cruises they have been on, where, how nice the boats were, I feel like we are a bunch of spoiled children comparing our entitlements. Shouldn't I be somewhere saving the whales or something? Then I remind myself, I have worked hard in my life to get here and this is the payoff, the carrot in front of the stick...so those

Wow!

Day 9 (I forgot to count the day we arrived in Santiago):

This morning we awoke to the most beautiful view out the veranda..huge majestic mountains and stunning views of glaciers as the ship passes by. Glacier after glacier in Glacier Bay, Southern Chile, as we near the most southern part of of the world before you reach Antarctica. We will be passing Cape Horn later today, which really is the furthest tip of the earth...pictures do not even do the scenery justice. It is so beautiful, the glaciers nestled in these huge mountains surrounding both sides of the ship. The captain is giving a narrative as we pass by saying that most ship captains way back when, committed suicide because of the isolation down here. It is truly nature untouched..What a way to start the day, coffee cups in hand, staring at the scenery right outside our window and the veranda..

Off we went to the ship's gym, which by cruise standards is large, new and well situated. As I ran my obligatory 90 minutes, the views continued with the magnificent Andes along Glacier Bay. We passed the last glacier a couple of hours ago but the scenery continues to be something out of National Geographic. Where else in the world could you run while passing these amazing views?

Next trivia contest with new ship friends..cruising is a bit like summer camp when I was a child. You make friends that you hang out with over the course of camp. These were kids you may meet and be friends with forever, but most were temporary playmates you may never see again. And, as with camp there is the playing of fun little games together. Thank goodness there is not Bingo or shuffleboard being played.That would be a little too "old" and stuffy for me. It appears that I know little trivia about anything. The memory bank works hard enough just keeping important facts together, much less little known facts of the world. There are 10 on our little team and with the average age on the ship being around 60, I think all our brains are a little taxed. But it is fun nonetheless!

We hit Cape Horn around 7:00 PM, the southern tip of the world. The seas were quite rough for an hour or so but nothing Bonine and wrist bands could not conquer. We and 100 other people or so waited in the Observation inside deck to round the point. The winds were gusting to 80 MPH so the ship Captain requested we stay inside for a bit. I get the feeling "rounding the Cape" is a big deal. Who knew? It was quite dramatic as the ship cruised around the Cape, with the winds calming a bit as we started going up the other side. 

We ate dinner then off to the show, which featured an extremely good pianist. Nightly entertainment on this ship is really, really good! Much different than the last cruise we took in Alaska-that is all we really have to compare it to. Anyhow, we were so looking forward to his show tonight as it would be the last of his this cruise. But alas after 15 minutes or so, they announced someone had "taken ill" in the Showroom the concert was being held in, and asked us to clear out for 15 or so minutes. We assumed this meant someone either drank too much, was seasick, or both. They have been very careful the last couple of days with food handling and asking us to use hand sanitizer constantly.apparently, a few people have come down with some sickness and they did not want to spread it around the ship. So knowing this, we opted out of the remainder of the show and called it a night.

Day 10: We made our way to Ushuaia, Argentina; the most southern city in S.A., maybe even the world? It is a beautiful little city nestled in the mountainside of Argentina.This is our first stop in Argentina, our home for the next 6 weeks. Once again we hired a private tour operator to take us to "Tierra del  Fuego", the "Land of Fire" National Park. We asked them to take us to places in the park where we could go running. They looked at us a bit funny but then hey! If you Americans want to pay us to take you running, we will! :)

Once in the park, we managed to do 3 or 4 short runs which proved to be somewhat challenging. The scenery of lakes with the backdrop of snow-capped mountains was stunning! We had alot of fun and were challenged and tired by the end.

Back on the ship, once again we ate...of course.. The amount and quality of food on this cruise is unreal. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are available in 3 different restaurants daily. Oh and room service, which we have only taken advantage of for breakfast so far. There is no extra charge for room service, so I am already hooked..in addition, they serve "afternoon tea" which is a Europian custom that I have grown pretty fond of. The tea and the sweets are to die for. My clothes are becoming tighter by the day, I am trying to work it off in the gym but I can't work out fast enough to overcome the calories. I don't really care too much about this to be honest. I will assume once we are eating meals out or cooking ourselves in Argentina, the calorie intake will get less. I feel like the woman in the book "Eat, Pray, Love", without the "pray" part perhaps?

Day 11: We are at sea today heading for the "Falkland Islands". It is a group of islands which apparently the British owned, although the Argentinians are claiming sovereignty as well. Apparently this is the source of constant strife between the two countries. I do my best to stay out of all political discussion since I never feel like I know enough to sound intelligent! The ocean was like glass when we finally woke up at 9:30 AM this morning. I can't believe we slept that late-between the rocking of the ship, which feels like rocking in a cradle and he blackout drapes, we just slept and slept. We ventured out of our cabin just in time for breakfast in one of the restaurants. I got very excited when they said the buffet was about to close and as I leapt for the bran muffins, I fell...a really hard fall! About 30 people went silent as I lay sprawling on the floor. I was mostly embarrassed. Little did these folks know that I tend to fall while running about once a week or so on the trails! This was my first "dining room fall". I quickly got up and pretended not to be hurting but H took one look at me and got me some ice. The funny thing is, we were dining with a random woman we had never met, who loved to talk, or hear herself talk anyway. She never skipped a beat after I returned to the table. I exited as quickly as possible. After a bit, I sucked it up, put on a couple of band aids and went on with my day, which included trivia, another meal, listening to a lecture on the Falklands and running in the gym.

So onward to see more Penguins tomorrow only thes are called "King penguins" which I assume we will find out why during our tour tomorrow. 

I guess at this part of our trip, I am feeling a bit self endulgent. When I listen to the other passengers compar how many cruises they have been on, where, how nice the boats were, I feel like we are a bunch of spoiled children comparing our entitlements. Shouldn't I be somewhere saving the whales or something? Then I remind myself, I have worked hard in my life to get here and this is the payoff, the carrot in front of the stick...so those 

More random photos

Formal Night at Sea

                                       View from the restaurant

 Enjoying another glacier..:)

                                             Some new S.A. friends

                                              Beautiful Andean Mountains

The Eagle has almost landed!

Despite the universe's best effort to foil our departure to South America, we are almost, almost there. I just woke up with a smile on my face after a good 5 hours of sleep on our 10 hour journey out of Dallas. Earlier today we left ABQ finally around 2:30 on our newly re-routed adventure on American Airlines instead of Delta . As we made our approach over Dallas, the pilot came on to say that the weather had "deteriorated in Dallas" and that we were going to be in a "holding pattern over the airport" until either the weather cleared or we would have to divert to a different airport. Of course! After about 20 minutes of  hovering, he announced we were going in and "flight attendants immediately take their seats". This could only mean one thing- it would be a bumpy ride into the "deterioration" and a roller coaster ride it was. I think I held my breath for 20 minutes hanging on to H's hand as tight as I could!We made it to Dallas in spite of a nasty rain storm, waited 4 hours and took off to Santiago, Chile. Can I just say that flying is just NOT what it use to be! We managed to get bulk head seats "without a charge".. Say what? They charge for exit row seats now? Huh? The fact is: American Airlines has gone 3rd world on us since the last time I flew it. Let's see, was it the filthy as hell floors? The disgustingly dirty meal trays, the grumpiest flight attendants I have ever encountered?  Or perhaps the way the sound blasted over the earphones enough to make me more deaf than I already am. But then again there was the CARTOON they showed as a "movie" and the scowl I got from the main flight attendent when I asked politely if I could have a cup of hot water... Said steward knocked against me hard as he was flying by me with the meal cart with no apology. He also served me cold food and had the personality of a turnip..However in spite of it all- I do have a South American smile on my face this AM. I suppose I should have a heart..I think American is filing bankruptcy so I would be a grumpy employee to!

.I am having mixed feelings about landing in Santiago, Chile. The last time I was here was almost 10 years ago to the day. H and I had gone to Chile for a 2 week holiday vacation. H still worked as an attorney, I was in a demanding graduate school program so it was a much needed break. We were suppose to go to Argentina back then but there was some sort of uprising in Buenos Aires, with riots in the street. At the last minute, we changed our trip plans. Rioting in the streets was not the adventure we were looking for. I had scrounded up enough flight miles to fly business class to Chile. We knew nothing about the country but thought it would be fun just to "wing it" through the trip, staying at hotels whenever and wherever we felt like stopping . ( I would regret this decision later and we have never left home without an itenerary since)-seemed like a good idea at the time! We rented a car (stick shift so I was driving), and took off down the coast. The first 4 days were a blast! We found this new "vagabond experience" was indeed very cool! We could not speak a lick of Spanish and so it was a real challenge to communicate. We finally found a B&B that was owned by Americans and breathed a sigh of relief that we could actually chat a bit with strangers. After leaving there we headed to a small town on the coast, who's name escapes me. Maybe it will come back to me at some point on this trip. One night I had a terrible nightmare-H had to wake me up as I was screaming. It un-nerved me. Something did not feel right. The following night, another nightmare only I made H stand up and hold me until I calmed down. The next morning I turned to H and said "something's wrong, I can feel it". So off we went to find an Internet cafe in this little community in Chile, where no one spoke a lick of English. This was in the "olden days" where you did not have Smart Phones or IPads to hook up and check in. Instead we were in a tiny little cubby hole in a hole in the wall, trying to check email..the first message I saw was the subject line "MOM CALL HOME-IT IS AN EMERGENCY!!" my body felt the panic first. We started to try and guess-one of the kids?? H's mom?? Did the dogs die? No they would not say EMERGENCY for a damn dog! Would they?? We started calling everybody we knew..I was in an almost full blown panic attack. Even though the staff and the patrons of the cafe did not understand any English, they got that we were in a crisis situation. It was Sunday morning in the States, no one was home or answering phones. It took us a good 2 hours to finally reach our daughter, Heather who told me my oldest sister, Sara had died suddenly. She was diagnosed with M.S. two years prior at age 50. I knew she had been pretty sick off and on but the severity of her illness was unknown to many of us family members. She contracted Spinal Meningitis one day as a result of some drastic treatment they were giving her for the MS. She was dead less than 48 hours later, maybe less. I was in a complete state of shock. Somehow we managed to get ourselves back to Santiago and fly home. I remember the seat I was in, I remember wanting it all to be a bad dream and when would I wake up? I wanted to continue on with our trip to make it go away. All crazy thoughts of a traumatizing event and news!! H& I got home in a daze to funeral arrangements, a house full of family and the daunting task of burying my 52 year old big sister who had always, always been there for me. The last words I said to Sara before we left was "I love you and Merry Christmas" on the phone. She must have had some premonition or something-she called many of her old friends the week before her death..it was like she knew..

Ten years later I am back in Chile to finish, complete the process. The grief has faded but still there-this trip will add to the healing-I am dedicating our 2 month adventure to Sara..she woud have wanted it so..:)

Day 1 Hopefully Not a Taste...

Of things to come! H and I woke up at 7:00 this morning, turned to each other and said "oh my gosh we are really, really leaving today!! Yippee!!" After months and months of planning, organizing, getting ready for Christmas and Thanksgiving both at once, then planning and stressing further-the trip is here!! Heather picked us up plenty early. I am a sucky traveling companion...until we get on the plane..I drive H to madness with my neurosis. After much obsessive checking and re-checking my luggage, passport, boarding pass..I only misplaced my boarding pass once and had to reprint it.. I checked the flight, it said on time, passengers boarding onto the flight in Atlanta. The plane was coming here to pick us up...we talked nervously the whole car ride. Thank goodness Heather is one of our more patient children and she acted as if we were just being "cute" blabbering all the way. My nervousness started to subside the minute we walked in the ABQ sunport door..whew! Oh wait, not so fast! Got in line to check in and I noticed the flight displayed the worst word a nervous, neurotic traveler can hear. "DELAYED" oh chit! We can still make our connection, right? Nooooo! Seems Delta had other plans. "we re-routed you on American. You will arrive in Santiago 2 hours later" which would not be too bad, I am so flexible..:/ except we just lost our "premium economy" seats on the 10 hour flight from the US to Santiago, Chile..I was not a happy camper..I know Iunm usually so calm in these situations, just ask my kids! :) but my fit throwing did get a $100 credit on future Delta flights-what future flights after this? The woman at the American counter said "well I guess I can tell you this, DELTA stands for "Don't...Ever..Leave..Town...Again... Hmmmm. Who knew? Delta I have just broken up with you and your economy premium seats! So I have taken some deep breathes, has some coffee and I am good o go again. We leave in an hour.... Hopefully.. Oh and I am flying naked....I left my IPhone at home!! Adios!!

And so it begins..

The plan has commenced..H has booked our cruise with Seabourn Cruises. We leave Valparaiso, Chile on Dec. 5th for a 17 day cruise around the southern tip of South America. The adventure is slowly growing, like a baby in utero...first Chile, then Beunos Aires, Rio De Janeiro..we are in training for a 9 week Odyssey. Excited, happy and a little apprehensive about the whole thing. South America is beautiful although parts of it are unsafe. Trying to book tours, etc. from afar can be daunting but hey, H is doing much of the planning, while I try and score some business class airline tickets for 70% off. Not having much luck with this-we may have to settle for "Economy Plus" seats and sleep in a semi curled up position for the 15 hour trip.

This is my dream: to spend a month in each of our the top ten favorite cities around the world. Buenos Aires is the first stop for this agenda. We rented a condo for a month there over Christmas and New Years. Our anniversary is January 1st at midnight so we(H) will never forget. As we blow into our little horns, toast our sparkling water and sing "Auld Lang Syne", we bring in a new year our marriage and relationship. Through the years I have appreciated my hubby more and more. I read once that the secret to a good marriage was to always be learning something new about your mate. I believe this to be true!

I am committed to blogging, yet once again because I want our travels to be remembered as my aging brain is losing memory cells by the minute.. :)

Stay tuned as the plans get solidified, I get lists going and we learn Spanish from Rosetta Stone.

Adios!

Testing and I am here...

My new passion is travel. Hear is where I hopefully will share my new love of all interesting places, cultures. Od the world...stay tuned!