October 31-November 1
A new adventure begins
I got up at 0 dark 30 (4:20 am) to head to the airport for a trip to Patagonia in Argentina and Chile. My travel has 5 legs!
As I take off on my first flight we climb above the clouds and are rewarded with a beautiful sunrise.
I touched down at LAX and need to walk to the international terminal. My first layover is 3 hours 20 minutes. Followed by an 8 1/2 hour flight to Panama. (Really 6 1/2 due to time changes) I always live by the motto of be prepared from my Boy Scout days. I wanted to be sure I knew where my connecting gate was so I took a quick walk not realizing it was over a mile through the terminal. Once I knew where it was, I then had to come a mile back to the lounge. I did get a nice breakfast though and may have done a little early day drinking. 😂 I only got 1 hour in the United lounge before needing to walk another mile back to the connection gate, but it was a nice perk.
My connection in Panama is only 49 minutes tight but I made it and will be on this 3rd flight for another 8 hours to Santiago Chile. (Really 6 1/2 due to time changes).
I arrived in Santiago chile, I’ll have another 3 hour layover here before my 4th leg to Jorge Newberry airport in Argentina, but I first needed to go through customs, retrieve my checked bag, re check in on a different airline, and then go back through passport control before going to my gate. So far I’ve only managed about 30 minutes of light sleep.
My flight provided some beautiful Mountain View’s as we took off. When I arrived in Buenos Aries I again needed to go through customs, get my checked luggage and send it back through customs. This will be my longest layover 6 hours 55min, and there is no lounge to relax in either! I could not check my bag until 3 hours before departure so I remained outside the security checkpoint and got some lunch. I found a spot between a wall and escalator where I put out a sleeping pad and napped for just over an hour. 10 minutes before my alarm went off for checking my bag I awoke to a construction crew using a grinder on some surface!
My 5th and final leg is 3 hours 40 minutes to my final destination in Ushuaia Argentina. 37 total hours of travel after accounting for the time change (I’m 4 hours ahead) My daughter Alyssa got here this morning and is the reason for this trip. She is doing a solo 50 country, 9 month trip. It’s great to meet up with her, she’s amazing. Alyssa was waiting for me at the airport and we headed out for a nice late dinner and then went to our hostel room for the night. A 40 hour journey from pillow to pillow.
No comments:
Post a Comment