I always think of myself as an expert traveller. Each year I go off on some wild adventure to another part of the world, leaving behind all my cares, bills and any other messes I managed to create throughout the year. I also tend to be an overplanner = I will map out my trip day by day, scheduling rest breaks, lunches and obsessively perusing the train schedules to make the most effective use of my time. In terms of packing, it is usually done at least 3 weeks prior to departure with each outfit perfectly planned out based on my intended activities.
This trip however, although anticipated, was not planned out. Packing was not accomplished until the last moment, and despite 5 tries to get it all down to one bag, I did not succeed. The last day before I boarded my flight to Buenos Aires I was running errands all over Toronto, looking for a travel towel, unlocking my cell phone and buying every type of medicine I could anticipate needing. Once I realized that my flight to Buenos Aires was going to leave at midnight and that it would last 14.5 hours, I made a mad rush to purchase snacks to fill the time.
Of course, though, our flight was over an hour and a half late leaving Toronto. As well, I had to use a combination of will power and thigh muscles to not use the washrom for 10 hours due to being barricaded in my seat by another sleeping Canadian college student who refused to awaken and let me out. After watching terrible movies for about 4 hours I finally fell asleep. When I awoke it was to the almost magical sight of the sun rising over the Chilean Andes. The mountains were covered in a blue haze and we could see small isolated Chilean villages hugging the slopes of the steep mountains. This idyllic postcard was marred by landing in Santiago, Chile for refueling. We were forbidden to leave the plane due to the Swine flu scare and the cleaning crew that entered the plane all wore masks. It became even more surreal when we landed in Buenos Aires and were given surgical masks to wear when disembarking the plane. Our intense medical evaluation, though, consisted of a questionnaire and a stroll past a heat sensitive camera. Not the demeaning probing I had been expecting.
Overall, the trip was the longest plane journey I have ever taken, but landing in Buenos Aires and standing in the Argentine sun for the first time, made my expedition to South America seem so worth it. I am looking forward to being embedded in an NGO this summer and seeing where the experience takes me.
Labels: Argentina, NGO, swine flu
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