Day 1 -Monday November 20, 2023 - Flight to Buenos Aires

By Ellen Outten

 

Patagonia Frontiers

This is our "Not Going to Egypt" tour.   When war broke out in Israel we decided it wasn't a good idea to take our trip down the Nile.   The tour company we use, Odyssey Unlimited made it very easy.  Within two days of the strife in the Gaza with the Hamas, we received an email letting us know that we could cancel and reschedule any time before December 2024.

Within a few days, after all, how long does it take to make a decision to travel around the world, we changed our plans, contacted Odyssey and here we are, leaving this morning for Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Our tour will take us to Ushaia, around Cape Horn and end in Santiago Chile.  WOW!  To see the Chilean fjords and the glaciers around Cape Horn; to be so close to the Antarctic.  Never had I ever thought I would be doing this trip.

Hopefully I'll get to the Nile when normalcy returns to the middle east.   But for now, off we go to Buenos Aires.



The flight to Miami was incredibly easy.  We left on time which was a surprise as the flight ahead of us at the gate was late pulling away from the gate. Our arrival in Miami was a full 45 minutes early due to the tailwinds.  

And here we are, at our gate a full 3 1/2 hours before boarding.  With this Thanksgiving holiday week, we were fine with a 4 hour layover.  You just never know what might happen.

The Buenos Aires flight is 9 hours and we arrive at 7 am local time.  

There's another couple landing 2 hours after us.  We wait for them and then we'll all be transferred to the hotel together.



Carol Lee, we took your cookies!  They won't last long.



   





Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 24, 2023 at 5:23 AM

    Unfortunate about the Egypt trip(for now) but I'm so glad you are taking this trip. You will really love it! 🤞🏼

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day. 25 - Thursday, May 22, 2025 - Amsterdam to Phoenix

By Ellen Outten
 The day started at 7:30 with a ride from the hotel to the airport. NOTE to myself:  always order.rhe taxi for 1/2 hour earlier than you need it.. it showed up at about 7:35 am and traffic was heavy on the way to Schipol airport.  We had plenty of time, but regardless, it's better to be there early. The flight boarded a little late, but there's so many checks for international gates.  Immigration to leave the country, security for baggage.  We made it to the gate about an hour in advance.   I flew first class home.  There's nothing like it.  The seats are sooo much better.  And if my flight had been an evening flight, I know I would have slept.  God bless lay down seats.  I paid for the first class upgrade and what happens, Wayne gets an upgrade at the airport for free.  He didn't even know he had been upgraded until we were at the gate We arrived 25 minutes late but still had two hours to get to our new gate.  It too...
Read more

Day 3 - Wednesday April 30, 2025-Bucharest Romania

By Ellen Outten
Image
Parliament building, the third largest building in the world. Today, with perfect weather (high temp was about 77 degrees with a light breeze and all sun), we left the hotel at 9:00 a.m. on a tour of Bucharest. Our first stop was in the parking lot across the street from the third largest building in the world. This is their Parliament building. The first largest is the Pentagon and the second building is in Thailand. While we didn't go inside it was interesting to stand across the street and see the immenseness of this building. Interesting streetlight and the iron work Across the street from the Parliament is a pretty street with 44 water fountains running down the middle of the street. From there we went to the "Dimitrie Gusti" National Village Museum.  The outdoor museum is  devoted to Romanian village life, with hundreds of peasant farms & homes. The fence is so intricately woven  Typical entrance to a farmhouse.  The opening on the left is for people, the o...
Read more

Day 2 - Tuesday July 18 - Lake Lucerne

By Ellen Outten
Image
   Our hotel for the next two nights. We arrived at the Zurich airport at 7:45 am Tuesday which meant 10:45pm Monday in Mesa AZ.  We had been traveling since 7am. We were fed very well on the plane (9 hour flight from Chicago), both with a dinner 2 hours of boarding and then about 2 hours before landing, we were served breakfast.  The flight was uneventful which is a lovely word when it comes to air travel.  Odyssey Tours sent a driver to pick us up and drive us the one hour to Lake Lucerne.   We met a very nice couple, Patty and Joe from Kentucky that were on the same flight.   We walked around the property, which sits right on the lake, and since it was only about 9:30 am, we had to wait for our rooms.  So, what else is there to do?  Out of whack on time zones, we had a few local beers.  After all it was still 2 am AZ time!                        Snow on the mountain...
Read more