Guys guys guys ... can you believe that today marks day number 348 on the road for Team Nomad? Inconceivable!
As you can imagine, this year's journey has taught us many valuable lessons about ourselves and each other, not to mention people, the world and life in general. It has also taught us that we would make terrible professional bloggers. Stories about our travels in Turkey and East Africa are long overdue, but coming soon (or eventually, at least). In the meantime, we thought we would catch everyone up on what we have been up to most recently, since, well, last week was a pretty eventful one.
It all started on Monday afternoon, where we were wrapping up an awesome six weeks in Brazil. Or so we thought. We packed our bags, and had one last lunch with good friends Brian and Leslie before jumping in a cab and heading to the airport in Sao Paulo. Given that we had a total blast in Brazil, it was sad to have to go. At the same time, we were ready to move on. Our plan was to fly to Buenos Aires, check out what it had to offer, and then fly south to Ushuaia, a.k.a., the southernmost city in the world. From there, we planned to explore the Argentine Patagonia region. Our hope was also to find a cruise operator with a last minute deal on a jaunt to Antarctica. Because, after all, what trip around the world would be complete without a look-see around Antarctica?
Everything went seemingly fine at the airport in Brazil. But, much to our shock and dismay, when we arrived in Argentina, we ran into a slight issue at immigration: Aman's tourist visa had apparently expired the day before... we're sorry, what? Come again?? Of course we did not realize it, otherwise we would have never attempted to fly. And the airline that flew us into Argentina should have caught the issue before letting us board the plane in Brazil. Long story short, Aman was not allowed to enter the country (I think the official terminology is "deported upon arrival"). We were given about two minutes to decide whether to board the same aircraft that had brought us to Buenos Aires, which was returning immediately to Sao Paulo, or basically figure it out ourselves while Aman sat in a guarded holding cell. Yeah, it was a really fun night... Given the lack of any reasonable alternative, we decided to fly back to Sao Paulo. The quizzical look on the flight attendant's face when he recognized us getting back on the plane to Sao Paulo was priceless, as was the look on Brian's face when we showed up on his lobby doorstep at 4:30 a.m...
The next day, Aman and I went to the Argentine consulate in Sao Paulo (where we had obtained the visa) and explained the situation. We argued that the visa should be valid (we really thought that it was) and had two clerks in agreement with us but, when they presented the issue to their supervisor, he sided with the view of the immigration officials in Argentina. Since it would take weeks to get approved (if it was approved), Aman and I decided against restarting the cumbersome application process for a new visa. Instead, we went back to Casa do Brian and Leslie and started to scratch out a new plan.
With Argentina (and, unfortunately, Antarctica) out of the picture, we flew to Santiago, Chile on Thursday morning, and spent two nights there. Such a fun city - if we had to do it again, we would have spent more time there. Alas, we had to move on quickly because, tomorrow morning, we are scheduled to board this ferry for a four night trip through the Chilean Patagonia fjords. Talk about excited.
Keeping with our schedule, we flew yesterday three hours south of Santiago to Punta Arenas on the edge of the Strait of Magellan in the Chilean Patagonia region. The flight alone - over the mountains, lakes and glaciers of Torres Del Paine National Park - was spectacular. We spent the afternoon today hanging out with a colony of pinguinos (penguins) on Isla Magdalena, which is 20 nautical miles northeast of Punta Arenas. Cruising through the icy, steel gray waters to get there was indescribable. So was the experience of seeing 150,000 Magellanic penguins in their natural environment. We may never be able to visit a zoo again after this trip.
All in all, despite the hassle of not being able to enter Argentina and having to reorganize ourselves completely on very short notice, we are not too upset about the outcome of last week's events. Everything always happens for a reason, as we always say.
As you can imagine, this year's journey has taught us many valuable lessons about ourselves and each other, not to mention people, the world and life in general. It has also taught us that we would make terrible professional bloggers. Stories about our travels in Turkey and East Africa are long overdue, but coming soon (or eventually, at least). In the meantime, we thought we would catch everyone up on what we have been up to most recently, since, well, last week was a pretty eventful one.
It all started on Monday afternoon, where we were wrapping up an awesome six weeks in Brazil. Or so we thought. We packed our bags, and had one last lunch with good friends Brian and Leslie before jumping in a cab and heading to the airport in Sao Paulo. Given that we had a total blast in Brazil, it was sad to have to go. At the same time, we were ready to move on. Our plan was to fly to Buenos Aires, check out what it had to offer, and then fly south to Ushuaia, a.k.a., the southernmost city in the world. From there, we planned to explore the Argentine Patagonia region. Our hope was also to find a cruise operator with a last minute deal on a jaunt to Antarctica. Because, after all, what trip around the world would be complete without a look-see around Antarctica?
Everything went seemingly fine at the airport in Brazil. But, much to our shock and dismay, when we arrived in Argentina, we ran into a slight issue at immigration: Aman's tourist visa had apparently expired the day before... we're sorry, what? Come again?? Of course we did not realize it, otherwise we would have never attempted to fly. And the airline that flew us into Argentina should have caught the issue before letting us board the plane in Brazil. Long story short, Aman was not allowed to enter the country (I think the official terminology is "deported upon arrival"). We were given about two minutes to decide whether to board the same aircraft that had brought us to Buenos Aires, which was returning immediately to Sao Paulo, or basically figure it out ourselves while Aman sat in a guarded holding cell. Yeah, it was a really fun night... Given the lack of any reasonable alternative, we decided to fly back to Sao Paulo. The quizzical look on the flight attendant's face when he recognized us getting back on the plane to Sao Paulo was priceless, as was the look on Brian's face when we showed up on his lobby doorstep at 4:30 a.m...
The next day, Aman and I went to the Argentine consulate in Sao Paulo (where we had obtained the visa) and explained the situation. We argued that the visa should be valid (we really thought that it was) and had two clerks in agreement with us but, when they presented the issue to their supervisor, he sided with the view of the immigration officials in Argentina. Since it would take weeks to get approved (if it was approved), Aman and I decided against restarting the cumbersome application process for a new visa. Instead, we went back to Casa do Brian and Leslie and started to scratch out a new plan.
With Argentina (and, unfortunately, Antarctica) out of the picture, we flew to Santiago, Chile on Thursday morning, and spent two nights there. Such a fun city - if we had to do it again, we would have spent more time there. Alas, we had to move on quickly because, tomorrow morning, we are scheduled to board this ferry for a four night trip through the Chilean Patagonia fjords. Talk about excited.
Keeping with our schedule, we flew yesterday three hours south of Santiago to Punta Arenas on the edge of the Strait of Magellan in the Chilean Patagonia region. The flight alone - over the mountains, lakes and glaciers of Torres Del Paine National Park - was spectacular. We spent the afternoon today hanging out with a colony of pinguinos (penguins) on Isla Magdalena, which is 20 nautical miles northeast of Punta Arenas. Cruising through the icy, steel gray waters to get there was indescribable. So was the experience of seeing 150,000 Magellanic penguins in their natural environment. We may never be able to visit a zoo again after this trip.
All in all, despite the hassle of not being able to enter Argentina and having to reorganize ourselves completely on very short notice, we are not too upset about the outcome of last week's events. Everything always happens for a reason, as we always say.
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