When you are coming to the end of travels the only interest is in getting home.  That begins a long journey that started on the ferry from Uruguay and will ended on the ferry to Bainbridge Island.  In between was a bit of a nightmare.

Wednesday started with a ferry from Colonia back to Buenos Aires, travelling midweek we expected a nice quiet boat and a smooth crossing for one more day in Argentina.   The one twist in that thought process was that we were sharing the boat with a travelling contingent of Gremio soccer fans from Port Alegre, Brazil, who were travelling to Buenos Aires for a Copa Liberator game in Buenos Aires.  That made for a lively boat with the drinking and singing fans on the early morning ferry.

A quick taxi ride to our one night hotel in Polermo Soho in the city.  The hotel is quaint and quirky and really nicely done, so close to ideal, that is until you spot the major building work that is going on directly across the street.

Later in the evening that was followed by lots of street noise, so a far from ideal night stay.  A 4am alarm call and a 5am departure had us heading off already tired to the airport for our LATAM flight to Lima.  The taxi driver to the airport was a lunatic.  I wasn’t quite sure why he drove like he had lost the plot, red lights, mad close to other cars, pedestrians or us in the back did not come into his mind as he careered within the streets of Buenos Aires before the sun came up.

Thankfully the flight to Lima was on time and smooth and provided some great views as we flew over the Andes on route.  Then the nightmare unfolded.  Our connecting flight from Lima to Los Angeles was delayed.  We learned that this plane was coming in from Chile, but was running 3 hours late.  This in itself was not good, but the knock-on effect was that we would miss our connecting flight taking us from LA to Seattle.  More problems to add, there are no more flights that would get us to Seattle in time for us to catch the last ferry boat.  That meant a hotel stay at LAX and then an early morning re-booked flight.  That was not the end of the bad news though, because we lost our Seattle flight LATAM would not pay for any of our incurred expenses despite our flight LA-Seattle being booked with their One World Airline Partner, American Airlines.  Bottom line was the we had to pay $400+ for new flights and a LAX hotel for 8 hours.  Basically, it is a bit of shambles that an airline will not take responsibility for having their plane arrive 3 hours late and the knock-on effect.

Another early morning alarm call, that’s too many in a row when try to make the trip home. The American flight left a little late, but smoothly to Seattle and onwards to the train to get us into the city and towards the ferry port.  Just one last leg.

On getting home I thought over what I expected prior to the trip and what we experienced in South America.  If you would have asked me before I would have said Argentina, Uruguay and Peru in that order would be the most enjoyable and interesting.  In the end Argentina was uninspriring, Uruguay was terrific and Peru very enjoyable, so Uruguay, Peru and Argentina would be my recommendation order.

Some additional photos that I have not posted but show some highlights of the trip and link it together…

The walk along the waterfront in Miraflores (Lima, Peru) is great and a real highlight for Lima.  Lima was much more than expected, lots heard ahead of time about the food here, which was decent, but it was actually the character of the place that impressed me.  Seeing the locals and seeing how things worked close at hand was a pleasure.  Mixing it with the locals on the Metropolitano was a highlight, and walking the promenade taking in parks like ‘The Lovers Park’ (pictured below) make this a good place for a visit.

I explored my knack at cunning photographs at the Circuito Magico Del Aqua fountain park in Lima, and thought this was a decent effort, maybe.

The best restaurant we experienced in Buenos Aires was the Almaden & Co in Palermo.  It was fun trying to navigate the Spanish language with the waitress here, not so fun in other restaurants we visited.  I had veal, apparently.

El Ateneo Grand Splendid is claimed by The Guardian newspaper to be the 2nd most beautiful book store in the world, and it is not difficult to see why.

The art work at MALBA made it a well worthwhile experience to visit this notable Buenos Aires art gallery, always an enjoyable experience.

My character hero in the book I am writing made the trip with me to inspire more pages in the book I am writing ‘The Amazing Adventures of Sheepy McTavish”, and of course he is never short of a photo call 🙂

The quaint cobbled streeted town in Colonia del Sacramento made it for the one place where maybe we would have liked to stay maybe a day or so longer.

Finishing up back in Buenos Aires it struck me that the best thing about the place was its parks, they are numerous inside this city, and there are so many good ones.  We spent most days wandering through or taking time to take a seat on a bench to rest for the rigors of trekking the sights of the city.

I enjoyed South America and though we had some challenges with language, particularly in Buenos Aires, it was a well worthwhile first trip for me to this southern continent.  I have now been to six of the seven continents, with only Antarctica left for me to set foot in,  some day.