South America! For some reason growing up I never had a strong desire to come to South America. As far as I was concerned it was part of the Americas and therefore not as exotic as say Europe or Asia or Africa. My tune has changed. I’m excited to explore all the history and culture that South America has to offer. Thankfully, work can off-set some of the cost of said exploring. 😉 The first stop is Buenos Aires. Tango and Malbec and Beef oh my!
The flight here was a bit rough. Silly me booked an afternoon flight on Delta via Atlanta, which gave me all of Friday morning to unpack from Chicago and re-pack for Argentina. Flying time is roughly 9-10 hours from Atlanta, but was alleviated by sitting in business class, (spoiled, I know). Immigration was shockingly easy but a little…strange. I had my receipt evidencing that I had paid the mandatory reciprocity fee (strangely only required for US, CA, and AU residents), but no one asked what I was doing here. I usually get questioned a bit more, especially when traveling alone. They took every foreigners picture and thumb print, which makes me a little paranoid. I’m in the system now I guess. Customs was a simple scan and go. Some people handed over customs forms, but most of us didn’t. hmm. Of course none of this was communicated. I saw customs forms and thought, “gee maybe I should fill one of those out?” When I noticed no one else really had one, I decided it would be best if I just kept it myself unless someone asked for it.
My two friends just landed and are about to go through the same process, as will my coworkers in the next couple days. But tonight…we TANGO….
Seasoned Traveler 