Way Down South: Conclusion

Index:
Introduction
Delta Business Elite ECP-ATL-SCL
Four Points by Sheraton Santiago
W Santiago
Exploring Santiago
KLM World Business Class SCL-EZE
Hilton Buenos Aires
Exploring Buenos Aires
Aerolíneas Argentinas Club Economy AEP-USH
Alto Andino Hotel Ushuaia
Exploring Ushuaia
Aerolíneas Argentinas Economy USH-AEP
Sheraton Libertador Hotel Buenos Aires
Aerolíneas Argentinas Club Economy AEP-GRU + Delta Business Elite GRU-ATL-ECP
Conclusion

The End
Well, I never thought I would actually make it all the way through recapping my trip to South America back in May. I mean here we are at the middle of February 2015 and I’m just getting this last post wrapped up…but here it is at last the conclusion!

If you couldn’t tell from all the posts, the trip really was a blast! Yes, it didn’t quite go according to plan (Thanks, Delta), but I was able to “reprogram” a bit and get on with it. Sure, I didn’t wind up riding a bus across Chile in the middle of the night or driving a manual transmission rental car when I had never in the past, but you know the experiences that I did have were still enough to make me happy. I mean, let’s face it, I was probably trying to cram way too much into my trip in the first place. I probably wound up having a better time in Santiago as a result of that missed connection that stalled me in Atlanta for 24 hours; I definitely got to explore the city much better. Which when you look at what time I had in Buenos Aires for the one night before and after my night in Ushuaia, I barely scratched the surface. In fact, I barely even felt like I really experienced the city now that I look back on it. I mean sure, I ate at a few good restaurants and bars as well as taking in a few of the major sights, but experience the city? I’ll admit that I didn’t.

However, as much as I should go back to Buenos Aires in order properly experience the city, the decision to go to Ushuaia for 24 hours was most definitely one of the best decisions I made on this trip. If you know me, you know I like Penguins and despite being initially bummed that I had missed “penguin season”, when the boat tour I took into the Beagle Channel happened upon some swimming, well that pretty much made the trip right there for me. And even Ushuaia is a place I would have loved to spend another day in so that I could have visited Tierra del Feugo National Park and some of the other surrounding areas, including the Chilean side south of the Beagle Channel.

But that is the thing about travel; if I did everything everywhere I went or had unlimited time, then what reason would I have to go back? With the goal I set in the fall of visiting every continent before I turn 30 – of which I have just over three years of time to make it happen – there’s a good chance that I will have to go back through Argentina again. Many, if not most, of the cruises to Antarctica depart from Ushuaia, so unless I decide to really change things up and chase after a job supporting one of the three United States Antarctic Program research stations and find myself all of a sudden living on the frozen continent, I’ll be back to the “southernmost city”.

Now, I look forward to my next “big” trip and it really will be a BIG trip that I will be embarking on in just 4 short months in the summer of 2015. After crossing off South America on this trip, I will be taking 2.5 weeks off from work and flying on an Around The World award ticket – something I was able to book prior to the award ticket being discontinued by Delta. I’ll be crossing off my last of the “populated” continents by visiting Africa (South Africa), before moving on to Dubai, the Seychelles, Bangkok and Tokyo. If there is any lesson from this trip that I am going to try to roll into my RTW trip is timeliness of posts. I look forward to trying to do some posts from the road as I’m going to be spending a lot of time in airports and on aircraft. I mean in the first week and a half I will be passing through Nairobi, Kenya with two 4.5 hour layovers and a 2 hour one. Throw in a 4 hour layover in Hanoi and plenty of long haul flights, I won’t have an excuse!

Now, I just need to plan a few trips to hold me over until this summer!

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