Our friends Deirdre and Mark arrive

from Chicago today for 10 days of followsummer travel with us in Argentina, including trips to Bariloche and Puerto Madryn. It is a grey day, the streets still wet from an early morning spring rain.

Dee and Mark were scheduled to arrive at the apartment just after noon, and we had planned to get them briefly settled for one night (we fly to Bariloche tomorrow), and then take them on a tour of Buenos Aires. Unfortunately their plane was delayed for over 3 hours due to Thanksgiving snow and sleet in Chicago, and we finally welcome them to Argentina just after 5 p.m. The sun has broken through, though, and is showing them a beautiful late spring afternoon

The Final Weeks of Our Year-Long Followsummer Adventure

We are moving into the final weeks of our year-long followsummer adventure, and Dee and Mark’s arrival signals this. We have known since they booked this time with us many months ago that they would be here “at the end of our trip”, but their arrival makes this a reality. We have slowly started to think about life after followsummer: we have contacted our real estate person, Kathy; I have updated my resume. We both have started sending some networking emails. Most importantly, we have started to discuss what our life will look and feel like when we return. I am sad and happy at the same time. Sad to lose the luxurious freedom and time that this type of travel allows us. Sad to be losing the thrill of anticipating the next stop. Sad in many ways to have to go back. Happy to go home to a routine, to my own bed, to the ability to watch a movie perched on the couch in my PJ’s on a rainy Sunday afternoon. We are both exhausted and at the same time exhilarated.

We have a riotous reunion with Deirdre and Mark, and give them a quick tour around downtown Buenos Aires while we run some errands and get caught up. Back at the apartment, we drink a bottle of delicious Argentinean champagne to toast their first wedding anniversary, and then we head out to a wine-filled Argentinean parilla at one of the local restaurants we have been frequenting. Our flight to Bariloche tomorrow is not until after noon, so we stay out later than we should.

But this seems to be the custom in Buenos Aires.