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Other than a mandatory COVID test in the morning, there were no plans for today.  It was a free day to do whatever we wanted to.  I wanted to play it safe, so I did not do crazy.

For the COVID test, we were told to go to floor “minus two”.  What?  The elevator only goes to ZERO, how do I get to MINUS 2?  Is this the Highway to Hell or what?  I left my room and went to floor ZERO, where marathon tours staff were waiting.  I asked about the minus two situations and was directed to a set of escalators.  They said to go down two floors where more people will be waiting.   I went down but felt like a cow being led down the slaughter chute.  As I stepped off, Marathon Tours staff directed me to a room where there were 3 chairs set up for sample taking.  The line moved fairly quickly and soon it was my turn.  I sat down and pulled my mask down.  This lady stuck the swab so far up my nose I thought it was going to come out of my ear.  I tried to pull back a little bit, she then shoved it in even further and with more force.  I wonder if she enjoyed doing this to people?  The sample could not have been collected soon enough.  She gave me a thumbs up and I RAN out from the room.  The marathon tours staff asked me if I was done, and I simply said, “There is nothing like crying in the morning”.  Geez.  The results of the PCR were supposed to be completed this evening.  Anybody who was positive had to remain in Buenos Aires in quarantine and would not be permitted to make the trip to Ushuaia / Antarctica.

After that escapade, I ate breakfast at the free breakfast bar in the Hilton, then went back to my room.  I slept well last night, but not long enough, so I took a nap.  At 11:30 I rolled out of bed and decided to go for a walk in the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve.  I did the same route that I “ran” yesterday, but took pictures and frequent rests.  The temp was pushing 90.

After 2 hours, I made it back to the hotel and showered off.  It was 2:30 and I was getting hungry.  Right next to the hotel was a place called Dandy Deli.  I decided to try them.  If nobody spoke English, I figured I could point at the menu to order.  Looking at the menu, I saw a pulled pork sandwich that looked yummy, so I ordered that and a bottle of water.  The bad part about this place was that I could NOT pay with US dollars, and had to use my credit card.  Still, it was only $10.  The pulled pork sandwich was SO mouthwatering good.  I have never had one as good as this.

On the way back to the hotel, I saw Will from Marathon Tours and quizzed him about the PCR test results.  He said that the lab had promised them between 4-5 pm, but obviously this was beyond his control.  It was currently 3:15 pm, so we were getting close.  Every person who tested negative would receive an email with further instructions.  If you tested positive, you would receive a CALL from either Jeff or the doctor to discuss your options – which is where this story gets primed with some interesting developments in a few paragraphs.

After talking to Will, I took another lazy day nap, then started gathering / strategically organizing my stuff.  According to my master plan, I would consolidate from three bags to two bags for the airplane trip to Ushuaia.  I knew it could be done because I did it at home.  I wanted to carry on any running gear that I had because I wanted NO risk of losing any of it.  The chances of things getting lost on a direct flight are a lot less than on a connecting flight, but it still happens.  I separated everything into two piles – one to check and one to carry on.  As I finished making the piles, it was time to meet in the hotel lobby to go to the Cabana Las Lilas – the Argentine steakhouse.  Although I had not finished packing, I had made a good start.

As soon as I arrived in the lobby, I noticed that the topic of conversation was about the COVID results.  I told them what I knew from Will and that the emails should be coming soon.  It was good to know that nobody had received an email yet.  We walked to the Cabana Las Lilas, which was only about 5 minutes from the hotel.  We arrived at 6:50 and had to wait for 10 minutes – which is where things get interesting for me (as was primed a few paragraphs above).  My phone rang.  My heart sank.  My mind starts racing and thinking, “WHAT?!?!?!?  I WAS CAREFUL!!!  WHY ME?”.

Me (sheelpishly):  “Hello”

Other guy:  “Is this Robert?”

Me:  “Yes”

Other guy:  “This is Jeff with Marathon Tours”

Me (Oh MY GOD!  WHY ME?!?!?!  I HAVE WAITED FIVE YEARS FOR THIS):   “Hi Jeff, how are you?”

Jeff:  “Are you at a place where you are comfortable talking?”

Me ($#i7.  WHY ?  I have been EXTREMELY CAREFUL.  Mother Nature can be SO cruel!): “Yes”

Jeff:  “I want to get this email out to everybody to relieve all of the anxiety, but needed to have a conversation with you.  First of all, please do not panic.  You have not tested positive. However, the lab was not comfortable with the quality control on your results.  You did not test positive, however, they want to rerun your sample.  There were 3 people, including yourself, who are in the same situation.  When I send this email, I did not want you to panic because you did not get one.”

Me (Well this is only WORRISOME news, not BAD news): “Do I need to come back to retest?”

Jeff:  “No, they will retest the three samples in question.  You did not test positive and 99% of the time, this is fine.  I am pretty sure you will not test positive, but again, I wanted to give you the courtesy of telling you what was going on and why you did not receive an email with a negative test result.  They have promised me that the sample will be rerun within two hours and I will call you again with the results.  I would not worry about this, and we should have your results by 8 pm”.

Me:  “Thank you!”

I was fairly confident that I was going to be negative.  I mean I sat in my hotel in Miami for 3 days doing nothing when I COULD have been playing poker or playing golf.  However, the anxiety was annoying, much similar to what I was experiencing when my PCR test results came back from Miami.  I told the group what the situation was (and that I had not tested positive and they wanted to get these emails out).  Right after that, we were seated.

For starters, they gave us Pao De Queijo, bread with cheese in the middle.  This seems to be common in South America because I have had this bread at various Brazilian restaurants in the USA.  For the main course, I ordered my favorite steak – a ribeye – cooked medium well, with a side of corn.

After we ordered, the COVID negative emails started rolling in.  You could see the sense of relief on everybody’s face.  Every so often, somebody would look at me and say, “It is alright, you are going to test negative.”  I had no doubt, but this wait was still tense.

Dinner was finally served and this ribeye was el-perfecto – a PERFECT medium-well, and it was delicious!  I was so glad that we decided to come here for the experience.

As I was eating, my phone rang again.  This is it – the call.  I stepped away from the table.

Me:  “Hello”

Jeff:  “Hi, this is Jeff with Marathon Tour, is this Bob?”

Me:  “Yes”

I peered back to the table and most eyes were on me.

Jeff:  “Good news, they reran all 3 tests and you are negative.”

I raised my arm with a fist pump.  Sam asked if I was negative.  I gave him a thumbs up because Jeff was still talking.

Sam looked at the table and shouted, “Bob’s negative!!”

The entire table cheered.  It was funny.

Jeff:  “Not only did the 3 tests that needed to be rerun come back negative, but the ENTIRE GROUP also came back negative.  We have 100% of people moving on to Ushuaia.”

Me:  “That is exciting!  Thank you!”

I told the group that EVERYBODY had tested negative and that nobody was being left behind.  We let out another loud cheer and started clapping.  What a moving moment.

After dinner, I went back to my room and finished packing.  Everything fit neatly into my checked bag and my carry-on.  Since I was on the regular flight that left at 8:40 am, I had to be at the hotel door by 6 am.  I set my alarm for 5:10 and Mr. Sandman was soon visiting me.

Hurdle #2 cleared.  Ushuaia – here I come!

Today was our first full day as a group in Buenos Aires.  Numerous people were late due to the big snowstorm in the northeast.  I was SO glad Ashley talked me into going to Miami a few days early.  All flights on Saturday and 40% of the flights on Sunday were canceled from Hartford, so I am pretty sure I would have been delayed as well.  Anyway, today we were to have an arranged tour of the most popular tourist sites in Buenos Aires, another optional group run, then a mandatory dinner meeting.

Our first stop was at the oldest public cemetery in Bueno Aires, La Recoleta Cemetery.  It was declared a public cemetery in 1820.  The first thing that stood out was that this was no ordinary cemetery like we see in the USA.  The entire cemetery contained mausoleums, and some were quite intricate!  When asked, the tour guide said there were about 4500 of them, and there was no space for any more.  She also said that the number of people interred there was unknown, but some rather famous people were here.  I had never been up close to a mausoleum before, so I took the opportunity to peek inside when I had an opportunity (note:  I did NOT enter any of them).  Many of them had caskets in the ground-level chamber.  However, I noticed numerous mausoleums had a crypt as well. The tour guide said that the crypts can contain additional caskets or urns for cremated people and can go an additional 5 meters / 15 feet below the ground!  When asked about the price of a mausoleum, she said that it varies depending on the style, but it can cost more than a house.

 

 

Next, we stopped at a large metal flower that is supposed to open its petals in the morning and close them in the evening.  However, it was broken and the petals are always closed.

The next stop was at the pink house in Recoleta.  This is where the President of Argentina does his daily work.  To get to work, he flies in by helicopter and lands on the roof!  Pretty cool.  In the same square is a monument.  There were hundreds if not thousands of rocks placed at the base of the monument.  When I asked why all of the rocks were there, somebody told me that each rock represents somebody who died from COVID.  That was a fairly startling display of what is STILL going on in the world right now.  Yikes!

 

 

 

In 2014 when I was working in ESPN Deportes, I had this soccer task that I was working on.  As I was working on this task, I noticed a team logo that was not “typical”.  By that, I mean it was not a fierce lion or tiger, nor was it colorful.  It was just a plain circular black and white logo with black text.  Curious, I looked up this logo and found out that it was for a soccer team in Argentina named “River Plate“.  I thought that this was a strange name for a team, but whatever – I am sure there is a reason for it.  A couple of weeks later, I was walking behind a person while going to the ESPN cafe.  He was carrying/wearing a backpack with a sports team logo.  Upon closer inspection, I noticed that it was the RIVER PLATE soccer team logo!  What were the chances that I worked on a soccer project, looked up that exact logo, then SAW the logo on a backpack for a soccer team in Argentina nonetheless!  It was comical, but I put that out of my mind for 8 years.  As we were driving through Buenos Aires, we drove near a soccer stadium.  The streets were filled with sporting goods shops – all of which had soccer memorabilia.  The tour guide told us the history of the two soccer teams in the area, and lo and behold, one was River Plate, and they played in this stadium we were driving by, which was Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti!  Wow – River Plate now has come full-circle.  Will I have any more River Plate encounters in my life?  Who knows, but I am very curious.

Our next stop was in a touristy area where I could try to buy some knick-knacks for people at home.  I went into the first store and found a nice Argentine leather wallet.  I needed a new wallet and this one was appealing.  It had 4 credit card slots per side (help 8 total) and TWO inserts for your driver’s license and whatever else you might want to put there – like your health insurance cards.  In my current wallet, I have to double up some cards in the appropriate slots because there is not enough room.  This wallet was PERFECT.  I asked the lady how much it was, and she said 4,600 pesos.  I learned the lesson yesterday at lunch, so I asked for the exchange rate (I knew the “official” rate was about 105:1).  She quoted me a price of $23 USD!  I took it!  What a nice wallet.  I was getting hungry, so I bought an empanada and a bottle of water for lunch.   The grand total (on credit card) was $3.94!  Not bad for a lunch.  I went back to shopping and found a nice penguin carved out of Rhodochrosite, the Argentine national stone.  The price was $11,600 pesos, but she told me $57 for USD (a little more than 200:1)!  I took that and crossed Grace of my “to buy something for” list.  It is pretty cool, and I think she will love it.

We made out way back to the hotel after that, and I geared up for a 4-mile group run.  The park was open, but you could take several paths in the park to do 2.5, 3.1, 4, or 6.1 miles.  I decided to do the 4-mile route, but halfway through, I decided to walk.  It was WAAAAAY too hot (in the 80s) and I do not do well in the heat when it comes to exercise.  I walked with 2 other people who decided it was too hot to run as well.

After the run, I showered and vegged until dinner.  At 6:30 I went down to check out my bib and cabin assignments.  I was in cabin 310 with a guy named Thomas.  During dinner, I located Thomas and introduced myself, but did not talk long.  As for the flight, the charter did not hold enough people so there were SEVEN people who were booked on a regular domestic flight via Aerolineas Argentinas. I was one of those lucky 7 – and was pretty disappointed.  I did not want to have to go through the airport myself.  What if nobody knew Spanish?  Lastly, I scheduled my COVID PCR test for 8:45 am tomorrow.  This test was required by the Argentine government.  If anybody tested positive, they must quarantine in Buenos Aires for 7-10 days

Dinner consisted of tomato + mozzarella cheese salad, then salmon.  It was quite yummy.  Jeff Adams spoke about what we will be encountering over the next several days with the sailing, race, covid, etc.  There were no surprises for me thus far.

After dinner, Sam and I called Cabana Las Lilas to make a reservation for 15 people.  They could accommodate us, but they did not open until 7 pm.  That was fine, and we booked the reservation.

At 9:30p, I ventured out with my newfound friend Bai (from Chicago, but she grew up in Shanghai, China) to look at the stars.  She is a big fan of astronomy, as am I.  We are hoping for at least one or two clear nights on the Drake Passage so we can look at the southern sky!  There was quite a bit of light pollution, so we were not able to see a whole lot (although Orion was very prominent overhead).  During the walk, I found out that she is a Financial Advisor in Chicago for Citibank.  She and her husband/children love to travel and she has been on numerous interesting marathon trips. She is also an amazing photographer.   After that walk, I retired to my room for the evening.