Antarctica - Day #3

Banner over doorway into the reception hall

The fellas at lunch - Kilkenny Pub

Busy lunch area - 2pm on a Tuesday

Great park across the street from hotel

Evening sky of Buenos Aires

Tuesday, February 22nd

I just got back to the hotel room after a really great opening dinner celebration with the entire marathon group. 115 people total -- 98 runners (83 marathoners and 15 half marathoners), 5 staff members, and 12 family members. Today I continued to feel pretty bad - but, after just meeting a ton of unique, inspirational people --- I know that I can do this. I talked with one of the girls I had met from Machu Picchu. She is a oral surgeon and a good motivator. Just like she says: "If you just stay positive and continue to look ahead, you can make yourself feel better. The mind can be a powerful tool."

Today the group met at 9am for a 3 hour tour of Buenos Aires. I didn't go. I got the highlights via camera shots and communication with the fellas. A couple things of interest: (1) Buenos Aires got its freedom from Spain in 1816 (2) BA is a very diverse city, with Spanish, Italian, and French ties. (3) BA had a big economic downturn about 10 years ago and has been steadily picking up the pace in recent years. (4) The group saw an interesting cemetary with some elaborate tombs holding 10+ people each.

After returning from the tour, Greg, Liam, and Kurt came to my room and dragged me out for some food. A tip of my cap to the fellas -- I needed that. We had a great lunch at this Irish Pub on the main drag. Argentina follows the Spanish way of life when it comes to eating. Lunch is mid afternoon and dinners start around 8pm. Then, people stay up until all hours of the night. It was great people watching. "Out last night" - Kenny Chesney --- the girls from Argentina are back.

After lunch we walked over to a tourist agency and purchased some ferry tickets to Uruguay. We have a free day tomorrow before heading further south to Ushuaia, so a number of folks are taking a ferry boat over to the country of Uruguay. I purchased the ticket but will play it by ear to see how I feel in the morning.

There was another training run at 4pm, but none of the 4 of us went today. I rested the afternoon while the other guys did some souvenoir shopping. We had cocktail hour at 6pm and then dinner starting at 7:30pm tonight. It really, really sucks right now that I cannot talk much at all. These people are very interesting and I relish the opportunity to get to know them better. That's OK for now - my time will come.

I took a few pictures of the city as promised. There's a really cool park next to our hotel. I'm impressed with Buenos Aires so far. I'm sure it has some poor areas like Rio - but I felt good vibes today.

Our tour guide told us tonight that we need to watch out for huge birds that will dive-bomb at our heads during the marathon and try to pick at us. Very nice. A guy raises his hand and asked: "How do we protect ourselves?" The guide says: "Don't wear headphones. You can hear them hovering above you. Just hold your hand above your head and that will deflect the blow when they make their move." Excellent!!!!!! Oh - he also mentioned that they have had waves of 50+ ft are more on the voyage over the Drake Passage. We were in this large auditorium. He pointed to the ceiling and stated: "The waves were way higher than this ceiling"