Got up in plenty time to walk to the airport. Took about 70 minutes with a few stops for photos. The sky behind me was black with rainclouds but there were only a few drops of rain and the sun was coming up in front of me so there was a rainbow for a while. When I saw the plane coming in with the mountains in the background I burst into tears because I realised it was going to take me away (duh... :-o) and I´ll probably never be back again. Had a bit of a daft tourist moment just before boarding. I´d been through all the various bag checks, got my boarding card in plenty time and then just when I was about to get on the plane someone thought to tell me I had still to pay the airport tax. Had to rush back down into the hall, find the office, get the receipt and run up again to get on board just in time. In all the carry on I dropped various cards from the ´safe´ place next to my passport. Not wildly important, my staying permit, my donor card and a bank card for the giro account which I only have with me in case there´s a problem with my other card (which is in a ´safer´ place...). I hadn´t even noticed till I was getting into my seat and a steward came first with the bankcard and then, just as I was trying to work out what else I was missing, the other 2. Gracias, muchas gracias, Señor Aerolinas Argentina! It must be all the good luck charms I have hanging on all my bags which are protecting me from disaster. I also had to insist on having my window seat as someone else had installed themselves in it whilst I was running about the airport like a mad thing. I´d only bought the plane ticket on the condition that I got a window seat and had carefully selected it specially with the guy in the ticket office. Once all that was sorted the flight was fine! The cloud cover meant that the mountains soon disappeared but it was good to see the bay from above for the last time and later the sky cleared and there were some good views of the rest of Tierra del Fuego. It was only a 50 minute flight and then I was back in Rio Gallegos.
