Last year while Dick and I were in Turkey we looked at each other and said that neither of us had ever been below the Equator (though Dick has come the closest when he was in Singapore) and we did want to do an RTW.
We would then be able to boast that we were no longer a "Wog" but a "Shellback". To go from "Wog" to "Shellbacks" one needs to cross the Equator and we will be doing just that but without the ceremony (click to read what is involved). Why no ceremony you ask. Easy, we will be flying to Rio and not crossing by ship. But this will be just the start of our "Endless Summer Tour" where we will visit countries below the Equator or not to far above. There is one exception that I will mention later. But if you look at a map of continents you may notice that there really isn't much land below the Equator but there is a lot of ocean.
Our first country in this will be in South America during their summer season.
Where we will get our internal clocks reset in Ipanema. Beach and more beach followed by many rum drinks I am certain. Lucky for us we will be in Rio a year after FIFA and before the next Olympic games. There will still be a lot of water pollution but hopefully not where we will be staying in Leblon.
We then get to see what is like to do the equivalent of flying into O'Hare then catching your next flight out of Midway. Our flights with Aerolíneas Argentina were changed recently to just such a scenario. When I called to ask why and how we were to get to the other airport in Buenos Aires the customer service rep said we have a free shuttle and the time between your flights has been extended, so no problem. You have plenty of time. Not certain I got a warm fuzzy with that one. But again this will not be the first time nor I expect the last time air travel was not made exciting.
So why the changes to our flights are such a big deal. Well it is a strange tale of going from one SA country to another where Americans need to either have a visa (Brazil) or pay a reciprocity fee (Argentina). We want to go Iguazu Falls and the easiest way appeared to be to fly from Rio to Buenos Aires then to the Falls then back to Buenos Aires. We need to be in Buenos Aires to catch our cruise ship so would need to pay the reciprocity fee anyhow.
Did I say cruise. Would a lady not take her sailor boy on a cruise around the Horn? But of course I would. We will sail out of Buenos Aires, Argentina (ahh the Tango) and 14 days later we end in Valparaiso, Chile. Not really certain why but the Falklands/Malvinas are part of the cruise. Well one time it may be better to be an American than British.
We will be in Chile during the Christmas holiday and then continue our tour to the Land down under - Australia.
