We left our apartment in Mendoza at 7am to catch a flight to Buenos Aires. This flight was the main reason we had to pack so light. They have a 40 lb limit per bag. We made it. Our flight ended up being hours late. Because our flight to Miami wasn't leaving until 10:30 pm, we had some time to kill, so we had arranged for a guy (referred by our landlords in Mendoza) to pick us and our bags up. He, thankfully, was able to find out that our plane was so late, so was there for us when we arrived. He dropped us off at Patio Bullrich - a famous shopping center and amusement area for kids in Buenos Aires, that we hadn't been to while we were in BA. He kept our bags for us and came back to pick us up later. In the meantime, we ate lunch and took the kids up to play.
our little fireman
and 'ambulance girl' as Sutton would say
picking out their prizes with the tickets we got from the games.
we hadn't seen this area of Buenos Aires near the airport. The river mouth is huge there. It's still brown, but looks more like an ocean than a river. People were fishing off the bridge.
checking in 3 hours early for the international overnight flight
already tired, but not even halfway there. The kids did great, though, the whole time. Thank you so much to those that prayed! I was so grateful, we didn't have any fits or Kerrigan screams!
We had our own little TVs with child programming, even.
Kerrigan slept through the night on blankets on the floor. The bulkhead came in handy. That was another little miracle. Somehow, when Doug booked our tickets online, he picked seats all together (not in the bulkhead, because they weren't available). But, when we got to the ticket counter to check in, they said we didn't have seat assignments and they only had these seats left, which were 4 seats all together in the bulkhead! The flight was full, too! Thank you, Lord! There was no seat for Kerrigan, but she did great with the huge space on the floor that is only available in the bulkhead.
In Miami, waiting for our flight to Costa Rica. Sutton misses her grandmas a lot. This grandma seemed to fill the void for a bit.
Strange to be back in the states. We both got our first starbucks in a month.
Kerrigan did great in her own seat. She even got a nap laying down on it. Once again, so thankful for being able to have a seat for her, since we didn't buy one for her as a lap baby. So many cool provisions God has provided through our journeys to make things easier.
driving lost in San Jose
finally in Costa Rica, but it's very close to dark after our long ordeal in the airport. Many people's luggage did not make it. All of ours did, except Kerrigan's carseat. So we had to wait until the next flight came, because much of the luggage was mistakenly on there. Not ours, though, so we then had to wait in line to report our missing luggage, etc. The rental car company was meeting us there with a shuttle, but was long gone after we didn't show. We were able to get a hold of the company to send someone back. It was another long process to get the rental car and now had to rent a carseat for Kerrigan.
I wasn't able to get many pictures, because I was trying to navigate with a map that had no street names in a city with nameless streets! God protected us, though, as we found ourselves in some seemingly not so safe areas. After going in circles for at least an hour, we knew it would probably not be the best idea to try to attempt the 4 hour drive in the dark, especially since we couldn't even find the freeway or get out of San Jose. We stopped at a gas station and some nice people drove, as we followed, to a hotel.
The next morning having breakfast that came with the room. A fresh start. It was so nice to get some food and showers and beds! I was starting to feel really nasty and like a vagabond.
We found out later, that we were so close to the freeway several times, but everyone we asked for directions said they didn't know. It's hard for us to believe that people didn't know how to get to this major freeway when we were right around the corner from it. We believe that God was protecting us from getting on the road, because it would've been dark most of the way and after driving the route the next day, we're glad we didn't attempt it in the dark.
We are definitely in the minority with carseats. We didn't see people use them in Argentina or here. This car had 9 people in it, with most of them being kids!
driving through the cloud forest
pouring rain. So much water pouring down, we could barely see! Thankfully, it only lasted a few minutes.
We're not in Argentina anymore. These cows were so skinny!
Yay! We're finally at the coast!
a little city on the way
banana plantations. All the bananas were in bags. We guess to protect from insects and animals.
We made it safely and a day late, but it could've been much worse. We'll pick up Kerrigan's carseat when we come back through on our way to the next stop.
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