Days 12-13: Buenos Aires to Atlanta

Today was our last day in Buenos Aires. We were all very sad to leave South America and even sadder to leave the Dukes. This tour has been such a wonderful and eye-opening experience that all of us will treasure for the rest of our lives.

After breakfast, we loaded the bus, which took us to a street market. This was the most eccentric street market we had been to yet, as there were shops selling every imaginable item, from old silverware to chandeliers. There was even one stall dedicated to towel racks. However, several of the stalls catered to the more touristy crowd with hand-painted matés (a popular Argentine way of making tea) or colorful scarves. Another section of the market contained artists selling their work. Every so often, we would stumble upon something interesting, like old tango sheet music with rather hilarious illustrations on the front.

From there, we loaded the buses and drove to an Italian restaurant named Il Gatto (the same name as our bus driver). We sat on the enclosed patio facing the riverfront, just downriver from the Calatrava bridge. After eating a delicious meal that was (thankfully) neither steak nor pizza, we had a little sing-off as a final farewell. However, the stipulation was that each group got to choose the other group's song. Of course, we were having such a great time that the rules evolved into singing two songs. We did "The Unknown Woman" and "Hide and Seek." I'm not going to bother attempting to spell the songs the Dukes performed, but rest assured that we asked them to perform the songs based on the movements that accompanied them. To wrap things up, we joined forces one last time to sing "Abanije" and "Singabahambayo."


Loading up the bus again, we returned to the hotel, where the Dukes picked up their luggage and loaded another bus that would take them to the airport. After lots of hugs and a "Round of Goodbyes" that dissolved into tears, we waved goodbye to the Dukes as they drove off and reloaded our own bus. The ride to Buenos Aires's trendy SoHo district (yes, they have one, too) was a silent and tearful one. Everyone was reflecting on the past two weeks and missing the Dukes already.

As we browsed the pricey stores and trendy marketplace (there are markets everywhere), people's moods starting improving slightly, though remaining somewhat muted for the most part. The hours seemed to drag by slowly. Finally, we met back together to load the bus to the airport.

Our journey home was generally smooth. Check in at Buenos Aires moved fairly quickly, giving us some free time to browse the airport stores (as though we hadn't had enough shopping all day). The flight to Miami was nice, or at least better than the Miami to Rio flight. The plane was large, and each seat had it's own TV (yea!).

We landed in Miami (around 6:30 in the morning) for customs and our transfer to Atlanta. Of course, U.S. customs were longer and more tedious than those in Brazil or Argentina. Nonetheless, we managed to make our connection with plenty of time to spare. The flight from Miami to Atlanta, much shorter than the first flight, was rather uneventful. And then we were home!

Though we were all glad to be home to see our families and sleep in our own beds once again, we will surely miss the times we spent together and all the people we met on this tour. These will be the memories that we will treasure forever.

Day 11: Buenos Aires

After breakfast, we loaded the bus to take us to Florida Street, a pedestrian street in the heart of Buenos Aires. In the three hours we had, there was plenty of time to shop at the various stores (and even a fancy mall) all along the street. The shops sold products ranging from souvenirs to leather (Argentinians love anything associated with cows).

After grabbing lunch on Florida Street, we met back at the bus to ride to the amphitheater where we'd be performing our second concert. We ran a quick sound check, apprehensive of how this outdoor venue would be freezing during our evening concert. We then reloaded the bus and drove to the Metropolitan Cathedral, where we would be singing our first concert. The neoclassical portico belied the exquisite interior.





After a short warm up, we began the concert. Though it wasn't the best concert of the tour, it certainly wasn't bad. Like several of our previous concert venues, this cathedral reverberated nicely (big, fancy, old churches tend to do that, though…).

We then had to run to the bus to transfer back to the amphitheater for our second concert. When we arrived onstage, Coro Kennedy, a popular show choir from Argentina, was already performing their lineup of Beatles hits. They dragged both us and the Dukes onstage to sing "Hey, Jude" with them. Though most of us knew the song, we weren't sure how to sing along as we hadn't learned their harmonies and didn't want to detract from the quartet singing the melody. Thus, we stood there awkwardly making deer-in-the-headlights faces until the "Na na na na na na na" parts. But it was all in good fun…

After Coro Kennedy finished, we performed our part of the concert, finally able to sing secular songs again. We even retaliated at Coro Kennedy with a rendition of the Beatles' "Blackbird." The Dukes performed after us as we watched from backstage.

Once the Dukes had finished their set, we joined them onstage to sing "Abanije." Then, we pulled Coro Kennedy back onstage and made them sing "Singabahambayo" with us. It was great fun singing with such a large group of people from diverse backgrounds (several of whom we had just met).

Things only got better after the concert. We three choirs formed a cluster (a bit of a mosh pit, if you are familiar with the term) and started singing quite the eclectic assortment of songs, including a popular South African folksong that both the other choirs knew but that we failed be aware of.

We were finally shooed out of the amphitheater and onto the bus. From there, we went to a sports bar (fútbol, not football) to have our farewell dinner with the Dukes. We were served inordinate amounts of cheese and/or margherita pizza (all with whole olives on top, of course), and Hernan kept walking around trying to shove more down our throats. As both of these types of pizza were vegetarian, we were glad to escape all the red meat that had plagued us throughout the trip, though it seemed like pizza was the only other meal we ever managed to come up with…

After stuffing ourselves with pizza and several rounds of the Cup Game, we returned to the hotel for the evening.

BUT

The night wasn't over yet. The Dukes invited us to their nightly meeting, which (instead of being more business-oriented) was more of a close to the trip. The Dukes even allowed us to sign an Argentine flag that they brought. As flag signing is one of their tour traditions, we were greatly moved to be included. Then, we sat and talked and even played a noisy round of a hand-slapping game that I don't really feel like explaining all the rules of.

Since it had gotten pretty late, we were ushered to bed and I didn't write this blog until a week later.