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.
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