January 2023

In January 2023 we travelled with our humans to South America. The primary objective was to explore Chile, however, we would start out with a couple of days in Buenos Aires to get acquainted with this famous city. Check out this Google Map to see where we went.

Click each photo to enlarge

Travel day! Roger was stressed out of his brain trying to make sure we had everything sorted before leaving the house.
"You all have your passports? And luggage? Tom? McBear? Chong?" Roger asked.
"Yes, yes, yes, you've asked us three times now," McBear said.
"What about ME???" Sniffy asked.
"Oh, yes, of course, sorry. Do you have your passport and suitcase?" Roger asked.
"I don't have a suitcase... yet, but McBear says I'm entitled to one according to Toy Animals' Rights, article C".
Sniffy was all excited. He had been with us before, but this was his biggest travel. He was a retired air freshner. For years he had been dangling from the back mirror in the car. He was an expendable to be binned when not working any more. But McBear had intervened, and now Sniffy was going to fly on business class on his way to Buenos Aires, wow!
"Okay, we're all set and ready to go," Roger concluded. "I shall report that to our humans. They say the taxi is on its way...

Air France AF228 to Buenos Aires, January 2023

From Dublin we flew Air France to Paris and stayed one night. Next morning we embarked on an Airbus A350 from Air France. McBear was delighted as this was the first time we would be flying this new aircraft. It was huuuuge! According to the schedule, it would be a 13 hour 3 minutes flight, phew...
On the way we would be crossing the Equator somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America.
"Are there any signs on the water saying 'You are now crossing the Equator'?" Chong wanted to know.
"You mean like road signs sticking up from the water surface?"
"Something like that."
"Not to my knowledge," McBear responded, "but maybe we should propose a floating boye with a sign for Equator crossing newbies..."
Roger was busy reading about the A350. He read, that the chairs in the business class had been designed with a typical French talent for physical well being. In Roger's head the sentence changed to "Well being with physics in France".

Arriving Buenos Aires, Roger was delighted for he was now a bear of 5 continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America - just like McBear.

We would be staying at the Hilton at the harbour, Puerto Madero. Roger said he would check us in and said he'd introduce himself at the reception as El Rogero Famoso.
"What does that mean?" Chong wanted to know.
"The Famous Roger."

Buenos Aires, Argentina, January 2023

Before we could go out and enjoy the fantastic city of Buenos Aires we needed some Argentinian cash. Our humans handed us a large pile of Argentinian Pesos. Considering our important contribution to this mission - the holiday - it was only fair that we received a reasonable share. The notes were piling up everywhere on the table.
"We need to use the notes quickly as Argentina is in the top 5 of world inflations," McBear said.

Roger was busy teaching Sniffy about life as a travelling bear. Well, Sniffy was a stuffed dog, but the same terms and conditions applied to all stuffed animals - no specism (discrimination between different types of species).
"These white fabrics are towels," Roger explained. "The small towel is for your face".
"It reads 'Shoe Cleaner'." Chong noticed.
"Well, eh... that's right, but as McBear always says: humans don't understand..."

The very first thing on our itenary was a visit to the Casa Rosada, the very place for Evita Peron's famous speech on the balcony. It is Argentina's presidential residence. McBear believed it was the world's coolest presidential palaces as it had its own airfield in the backyard with 2 helipads, taxi ways, a cute control tower, fire and rescue vehicle and an airbag for the met office. Wow, how cool was that?
"McBear, you are weird!" Roger concluded.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, January 2023

We went to see the Argentinian congress building. It is the home of Argentina's parliament, there's a senate and a chamber of deputies. Construction of the imposing building started in 1898. Argentina is a democracy after a dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to 1983.

Buenos Aires is very busy building tall buildings. One of the places this is very visible is at the harbour. It's like a new skyline shooting up.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, January 2023

Buenos Aires was still celebrating Argentina's recent victory in world cup in football. This was evident many places around the streets of Buenos Aires and the portrait of Messi was shown again and again.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, January 2023

Walking around Buenos Aires we came across this piece of art. Roger wanted to know what it was.
"Mmmm... It's getting a bit political now. It's a kind of map of a group of islands called the Malvinas near the coast of Argentina. A good few years ago there was a dispute about the ownership, so whoever you talk to, don't mention the war..."

Then it was time to leave Buenos Aires and travel to Chile, our main destination. We were flying LATAM, the Latin American airline company and departed from the small airport near River Plata, called Jorge Newbury Intl. Airport.