Buenos Aires - COVID pre-amble

A long time ago, in April 2020, Mrs L and I were booked on flights to Japan. We had been to Tokyo once before on an extended layover, just enough time to realise we liked it and that we needed a lot more time there, and when the opportunity had arisen had booked a week. It would be cherry blossom season, and we were flying to Tokyo and then taking a train a bit further north - we had researched how the weather and the latitude influenced when the trees would be at their finest, and we were slightly too late for the more southerly locations.

A couple of months before we were due to travel I was sitting at a bar in an airport lounge chatting to a fellow passenger, a Doctor. I can't remember where I was going, France perhaps. Docked in Japan was a quarantined cruise ship with a mysterious infectious disease on board. Rumours were spreading of a respiratory virus originating in China, and on land the Japanese authorities were scrambling to put in place containment plans. COVID wasn't yet the global phenomenon it became, but we chatted about how Japan might not be a good place to travel to at the moment. We were flexible I said, could change the ticket and go anywhere. How about South America? Mrs L had wanted to go to Argentina for ages and it seemed clear of whatever this illness is, plus it would be a nice time of year. A few days later I made the change. We were off to Buenos Aires!

Of course we never made it. It seems ancient history now but the following month, in March, the world began to shut down. My office was divided into two groups of people, an 'orange' team and a 'blue' team. We were to work alternate weeks in order to limit the number of people at desks, and the workstations were rearranged in a zigzag formation so nobody was either next to or opposite anyone else. I was in the first group who would continue to work in the office but only made it a few days before it was decreed that anyone who had recently travelled to a certain list of countries with high incidences of COVID had to quarantine, which included France. It was the 13th March 2020. I left the office mid-morning expecting to be back in a couple of weeks. I didn't go back for a over a year and a half. Needless to say Argentina didn't happen. In fact nothing happened. I didn't travel abroad again until November 2021. I barely travelled in the UK, and for many months I was confined at home. I missed two birthdays in lockdown. Then again I didn't die whereas many people did. Here's what I wrote on that day in March, my crystal ball was clearly firing on all cylinders.

The issue I see is one of sustainability and endurance. Next week was my week at home anyway, but what if that extends to two weeks? Or a month? Or two months? I am going to go stir crazy. And what if Mrs L and the children are also all sent home? And frankly this is a when not if and I think we all know that. What happens when all five of us are cooped up for several weeks in Chateau L? Family harmony and happy matrimony, that's what. But it may at least result in some blogging.

Of course all of this did happen, my only inaccuracy was that several weeks became multiple months. All in the past now thankfully, I can barely believe it happened sometimes, but happen it most definitely did. And our trip to Buenos Aires got rebooked. It took until October 2023, but we did eventually get there and it was fantastic. The wait was definitely worth it. Over the next few posts I'll try and give a flavour of what we did and where we went, but as a city break it is virtually unequalled, an extraordinary city. Vibrantly South American, but also cosmopolitan and restrained in a European manner - an oft-used cliché but one you'll understand if you spend time there. Off we go!