Buenos Aires - 22 degrees

The critical part- getting to South America - has been achieved, and relatively without incident. I'm sitting in the first hotel having a leisurely breakfast after a good night's sleep, waiting for the brother to appear. We rendezvoused at Waterloo on Tuesday evening. His train was delayed and I was there to meet it at the barrier to platform 7, but there was no sign of him. My mobile rang. "I'm here", he said, "where are you?". "At the barrier, to platform 6". I moved to platform 6 and searched, but could see no sign. "Whereabouts?", "By the Underground, behind Platform 6". I looked around, and spotted him about 10 feet from my original position, by the barrier to Platform 7. So reassuring to know that your accountant recognises digits. We stayed overnight with members of my Other Half's family. A delicious meal, during which this blog was mentioned. The Brother was, up to that point, unaware. In fact, we had to explain to him what a blog is, and there was a frisson as he realised he was featuring. I think I've got away with it so far, but not sure for how much longer. The flight was long, but comfortable, and travelling for most of the way over nothing but sea and clouds brought home the distance. Looking out of the window we remarked on how vast and unbroken the vista below was. "Is that a landmass?",I asked, peering at a large, dark mountainous shape on the horizon. "I think that's a cloud, isn't it?" he replied. "It looks like a landmass to me", I persisted. "No, it can't be. What could it be out here? It's a cloud shadow". The flight map resolved that one; we were just passing the Canary Islands. I think it was around this time that the Brother managed to break his little table, and had to ask the air crew to reassemble it. The flight was memorable for these and one more reason. Approaching Buenos Aires from the north, in the dark, from above the cloud cover we witnessed a spectacular lightening display which lit up the clouds underneath, creating a stunning monochrome effect flickering rapidly and randomly over a huge area beneath us, as if a child was playing with a torch under the blankets.