Back to the buses to take us for check in at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Buenos Aires. We are told that it is 45 minutes away. Should take us about an hour and a half.
After lunch and our orientation meeting a few of us went outside on the lawn to kick around. Scott on the left, me in the middle and Steve on the right. We were surrounded by several local children as we started to kick around. They wanted to join in and play futbol with us. They had incredible skills that our children should only be so lucky to have.
After lunch, we went into an auditorium to hear the Maccabi organizers give their shpiel about security, participation, good behavior etc. etc. We watched a video on the Maccabi games that featured previous athletes like Mark Spitz that got their start and the Maccabi games. They announced the flag bearers and celebrated several birthdays. It was quite nice and made me really feel the enornimity of the event. It finally sank in that it is "here".
After an hour bus ride, we arrived at a country club called Hebraica. It is a community, almost like a Kibbutz with members, residents and workers. It was quite the facility with fields, parks, pools, buildings, homes and major security.
There I am on the bus. I've decided to keep a journal of the experience and was just catching up on my writing. Couldn't get internet at the moment so I was just building a text document. Need something to pass the time on the bus rides.
The buses that we have just borded are surrounded by the Galderemia or what appears to be military police. There were jeeps, motorcycles, cars and even a helicopter excort. Either we were special or they were prepared for the worse.
We had finally arrived in Argentina although we flew with American Airlines not Aerolines Argentinas.
After almost 24 hours in transit, we gathered our bags, were whisked around the airport on shuttles to a secure place and borded buses to take us to our next destination.
No comments:
Post a Comment