Recounting great travel experiences with a friend, I was recently reminded of our trip to Patagonia. We flew a US domestic carrier to Miami, then connected with a South American carrier to Santiago, Chile. From Santiago, we flew to Punta Arenas, Chile. Sadly, our checked baggage was not there to meet us. We enlisted the help of our group's guide to sort out the issues. He spoke with the airline on the phone and was able to assure us that our luggage had been found and would be forwarded to meet us in two days' time. This did not happen, but we were promised the luggage had been found and would be sent to us the next day. The precise details escape me, but we were daily promised that our luggage was being sent to us the next day - for the next two weeks. Anticipating this as a possibility, we stopped to buy emergency clothing in Punta Arenas and members of our traveling group shared spare clothing with us. We still have some of that clothing and we remain grateful for the huge show of support within the group.
While packing, I made a few last-minute decisions about which items to put in checked baggage and which to put in carry-on. Most of the decisions worked out fine, but there was one key decision that I botched. Innocently assuming that our checked bags would show up, I put my camera in carry-on but I put my spare batteries and charger in the checked bag. Big mistake.
You will quickly note that I had but one charged battery for a two-week trip in the wilderness of Patagonia, covering large swathes of Chile and Argentina. Under normal circumstances (unlimited battery for my camera), I would have taken hundreds of photos, perhaps thousands. Instead, I perforce measured photo opportunities carefully, working to stretch out battery life to cover as much of the trip as I could. We spent most nights in small towns with hotels, where I scoured the shops looking for a Nikon battery charger. You might think such items would be commonplace given the major presence of Nikon in the photo industry and our physical location immersed in photographic opportunities. Not so. I found all sorts of chargers for all sorts of cameras, but no chargers for mainline Nikon products until the last day of our wilderness trip. I found a "universal charger" that worked as needed and was finally able to charge batteries. Relief washed over me, but we only had a day or two left of the trip.
You could say the lesson I learned was to put the camera AND charger into the carry-on luggage, and you would be right. But I learned a greater lesson on the trail.
I learned to look around me in the moment rather than through the viewfinder. This led to greater enjoyment and deeper experience in the wilderness of Patagonia. I do not regret the lack of a charger nor the shortage of photos. I did miss some great opportunities as I counted metaphorical electrons, but my experiences were all the greater for the lack of a charger.
Our luggage? Well, it finally did arrive to meet us in Buenos Aires and it was with us through a week of travels in Neuquen Province (highly recommended). It seems the luggage had never left Miami, it had been set aside, and when they finally found it, they shipped it directly to Buenos Aires to wait for us. The charger and all the clothes that we did not need were finally delivered and we carried them for the rest of the trip through Neuquen. Note that Patagonia is much colder than Buenos Aires and Neuquen, so the winter clothes in our luggage were just dead weight.
So the unhappy accident of stashing the charger and batteries in the misdirected luggage proved to be a happy accident that allowed me to more fully experience Patagonia.
Photos: December 2012 - January 2013, Chile and Argentina
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