Another day and finally a little light at the end of the tunnel!

Wednesday the 15th and finally we have been told that Custom's clearence is scheduled to be completed by 13:00!!! This needs to be followed by release of the containers by Maersk and poop,poop!! we are off.......

If only life was that simple, in Buenos Aires where containers and Customs are concerned, it rarely is. No news, so to kill time and to take our minds off the mind bending bureaucracy we go down to the History Museum and learn a little about the early revolutionary years of Argentine history plus the added bonus of learning about the passion and success of Argentine football. Two things weren't included, firstly that the British introduced football to the country (hence the big clubs all have english names, Boca Juniors and River Plate etc) and secondly no mention of the 'hand of God'!! Lunch came and went and....still no news!!! One can only conclude that we are an exceptionally patient team.

We lose our second team member today when Sophie packs her bags and returns home without having seen a car! Sad faces all around but the machinations of 'pink eye' are unpleasant enough without having to sit all day in a wind blasted 1924 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. 

Following a modest lunch we decide that enough is enough and jump in a cab and set off for Terminal 4 to find out face to face where our cars are. Half way there we get a call to tell us that Customs clearance has been obtained and the cars will be released by 19:30. Whoop, bloody whoop!!!!! We turn around and head home to our AirBnB, full of expectation that we will get the cars tonight.

20:10 now and we are informed that Carlos' team have got the trucks and are heading for the Maersk terminal so we still beleive that we will see the cars tonight, we set off for the port. Despite various hiccups by 21:30 the containers leave the port and we are off in Carlos's car to a trucking company 35km north of Buenos Aires to off load the containers. On the drive we finally learn the truth of what has happened from Carlos. Maersk's records showed that our containers had left Buenos Aires for Ushuaia and therefore Customs wanted an explanation as to why they were still in Buenos Aires and were now being imported. Massive confusion, massive delays and no-one really knew how to sort the problem at all. All the efforts of senior Maersk staff made little impact with the Argentine customs officers and round and round in circles everyone went. Anyway adventures like ours are made by the struggles and challenges not by all the elements that go smoothly to plan. We certainly started with a corker! 3 weeks waiting for our cars has certainly stretched our patience.

The containers disappear and the three drivers, Nigel, Chris and I jump in Carlos' car and drive about 35km from Buenos Aires to a very dark and very poor area where Carlos suggests that it wouldn't be a good idea to be here on your own at this time of night! Very reassuring. A recovery truck was parked in the back street and suddenly the gate behind us slides open to reveal a dark and scruffy transport depot. Over the next ten minutes or so various assorted characters appeared and then down the road came the two trucks with our containers on them. It was dark, it was late but finally it looked as if we might just see our cars. We weren't leaving without them.

The small container was opened first and lo and behold it contained AUU295, my beautiful Lagonda M45. the recovery truck was reversed up to the container truck and after various adjustments the Lagonda was started (first time!) and reversed onto the recovery truck, the truck taken forward, the ramp lowered and the Lagonda was finally on the ground. Then the process was repeated firstly for BPJ145, Nigel's M45 lagonda and finally CXU973, Chris' Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. All three  cars started first time, having been in the container for three months a credit to their preperation. It was undoubtedly a very interesting way to offload cars. We ran back to our frat house on Costa Rica and Thames in Palermo, Buenos Aires getting home at 1:00am. But we had our cars we are off tomorrow morning! The adventure begins.