Advertisement
Published: January 16th 2012
Last day. It's almost over. Except for the painful part of flying for 2 days. Leaving Easter Island January 3rd, arriving home late January 4th (in theory)
YYC.DFW.MIA.SCL.PLC.FTE.EZE.SCL.IPC.SCL.MIA.ORD.YYC 11 flights!
We allowed a sleep in again (amazing we were getting used to this laziness so quickly), partially because we didn't want to go home, and partially because neither of us wanted to pack. Michele had 4 bottles of wine and 2 bottles of olive oil and a jar of jam. I had 2+2+jam plus now tee-shirts, gifts and other odds n sods to stuff in my bag. What was I thinking buying presents? Seriously? I love you all, but..........
To give you an idea of just how much stuff I had acquired, when we finished our trek, my pack was just over 13kg (after I ate my food from home) and when we weighed in for Easter Island it was 20kg! No wonder I could barely swing the thing over my shoulder. If I didn't have my day pack on the front I would have fallen backwards, laying there like a turtle while Michele laughed herself to death!
Again it was quiet with hard work and anticipation
The Towers
Group Shotof "will it fit" but again our master skills shined through. We both wiped our brows, smiled knowingly and dreaded picking up the damn thing. After a leisurely morning, last shower for 2 days, we said good bye to Easter Island.
Freida was punctual and our 3 minute drive to the airport was, well, quick! At check in we beat the Japanese tour group of about 50 people by moments, much to our relief, but the look of horror in our check-in attendants eyes spoke volumes. I whispered that she my need a cervesa soon and she twitched a smile:-)
We had to arrive the usual 2.5 hours early but man oh man IPC airport is simply a building to check in passengers, drop off bags. That's it. No where to sit really nothing to do, last minute tourist chocolate buying, boring. But, there's always people watching and that never fails to entertain.
Flight was uneventful, which is always good to report. Aside from all the Brazilian pollolos (lovers) which were ngetting nauseating overall quiet ....(smack, suck, schmooch.....) gag!
In Santiago, we had a tight connection, and leaving customs the agent couldn't find me in the
system with my passport. And while he communicated absolutely nada to me I could see the story unfolding and felt a slight sheen on my forehead and my heart fluttering just a wee bit quicker. Eventually, long after Michele had cleared and gone through security I was still standing there with a definite look of panic on my face. Permanent resident of Chile? Habla Espanol? FINALLY he found me, shrugged, and stamped my passport and shoed me away. Seriously? No explanation whatsoever, but I scrambled to security, no point in pushing it now!
Boarded LAN with yet another security check, confiscate water search and away we went. Again uneventful flight albeit too short to get enough sleep when they feed you dinner at midnight then breakfast at 03:30. Sigh let me sleep please.......
Now that the US security and Canada have an agreement I can use my Nexus card for the G.O.E.S. System so that was a breeze. Got my bag, dropped it off again immediately and went to the far end of the MIA airport for what turned out to be a fruitless lesson, and only stretched my legs and shortened my temper.
Landing early gave
me hopes for an earlier flight connection (as I knew there was one at 07:30 and we had landed at 04:30) but after a runaround by 3 different people who worked for AA I raised the white flag. This meant I was back to my original plan of my long layover, but with the early landing (go figure) I had over 9 hours in the MIA airport, and Michele was leaving in about 4. Ugh I knew this was coming, but what a bummer.......
Good thing we had so much time as Michele and I ran around in circles together trying to find a security gate that we could enter. They literally had 2 security entrances for our gate, and neither of them would let us in. (Sorry Mamme, you have to go to the other one and so on.....) Some days I think airlines and airport personnel only enjoy their jobs if they are perpetually giving someone the run around. Either that or saying sorry I can't help you. Uh-huh. Groan. Maybe 11 flights in 19 days has made me even more jaded about travel then before, if that's possible? All I want is a cookie and a
Easter Island
Love the coast! coca cola light please?
At least I had Michele's company until almost 10, if you can call it that Both of us were exhausted and we were uncharacteristically quiet, except for ransom outbursts of some absurd sighting of "What Not To Wear"...... People watching still is a favorite past time of mine. When Michele boarded her plane, I kept waving madly at her the entire time she was in the line. The ENTIRE time:-) lack of sleep makes me a bit goofy, and we had seen it earlier at customs and it was so corny I couldn't help but repeat it. She misses me already, I'm sure!
Wandered around MIA for a while, eventually hunkered down outside the Admirals Lounge to steal their wi-fi and cleaned up some emails while charging the apple odds n sods. Now, finally on board my flight bound for Chicago, with visions of snoring in my head. Wish me luck!
Today is Day one of no bread eating. I figure the last white bun with butter was around 03:30 so actually 23:30 YYC time so it didn't count. After living on white bread, cheese and wine I'm quite looking forward to my
kitchen sink salads full of green, red, orange and other crunchy goodness. Salads in Argentina and Chile by definition are iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and palm hearts. It is my belief that palm hearts are either a love/hate food and as much as tried, I'm of the latter persuasion. Latin America is truly the land of meat, "yo soy vegetariana" to them means salad with either chicken or fish. I don't envy vegans in this continent, which reminds me that one of our travelers is celiac, and breakfast was a nightmare for her. Thankfully the women loved meat so lunch and dinner were easier.
45 minutes to scheduled departure for my Calgary flight and I'm crashing hard. Still outside no pre boarding called yet..... Out of 11 flights this trip all I ask is that this one, please, be on time? Please? Nope. Got home 1.5 hours later than scheduled. What's a little sleep, right?
How to summarize 19 days? How to describe Patagonia? Majestic, endless and windy! It's a land of stunning scenery, teal blue lakes, massive glaciers and towering spires of rocks that while only a mere 9,000 at their highest still manage to take your breath away.
I came here to hike, to explore the Chilean and Argentinian culture and to absorb the sights. It has not disappointed. This is my 5th time in Latin America and I find myself falling more in love with it every visit. I find Spanish the true language of love, the people genuinely friendly and of course culture and history are unique. Easter Island is full of mystery, beauty and secrets that are just waiting to be discovered. I am blessed to have visited this tiny island in the middle of nowhere with an identy crisis, and I encourage anyone who has given thought to visiting, to make it so.
Whether discovering the architecture of every cities Plaza las Armes, learning the Tango, to endless outdoor paradises or even feeling out the (vegetarian) food, this large continent always keeps you on the edge of your proverbial seat. And the men are definitely lovely to view as well, er people watch I'm referring to:-)
Signing off now, until my next holiday ..... just need to get my boss's permission I know where I want to go already!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.062s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0409s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
