Antarctic Adventure

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At the risk of boring you to tears, here is a brief syompsis of my travel day. Other than a small snafu at LGA and a minor melt down because a 1) curb sheck in could not find my reservation, 2) Found it but it was too complicated for him to handle and 3) there was a duplicate revervation in my name, I arrived in Miami on time.

To get from AA domestic gates to the International gates, I had to exit the terminal and trudge with the air of people movers to the opposite terminal. It must have been a mile. Then it was a trudge through the concorse to the very last gate. Did I ever mention that my gate is usually the very last gate? It was two hours to flight time so I stopped for a Margharita. Nothing special about it except the price, $17.

Returned to the gate to find the flight delayed, first to nine then to ten and then finally, with an equipment change we took off at 11:20.

The flight was uneventful and flying into Chile over the mountains looked like the SW US. Brown, arid, and not too high. Flying into Santiago reminded me of flying into Las Vages or Phoenix; brown mountains and smog.

Once on the ground in Santiago, line one was to pay $140 for the visa, line two was for immigration and then line three for customs. Felt like a long time but actually is was just 1 1/2 hrs. I was delighted to see my driver from the hotel waiting for me. I wasn't sure with the schedule change he would be here.

The drive from the airport took about a half hour. There was construction to navigate and this is where I saw a glimpse of the Andes. They look like ghost mountains because of the air pollution but the highest peak I saw had snow at the summit. These are the mountains I expected to see.

My hotel room is comfortable with all the amenities I could want. Plan to nap for a bit then shower, change and go exploring the neighborhood. It's now hot and humid so it's good siesta weather.

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