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I can't believe we made it. What a journey. 5 days of travelling, 2 cancelled flights, lost baggage, zero sleep. But we're home, safe, sound and happy.
Our flight from Caracas was cancelled and we spent a long, boring day in the airport waiting for an evening flight that went via Lima to Santiago. At 5am in Santiago we discovered they had lost our backpacks and of course we had left Venezuela in the searing heat wearing shorts to arrive amidst the beautiful snow capped mountains of Santiago, Chile. Nice. Luckily we had our fleeces and our little Vi made travel blankets but not much else.
We crawled into our room and fell asleep fully clothed shivering like mad. That arvo we were pretty bummed about our bags and lack of warm clothing so we consoled ourselves with the biggest "bowl" of steaming hot chocolate and a piece of lemon meringue pie to share. We bought essentials (toothbrush, deodorant, soap), headed back to the hostel and were stoked to find our packs had been delivered. What a difference a hot shower (our first in 5 weeks) and clean clothes make. I do believe there was singing to be heard
in the walls of the hostel.
We were so excited we headed to the Irish pub and drank 2 bottles of Chilean vino tinto to celebrate. Next morning the heads were a thumping as we headed out in the pouring (and I mean pouring) rain to explore the city. It was the only day we had in Santiago due to our cancelled flight and it sucked that we couldn't take photos or appreciate the city properly. From what we did see through our rain soaked dodgy $2 ponchos (the locals kept laughing at us and I don't blame them) the city looked pretty beautiful. Snow capped mountains in the background, trees with tinges of Autumn colours and grand stately buildings.
We shopped in the artesan craft markets buying beautiful scarfs, jewellry and gifts before heading to the aiport to beg for an upgrade due to all the grief they'd given us the day before. No such luck, instead they cancelled our flight home, shuffled 300 of us back through immigration, shoved us out in the freezing cold and onto buses to the Sheraton Hotel. We might have been excited about staying in the Sheraton except that by the
time we all got checked in it was 2:45am, we had "dinner" at 3am and got 3 hours sleep before breakfast and departure! The phrase "Not happy LAN" (as in Lan Chile) kept coming to mind.
12 hours later we arrived in New Zealand, got rerouted, waited in lines for boarding passes and another delayed flight to finally arrive in Melbs at 12:30am Wednesday morning. Solid Ground. Happy (Exhausted) Girls.
So the Big Shaz and Stace South American Sojourn is over (well the first part of it...). It's been a brilliant 3.5 months, we've seen, done, felt and experienced so much. It was absolutely amazing and cool to share it with you guys on my blog so thanks for all the emails and news and for reading all the long winded stories. I realised the other day I've travelled on each of the contintents now, except Antartica, which is apparently very easy to access from Argentina so considering the next trip is meant to be Shaz's South American Sojourn Part 2 (Brazil, Chile & Argentina) you never know. Don't worry though Ibi, it wont be for a while yet. Am very happy to have my feet back on
Australian soil for now and to not have to eat chicken, white rice or fries for a couple of years at least!
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