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Published: March 16th 2015
We flew from Mendoza, Argentina to Puerto Montt by way of Santiago, Chile. We were booked on Lan Airlines with a one and a half hour layover in Santiago. Since we were entering Chile we had to go through customs when we landed and were told we had to pick up our luggage and carry it through security. The line at customs was over an hour long. When we finally go through we looked for our luggage. Everyone else on the planes luggage was there but not ours. We asked about our luggage, we were told to look in several different spots but no luggage. Then we had to go through a security line to get out of the luggge customs area, the line was 40 minutes long. By the time we got though the exit security we missed our connecting flight. We went to the Lan Airlines line, waited in another line to get booked on the next flight to Puerto Montt. We asked about our luggage, they spent time looking at the computer, calling people on the telephone and talking with each other finally telling us to said ask about our luggage when we get to Puerto Montt. I
flashed back to when my son was told the same thing when he lost his luggage in Africa. His luggage was never seen again. We had a bad lunch at the airport and then had to go through another security line to enter the boarding area. Finally we boared our plane to Puerto Montt.
We arrived in Puerto Montt and were happily surprised to find our luggage. We picked up our rental car and drove to Puerto Montt. Since we are on a long trip I try to book inexpensive hotels. Mark was not happy when this hotel looked like it was on skid row. Homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk and unsavory people hanging about. The hotel had no parking but one of the hotel employees got in the car with Mark and showed him where to find an underground garage that took credit cards. Since we just arrived in a new country we did not have any Chilean pesos. The hotel room was warm so we left the window open and we heard whistling over and over. Mark askEd at the front desk what is with the whistling, she said it is how the men find their friends. Since this is a bad neighborhood all sorts of bad images enter our minds as to what these men are going to do when they hook up. In the morning the hotel breakfast is good and the hotel guests are families or backpakers. When we look out the window we see vendors sweeping the sidewalk and putting out their wares to sell. The street is bustling with people heading to work. Is this the same street as last night we wonder, it looks more inviting or less scary then it did the night before.
Sine we are now in Chile the sim card we used in our phone in Argentina is no longer working. Puerto Montt is a good size city to find a new sim card. Where to find one is the question. We start our hunt at the Moviestar store. Moviestar is the phone company we used in Argentina. The empoyee at Moviestrar tells us where we can buy the sim card And he draws us a map.mWe follow his map to an electronic store and buy a sim card. The phone still does not work so back to Moviestarr we go. This time we are given directiions to another store. We get there and it looks like Sears. We find the phone section and a young man helps us with the phone and he says it will work in 10 minutes. We also find a ATM machine, we tried to get cash last night but the machines kept giving us an error message. Marks ATM card has stopped working we will miss it. We are down to one ATM card and we hope it lasts, we manage to get cash and we are feeling ready to face Chile. We have lunch at a restaurant by the water (hamburgers are huge here) and we are on our way to Chiloe. O yes the phone is still not working.
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Stan Skiba
non-member comment
Adventures in traveling
Looks like you are sure encountering your share of challenges. Laying on the beach with a tropical drink will not give you the kind of cocktail conversations you have encountered. Wishing you the best on the rest of your stay in Chile, looks like a beautiful country. I guess there are cultural differences between countries ,more than you run into in Europe. Stay safe.