Back in Santiago, Chile

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Today was another day lost in transit. Gina is sick of us being seated at the back of the plane (we have consistently been in row 28 of a 29 row aircraft!) because we take so long to get off the plane and join the rest of the group at the baggage carousel so she negotiated for us to be moved closer to the front of the plane (row 8) on our Lima to Santiago leg. Funnily enough we already had seats in row 5 for the Cuzco to Lima leg.

Would you believe it?! There were more Kuna outlets at the airport and one of them had the exact same scarf that I first saw. It was in gorgeous mauves and aquas and featured a stylised llama pattern. Most surprising of all was that the scarves cost the same at the airport as they did in town. I'm sure all the airport shops at home inflate their prices. Ah well, I'm happy with the scarf that I bought in town. I have to be, I couldn't really justify two baby alpaca/silk scarves, but I was tempted!!

As we flew up over the Andes out of Cuzco I managed to take a few photos of the snow capped mountains over the shoulder of the passenger in the window seat with Bernie's phone. The view was quite spectacular until we climbed through the clouds and left the mountains behind. After a very quick snack service we were descending into Lima. With our bags checked through to Santiago we only had our hand luggage to worry about at Lima airport.

Gina had encouraged us to eat at the airport because the food would be better than the snack that would be served on the way to Santiago. So we shared a very average cheese and salami roll that had been made three days earlier. Admittedly Gina did say that her sandwich of choice was one from Subway. I guess they do make theirs fresh to order which is better than a packaged one.

Our gate number was announced so we made our way to the gate lounge expecting to be a bit late departing as the passengers on the incoming flight were still disembarking. When we boarded it was to find someone already sitting in 8C. Oh dear, perhaps our seat reallocation has been mucked up? No, when the gentleman showed me his boarding pass I politely pointed out that it was a boarding pass for an earlier flight into Lima not for the current flight out of Lima to Santiago. He moved off to find his correct seat and we plonked our butts in row 8 which was a nice change from the seats down the back next to the toilet!!

We took off, ascended, levelled out for a short while and then we commenced our decent into Santiago. With our pointy end seat allocation, Gina was the only member of our group off before us. With our reciprocity fee already payed on our first entry into Chile Gina directed us straight to Immigration and said she would meet and direct the other members of the group as they came through and see us at the baggage carousel.

As we were first to the carousel it was our job to start hauling the bags with Bunnick straps off. Maybe this was Gina's motivation for getting the younger group members seated more towards the front of the plane? By the time the rest of the party arrived we had all the bags except mine and John's. How does that happen? The bags go into the system one behind the other, but they come out of the system separated by hundreds of bags and quite a bit of time. So much for moving us closer to the front of the plane when the baggage handlers conspired to hold us up anyway! Finally, the last two bags arrived and we headed out of the terminal to meet Terry (Thierry?) at the bus.

A short drive into the city found us back at the Atton Hotel in downtown Santiago for our last night on land before boarding the cruise component of our trip tomorrow afternoon. The three of us went back to the Irish Pub for dinner. Bernie and Meredith ordered their beers. I had perused the cocktail menu and noted that they offered a cocktail made with Kailea (Kahlúa surely?) so I requested a Kahlúa and Coke. The waitress, with very limited English, told me I could only order a drink that contained a spirit listed in their cocktail list. So I pointed out the Kailea entry on the list. She went away to consult with the bar man and returned with the news that there was no Kailea currently in the bar! Tcht, alright I'll have a glass of red wine then!

Bernie's fajitas looked really good when he ordered them two weeks ago so we ordered fajitas to share. Yum.



Steps 7,063 (5.30km)

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