Smog, lost luggage, and reaaaallly expensive bananas

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Landed in Santiago amidst smog so insanely thick I thought we were in the clouds. Lucky that Phil pointed out otherwise of I would have had the shock of my life when we hit the ground!

It was with a tierd delirium that we passed though immigration contorl and got a pretty cool stamp in our Passports, and the ever important tourist card that cost me and Jen a trip to the embassy in Mexico city! It may have been this exhausted haze that rendered us completely unfazed when we discovered that our bags hadn´t made it the 10,000 mile journey with us, but were as feared on a haitus in Madrid. Having been told that our luggage would be delivered to us at our hostel the next day we did as you always should in these situations and "looked on the brightside" - at least we wouldn´t have to lug them through Santiago on the Metro!

However our optimism and positive outlook was to be severely tested as we rounded the corner from baggage claim......


These days we've all gotten used to the exessive security procedures we have to go through at airports. So when we made to leave and were asked to put our bags through an x-ray machine we thought it a little unusual, but hey, i guess they have to make sure we aren't carrying any bombs, knives (or oversize toilleteries of course!). And this being South America and all, the teams of uber cute labradors salivating over the luggae carousel seemed like comon sense.

So as the stern faced official in his neatly pressed uniform flitted suspicious eyes between the two unkempt 6 foot grinigos and the screen in fornt of him, I cast my mind back to what dubious items might be in my hand luggage that could be causing the problem. A stray pair of tweezers perhaps_ Maybe a concealed tin of vaseline from a previous trip (both previous culprits for me at security. Or possibly my immense collection of over the counter tablets to cover every conceivable illness & ailment were raising suspicion. But no, obviously we were forgetting the most haenous cross border smugglling act of them all.

"You have banana?".

I did indeed have a banana in my rucksack, a health conciously chosen snack for the flight that unfortunately got cast aside in favour of Pringles, Malteaser Bunnies and complimentary British Airways sandwhiches.

This banana, apparently, was imported illegaly by me, and could pose serious threat to Chilean agriculture.

This banana was to lead to a half hour interegation with a member of the Chilean Agriculture Police (oh yes, I kid you not).

This banana was to lead to a fine of 130 quid!!!!



So needless to say this wasn´t the best start to the trip. But fear not! It all gets better from here. A cold beer at the airport to try and drown my sorrows and we left on the bus for Santiago with nothing but the clothes on our backs, determined not dwell on it. You have to laugh really, any body who knows Phil and I know that we tend to have quite a bit of bad luck on our trips so we are just looking at this as getting it all out of the way first in lieu of any more burst organs and hospital stays!

Many more great things to tell but unfortunately I just don't have the time. So will have to leave it there for now. Except to say that the Chilean people are fantastic and my Spanish is slowly progressing past "dos cerveza mas, por favor".

Bye bye for now xxxx

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Photos

The fine
My name is now forever to be found on teh CAP criminals database.