Thursday, November 8, 2007 in Santiago, Chile
We made it to Santiago, our luggage made it too and all is well!
The plane flew over Cuba around 8:30 central time last night…you could see the small town lights from the sky. Very cool. A little while later, we flew over Panama at the skinniest part. Couldn’t see much below, so not sure if we were over the Canal. And then another little while later, I woke Bryan up when I thought we were nearing/over the equator. No one rings a bell or anything exciting…though I do think the ride got a little bumpier.
The plane landed at 6:45 a.m. here…3:45 a.m. Central time. About 8 hours in the air. We were stiff and tired, yet amused by the folks going on this journey with us. I’m sure we’ll get to all that later. Stay tuned…we meet them all officially tonight at the “welcome dinner”! Oh, yes. We had “dignitaries” on the plane with us last night. Escorted onto the plane by Miami police and TSA. And guess what…many of them are also staying at this hotel for the Latin America Presidents gathering. The hotel is a bit posh…we’ve got an amazing view of the San Cristobal foothills and Andes mountains (snow-capped). The room is sweet too…amazing king-sized bed with organic white sheets, down comforter and Andean tapestry throw. Bryan’s loving the robe and slippers too. We even have a little sitting room to gaze out onto those mountains.
So, today–we’re groggy from sitting up all night in cramped quarters–we thought the best way to handle it was another day in the sun. We put on our swimsuits and hit the pool shortly after checking in. Sunny, breezy, high 70s. It’s Spring here in Santiago. We napped poolside. Had some lunch. Bryan jumped in to the pool, describing it as “like jumping into a glass of ice water”. Soon we discovered our skin was baking despite 30 sunblock. Yikes. Came in to nap and clean up before a quick city tour at 3 p.m.
Drove into town on a tour bus for 26. Not exactly our way of traveling. We saw several places we’d like to have jumped out to experience. But it is a nice way to get quickly familiar with areas without walking your legs off. In a couple of weeks when we’re back, we’ll hit the places we most liked for a few hours.
And that’s about it for the moment. Got to get dressed for dinner.
Off to Ushuaia in the morning, boarding the boat tomorrow at 5:30 p.m…not sure which time zone though!
Carol and Bryan
