Let me just start off by saying New Zealand is a beautiful country filled with very nice people. I loved all my stops there but I think either the country never wanted me to leave or it never wants me to come back. I’m gonna go with “never wanting me to leave.” I arrive at the airport a little after 3pm and did not see my flight on the screens in the main check in area. I thought, “hmmm, that’s strange. I must have the wrong information to look for.” I see a Santiago flight but it’s 15 minutes to departure; my flight’s departure was 6:20p. That can’t be mine. I specifically check my itinerary a lot on this trip as there are many flights and hotels I need to be on/at. So I get online (thank you Auckland airport for free WiFi) and see that my flight is SEVERELY delayed. I’m talking next day delay. In fact, it is officially the longest delay I’ve personally experienced: 8 hours and 40 mins (we’re now departing at 3am). And the flight is 11 hours. Latam offers me two options: (A) a taxi voucher so I can go back home and come later to the airport [side note: I don’t live there so where would I go with my stuff?] and (B) 3 x $15 vouchers to use in the airport. I thought, OK, cool, I can probably get like 2 drinks for that and ease the misery of having to spend 12 HOURS at the airport. However, what the desk agent doesn’t tell you is that it doesn’t work on alcohol and it only works at food places – like those ridiculously expensive airport food restaurants (which there didn’t appear to be anything good). The desk agent does have a superb recommendation (that my vouchers don’t work on either) to buy access to the airport lounge Strata. For $85 NZD (roughly $60 USD), I paid for 8 hours access and could eat as much as I wanted and it included alcohol. I thought it was well worth the money to have nice seats to sit in and a continuous supply of food available. You better believe I ate and drank my $85 worth…At some point I go to a cafe to use my voucher and I “buy” 3 bottles of 600mL of water for $15. I still have my other vouchers because who wants to carry 9 bottles of water with them?!
Some funny/weird things happen in the lounge and I debated whether I wanted to include them in here or not, but here they are:
- A little boy (approx. 3 years old) was playing around. He spotted me and made a mad dash towards me like he recognized me. He was starting to put his hands out to me (like, pick me up) before his dad realized he was in my space and rescued me from him. I don’t do well with children. He must have thought I was someone nice and familiar. They say only drunks and kids speak the truth. Hahaha
- Ugh, this is the weird one. There’s an old dude in lounge with a definite English accent. He’s watching rugby on the tv near me and he’s wearing Crocs. I don’t understand the crocs part. He keeps burping because he’s drinking so much vodka or rum (clear liquors) and making weird sighing noises. Except they aren’t sighs, more like grunts. I’m totally grossed out. Then women’s rugby comes on and I have one of those awful moments that I’d sooner forget. He actually mutters the following phrase in a public area: “Eat my p*&sy” as there was a fight or huddle thing happening. A grown man is saying this while women’s rugby is on. This is disgusting but I’m wondering how people like this actually exist. You have to make a conscious effort to verbalize the words that your brain is thinking. Most people just don’t say stuff without thinking (and yes, I realize there are exceptions like Turret’s but there would have been other markers this man suffered from that). He was just an ass hat.
Around 2am, they announce our gate and everyone heads to Gate 8. I feel bad for people like me who had to wait at the airport for 12 hours but the inbound flight was from Sydney and had to wait 5 hours at the airport when it was supposed to be less than 2 hours layover for them. It is an absolute shit show (sorry for all the cussing but it gets my point across and I shouldn’t be sorry for writing how I speak). There are about 20 people in line at the gate who need to get their connecting flight boarding passes because you can’t just go Sydney to South America on LatAm. You always change planes in Santiago. And the machines break. Gate agent announces that those people need to get boarding passes in Santiago. And then the announcement comes that we can start boarding. Except, the barcode scanning machines aren’t working when they board the preferred customers. Economy people are lining up and the gate agent, who’s clearly overwhelmed, yells at everyone to step back and that she has the authority to stop boarding of this flight. Not a good message for people who have been waiting more than 3 hours! Try again lady. Someone even yells back to her that there have been too many delays and it’s ridiculous. All hell is going to break loose as she threatens to call security down to the gate. Come on lady, just let us board and leave already! I eventually make it on and there’s no one in the seat between me and a Russian dude. He kept looking at me funny as I conversed in Spanish with the flight attendants and talked to him in English. Thus begins everyone assuming I speak Spanish based on the way I look.
My this is a long post. I’ll try to speed things up now that I have arrived in Santiago, Chile. That makes country #28 in total and my 18th country visited this year alone. I probably should get a medal or something because it’s been a lot of movement. I’m thankful Santiago has Uber and I arrive at my hotel safely. I’m tired, in need of a shower, and probably smell horribly. I check in and the desk clerk tells me to put my food choices on a card they hang outside your door and what time you’d like breakfast. It’s more like 11pm when he tells me this but I decide since it’s free breakfast, I should take advantage. I wake up this morning and breakfast has not arrived even though I need to head to Plaza Armas for a free walking tour. I go downstairs and they tell me that breakfast isn’t delivered to your room (even though the card doesn’t really tell you that since you need to choose a time). Strike 1 Fancy Hotel. The receptionist offers me coffee and I specifically ask if I can take it away (para llevar) and she says “yes.” Except they can’t find any paper cups so I just leave shaking my head. Strike 2 because now I need to go buy some coffee. My VIP status with Expedia afforded me some amenities like a free welcome drink. Except when I went downstairs to ask for my free glass of wine, she tells me they don’t have wine on hand because of an issue with a supplier. I’m in supply chain, surely I can fix this. Strike 3 because now I’m wanting a glass of wine.
I made it to the walking tour and it was really interesting but long (4 hours). Felipe my tour guide is an actor and does tours on the side. He was super animated and even acted out things, like Allende being shot in the head. I learned a lot about the history and I need to do more research because it’s fascinating stuff. Here are some pictures from around town:
After the tour, I was tired so I came back to my room to nap. I think I got in 2 hours before I woke up and realized I should probably eat something for dinner since lunch was just a bowl of ceviche (pictured below), a glass of wine and a Pisco sour (also pictured below) and there was no breakfast. You should always try the national drinks wherever you go.
I leave my hotel at 8pm and it’s still light outside, the sun is just starting to set. I walk to a popular neighborhood and have to walk through a park that smelled like weed and had all kinds of people selling things. No biggie. I’m glad I look the part of a Latin American. I don’t think I’m a target as much in these cities, however, I still keep my wits about me. I captured the Andes with snow in the background and thought they were so beautiful. Tomorrow I’m hiking up to a point where I should be able to see them during the day but they are certainly majestic even on a busy street in Santiago.
There She Goes... 