I made it! The flight was long, long, long! Just a smidgeon over 9 hours. Ed, you would not have been happy because the plane was an Airbus 350 and I know you like Boeing better. I think the seats up in Delta One ranked right up there in the top ten most uncomfortable ones. But, the flight was uneventful; as usual I didn’t sleep and instead watched three movies. That was the one really good thing – they had a huge selection from which to choose. The woman in the seat next to me was some kind of consultant from Atlanta. Talk about rough! She was arriving this morning (Wednesday), in meetings all day and then returning home on Friday. I don’t know how these people manage.
Getting through passport control was relatively easy and my driver Adolfo was waiting for me right after I exited. I sat up front and on the 45 minute ride (it was rush hour traffic) we had an interesting conversation about life and conditions in Chile. He spoke in Spanish, of course, which I find I understand quite well, and I spoke in Spanglish. He was a delightful senior citizen. And by the time we got to my hotel, we agreed that we face many of the same problems in our two countries. I think Adolfo will be taking me to the port on Friday and I’m looking forward to the ride.
I’m staying at the same hotel I stayed in both times I was here in the past, the Ritz Carlton. No surprise that the area around has changed. When I was last here across the street was a little park. Now there’s an office building. When I was here with Al we took the Metro around the city and I remember thinking how spotlessly clean everything seemed and how safe it was. Adolfo warned me that the city center is now very dirty and there are gangs of “delinquents” who prey on tourists. That’s really sad if true.
By the time I checked in I was bushed so I spent the afternoon dozing and generally being lazy. I went up to the rooftop terrace hoping to get some photos of the Andes which are not far away. Unfortunately tall buildings block the view in every direction and I’m not going to post any of them. They’re boring; if you’ve seen one cityscape you’ve seen them all. I went to the restaurant here in the hotel and sat with a retired couple who were across the aisle from me on the plane and are going on the first leg of my cruise. I enjoyed talking with them. They’ve traveled a lot, but not on cruises.
Tomorrow I’ve arranged to go to Casablanca which is a big wine area near Santiago. I’m not exactly sure but I think I’ll visit (and have tastings at) a couple of wineries and have lunch at one of them along the way. I should have some nice photos from those places. The countryside here is lovely and since it’s mid-summer there should be lots of flowers around. So for now I’ll say Buenos Noches.
1 comment:
So glad to hear you arrived safe, please take care, we are thinking of you.
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