To Santiago! Without Miss Santiago :-(
Sunday, September 3rd - for once we didn't have to get up early .. but we still got up out of habit around 6:30. Power was out at the hotel. Packed our things, had breakfast, Cristina made more sandwiches -- for our lunch and to eat on the plane, amd she's so kind hearted, she made a sandwich for our driver too.
Just around 8:50 our driver arrived amd we checked out of our hotel. As we were at an intersection still in Santa Marta he handed change to a woman who appeared to be barely even trying to beg. During the drive he enthusiastically hailed a police officer at a checkpoint whom i gathered was the son of a friend. Said young officer semi jokingly demanded who i was amd our driver said "family," which is funny because we could hardly look more unrelated. I think part of the underlying foundation of this interchange may be that he's not actually a registered taxi driver (his car isn't yellow amd doesn't have the big registration number emblazoned on its side that official taxis do). Later, closer to cartagena he also greeted a fellow driver he knew whom he recognized on the road with some honking as he pulled beside him.
We arrived without incident at the cartagena airport around 12:30, with 7 hours till our flight. Ordered coffee at the Colombian chain Juan Valdez just so we could sit there. Well i ordered coffee (Colombian coffee meets my approval) amd Cristina ordered a malteado which was some kind of iced non-caffeinated beverage that probably has a Starbucks equivalent but I'm not that familiar with such mysteries.
Finally at four we figured we could check into our flight being as it was now three hours away.
There was some confusion as to whether we'd be able to sit together since the flights had been booked separately. Then i thought the airline employee said that was no problem. Then she asked if we'd like to go on an earlier flight. "Both of us? Sure" says i, amd she puts us both on a flight leaving half an hour earlier. But Cristina was several seats back, i in 2K amd she got 5c or some such. It seemed kind the employee had just gone through so much trouble to put us on an earlier flight that i didn't want to be a nuisance amd insist she keep messing with the system in hopes of seating us together. It also all made me wonder if if we HAD tried to check in much earlier maybe we could have gotten on a much earlier flight.
Anyway through security to the gates we went. When we boarded the flight i realized why she couldn't seat us together: my seat was in "economy plus" or some such, with lots of leg room amd only four seats across the plane instead of six, basically the middle seats had been transformed to tables, amd Cristina was back in the first row of normal economy. I remembered now having seen that the upgrade was like only $5 or something amd having taken it. I'd have preferred to sit next to Cristina than have all this extra room though.
Flight took off at 18:30. Cartagena looked beautiful through the clouds, amd during the flight there was a lot of lightning below us. In all my travels i don't think I've actually flown over such a thunderstorm before.
Landed at 20:04, proceeded together to the baggage claim. There we waited for Cristina's bag amd hoped not to see mine, which fortunately we didn't. It'll hopefully be waiting for me in Santiago.
Proceeded to the security for the international departures. Amd here at 20:38 I had to say goodbye to Cristina. I don't think i can remember ever being so sad to part from someone. Hopefully I'll see her again in just a matter of weeks, after having the visa approved!
Arrived at my flights gate just in time to walk right into boarding. This flight I'm in seat 1K, the upgrade being like $30. This time no regrets!
As we took off a weird thing happened. We started accelerating down the runway amd then almost immediately after a second or two the captain appeared to put the breaks on amd we rapidly decelerated. We then taxied around a bit amd i was wondering if we'd ever know what just happened when the captain came on the intercom amd it sounded like he said there was a landing plane in our flight path or something alarming like that. Then we took off successfully.
Currently in flight. I'm not sure there's any meals on this flight which will be a first for me on an international flight!
Okay yes there were no meals, and they didn't even provide the customary airplane blankets amd I'd just boarded in shorts so i was very cold. Fortunately i had my jacket but that of course only covered half of me. So it was a very uncomfortable flight.
Arrived in the dark of night at 5:30. The Santiago airport is big amd modern. Americans don't need a visa for chile but at passport control they give you a receipt-like "tourist card" that the internet says I'll be in trouble if i lose, I'll need to show it when i leave.
There being no ATM in the airport amd knowing I'd have to pay a taxi i had to exchange dollars at the airport money exchange. I hate them because they generally give a worse rate than an ATM. What's the point of having a staffed business that provides a markedly worse service than a ubiquitous machine?
The official exchange rate is 854.70 Chilean pesos to the dollar. I exchanged $60 for 37,000 pesos (1 : 616.67).
Next Google maps told me if i took the didi rideshare to my hotel it should be "14,000-16,000 pesos" but since they had a very official looking "official taxis" coordinator right out the door i let them put me directly into an official taxi, who sped like a demon for half an hour across town and charged me 28,000 ... well there goes most of the money i exchanged already. 😒
It was still only 7am at this point amd still dark. Hotel receptionist was nice. He said of course check in isn't till 15:00 but i could pay $50 for early check-in which i did. I asked if I'd get breakfast with that amd he shrugged amd said sure. So i went up to my room, changed into warmer clothes (it's chilly in chile), came down amd ate (pretty good food), amd then i slept till around 11:30. This is my only free day though before opening ceremonies at four so I'd like to see if i can see the city before
Just around 8:50 our driver arrived amd we checked out of our hotel. As we were at an intersection still in Santa Marta he handed change to a woman who appeared to be barely even trying to beg. During the drive he enthusiastically hailed a police officer at a checkpoint whom i gathered was the son of a friend. Said young officer semi jokingly demanded who i was amd our driver said "family," which is funny because we could hardly look more unrelated. I think part of the underlying foundation of this interchange may be that he's not actually a registered taxi driver (his car isn't yellow amd doesn't have the big registration number emblazoned on its side that official taxis do). Later, closer to cartagena he also greeted a fellow driver he knew whom he recognized on the road with some honking as he pulled beside him.
We arrived without incident at the cartagena airport around 12:30, with 7 hours till our flight. Ordered coffee at the Colombian chain Juan Valdez just so we could sit there. Well i ordered coffee (Colombian coffee meets my approval) amd Cristina ordered a malteado which was some kind of iced non-caffeinated beverage that probably has a Starbucks equivalent but I'm not that familiar with such mysteries.
Finally at four we figured we could check into our flight being as it was now three hours away.
There was some confusion as to whether we'd be able to sit together since the flights had been booked separately. Then i thought the airline employee said that was no problem. Then she asked if we'd like to go on an earlier flight. "Both of us? Sure" says i, amd she puts us both on a flight leaving half an hour earlier. But Cristina was several seats back, i in 2K amd she got 5c or some such. It seemed kind the employee had just gone through so much trouble to put us on an earlier flight that i didn't want to be a nuisance amd insist she keep messing with the system in hopes of seating us together. It also all made me wonder if if we HAD tried to check in much earlier maybe we could have gotten on a much earlier flight.
Anyway through security to the gates we went. When we boarded the flight i realized why she couldn't seat us together: my seat was in "economy plus" or some such, with lots of leg room amd only four seats across the plane instead of six, basically the middle seats had been transformed to tables, amd Cristina was back in the first row of normal economy. I remembered now having seen that the upgrade was like only $5 or something amd having taken it. I'd have preferred to sit next to Cristina than have all this extra room though.
Flight took off at 18:30. Cartagena looked beautiful through the clouds, amd during the flight there was a lot of lightning below us. In all my travels i don't think I've actually flown over such a thunderstorm before.
Landed at 20:04, proceeded together to the baggage claim. There we waited for Cristina's bag amd hoped not to see mine, which fortunately we didn't. It'll hopefully be waiting for me in Santiago.
Proceeded to the security for the international departures. Amd here at 20:38 I had to say goodbye to Cristina. I don't think i can remember ever being so sad to part from someone. Hopefully I'll see her again in just a matter of weeks, after having the visa approved!
Arrived at my flights gate just in time to walk right into boarding. This flight I'm in seat 1K, the upgrade being like $30. This time no regrets!
As we took off a weird thing happened. We started accelerating down the runway amd then almost immediately after a second or two the captain appeared to put the breaks on amd we rapidly decelerated. We then taxied around a bit amd i was wondering if we'd ever know what just happened when the captain came on the intercom amd it sounded like he said there was a landing plane in our flight path or something alarming like that. Then we took off successfully.
Currently in flight. I'm not sure there's any meals on this flight which will be a first for me on an international flight!
Okay yes there were no meals, and they didn't even provide the customary airplane blankets amd I'd just boarded in shorts so i was very cold. Fortunately i had my jacket but that of course only covered half of me. So it was a very uncomfortable flight.
Arrived in the dark of night at 5:30. The Santiago airport is big amd modern. Americans don't need a visa for chile but at passport control they give you a receipt-like "tourist card" that the internet says I'll be in trouble if i lose, I'll need to show it when i leave.
There being no ATM in the airport amd knowing I'd have to pay a taxi i had to exchange dollars at the airport money exchange. I hate them because they generally give a worse rate than an ATM. What's the point of having a staffed business that provides a markedly worse service than a ubiquitous machine?
The official exchange rate is 854.70 Chilean pesos to the dollar. I exchanged $60 for 37,000 pesos (1 : 616.67).
Next Google maps told me if i took the didi rideshare to my hotel it should be "14,000-16,000 pesos" but since they had a very official looking "official taxis" coordinator right out the door i let them put me directly into an official taxi, who sped like a demon for half an hour across town and charged me 28,000 ... well there goes most of the money i exchanged already. 😒
It was still only 7am at this point amd still dark. Hotel receptionist was nice. He said of course check in isn't till 15:00 but i could pay $50 for early check-in which i did. I asked if I'd get breakfast with that amd he shrugged amd said sure. So i went up to my room, changed into warmer clothes (it's chilly in chile), came down amd ate (pretty good food), amd then i slept till around 11:30. This is my only free day though before opening ceremonies at four so I'd like to see if i can see the city before