Okay, here is my first blog for 2018 and also the first blog for South America. It is January 2nd, 2018 ... I left a temperature of -50 degrees Celsius in Lethbridge to a 11 degrees Celsius in Punta Arenas.
I left Calgary at 6:30am in the morning, but had to be there at 3:30am in the morning after partying with Bonnie and Audrey. Had a great evening but pretty tired by 6:30 a.m. I caught the plane from Calgary to Dallas Texas which was about three and a half hours long. Had to wait over in Dallas for 9 hours because the Calgary flight got in a little earlier than usual. I booked a long gap between these flights in case there was a storm in Calgary and it would give me a chance to still catch my connecting flight.
Left Dallas and flew to Santiago which was approximately 12 and a half hours ... certainly a long flight. I had to wait approximately 6 hours in Santiago.
Usually where I am just flying and waiting in airports I wouldn't do a Blog but at the Santiago airport it was a different experience .. I was there early as previously mentioned and a group of people lined up for the plane they were about to board. They had this cute little girl who was approximately 3 or 4 years old. I watched her walk by herself earlier ... just walking around and I thought what a cute little girl. Where most of the people were lined up to get on their flight there were no people sitting around me or across from me, but at other spots nearby there were people sitting [about 10 to 15 people]. I was watching the little girl standing by her family and she had her head slightly down and walked in my direction. To my surprise without even looking at me she sat down next to me. I said, "Ola" and she looked up at me and responded in kind with a smile on her face. She stayed to show me her Barbie doll and I would say pretty. I'm hearing the parents calling her to come over but she's ignoring them. She then shows me her bracelet that almost fell onto the floor but she picked it up and held it with her Barbie. She set the Barbie and her bracelet on her lap and had a bag of treats that she opened up and held it up for me to take some. I was taken aback by the kindness of this little girl who was definitely not shy and made an effort to come over to talk to me and show me her prized possessions. I think her parents were surprised and were calling her to come over and I said you better go and she got off the seat and walked to her parents and they boarded the plane. I thought what an incredible experience with a child on my first day in South America ... she certainly warmed my heart.
Got the flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas which was approximately three and a half hours long. There was a slight delay in the plane coming in which put us a half an hour behind.
Arrived in Santiago and after picking up the luggage went outside and there was a bus that will drop you off at your location. The bus costs 5000 Chilean pesos but certainly worth it here. It wasn't very long before I arrived at my new accommodations for the next 3 nights.
After being dropped off the house I rang the buzzer and was greeted by the son of the host family. Nicholas showed me around and offered me a drink of tea, coffee or water. I was so glad to have a glass of water. After talking I learned that Nicholas was in his last year of studies in psychology at the University in Santiago. He was a nice gentleman and certainly made me feel welcome. My head was spinning at this point and being after 9 p.m. I mentioned to Nicholas that I needed some sleep.
I got to sleep at about 10:00pm local time and didn't wake up until 10:45am local time ... OVER 12 HOURS I SLEPT. With all the flying and airports I didn't eat much, and had to get out to get something to eat today. It was raining all morning. I checked the weather report and it was clearing for the afternoon. I did not use my phone or computer last night or this morning as the plug in was different than what I expected. I was hoping there was an electronics store that would have an adapter.
I walked around Punta Arenas for approximatelyi 5 hours and found an electronic store that sold adapters for $8.00 [4,000 Chilean Pesos]. I continued walking around and visited the central square with a very nice monument. A young lady was performing ballet with modern american music ... it was very nice.
About 2:00pm, I found a nice restaurant called La Luna. Not clear about how many Chilean Peso's was equivalent to the Cdn. dollar, I was trying to be cautious, but I was super hungry. I ordered what I thought was roast beef ... it was tenderloin and very tasty. It came with a huge pile of mashed potatoes with onions in them. I had to have my first beer in Chile - Patagonia.
When I got back to my room, I checked out what I paid ... it was over $40.00!!!! Lesson learned. LOL