What a start of the trip! Our first flight (to Madrid) was delayed by 50 minutes which made our catching the connecting flight seem impossible as we only had 1 hour and 9 minutes stopover time.
Hoping for the best (and a delay of the second flight) we sprinted across the deserted Madrid airport, had to take a short connecting train to another terminal, then another sprint and we finally reached the gate and boarded the plane as last and very sweaty passengers.
This plane was also around 20 minutes late but somehow managed to arrive 40 minutes early. In between when we crossed the Atlantic Ocean, we had an extended very bumpy period, which appeared to be one big turbulence.
We managed to sleep nonetheless.
We hadn’t even set foot on Chilean soil properly but we managed to get in conflict with the Chilean law right away. All went fine until we tried to pass customs and they picked us out as the scanners revealed our assortment of nut mixes. The official was not amused at all as one of the bags contained raw nuts that were neither roasted nor salted.
She did roast us for quite a while (90 minutes), though, because unfortunately I had sworn in writing that we would not do exactly that, importing untreated produce.
With intense use of Google Translate – you can apologize and joke via Google Translate, as it turned out – I weaseled my way out and was let go without a fine (up to 300€ would have been possible), but with a citation. Now I am a documented “nut smuggler”. I cannot guarantee that I will not become a repeat offender. 😄
We checked into the Hotel Altiplanico Bellas Artes, let everything sink in and then went out for Ramen soup.
Afterwards we climbed a small hill in a city park, Cerro Santa Lucia, and despite the lack of any optical equipment (except an iPhone) I scored four lifers and we had a nice view of Santiago.
Extended nap for me, then out for an excellent pizza dinner and another walk through a nearby park.
More daily schedule management and the importance of a good siesta later. A quick reminder, we left sub-zero temperatures in Berlin and now have to endure 32°C with more heat to come. Another welcome change, the sun sets at 20:55.
Leave a Reply