The long flights down to Santiago were pretty uneventful with one exception. When our plane left Dallas/Fort Worth it lost a generator & then had to dump fuel & circle back to the airport to land. When we did land back in Dallas we were greeted on the tarmac by a fantastic flashing light show from the local fire & emergency departments. Dallas is such a welcoming place! We were then put onto another plane around 12:30am which was about 3 hours later than expected. Inconvenient? Yes. Big deal? No – everyone was ok in the end. However, it was amazing how many other passengers were upset & filing complaints. Our favorite complaint? There was one older couple who kept asking if they were going to be changing the catering to a breakfast because it was too late for dinner. Seriously!
Santiago Update
- Temps have been the mid-high 80’s yet it is cold here for the locals & they are wearing their woolies. That makes us stand out as tourists even more.
- This is towards the end of Semana Santa (Holy Week) so many of the locals have been on holiday and/or have been involved in the various celebrations throughout the past week.
- Yes, we’ve seen a fair enough amount of earthquake damage here. Parts of the airport looked like a bomb had gone off inside & out & some of the poorer neighborhoods (where the buildings were not up to code) had been totally flattened (very sad). Most of our hotel survived. Overall though, we’ve been amazed at how much of the city is still operational. We’ll head back there at the end of this next week.
- Due to the earthquake Chile delayed ending their daylight savings time until today (Easter Sunday). Their seasonal schedule is opposite from ours. Fall recently began here. Of course, because of this time change & the regular time zone change, we’ve given up trying to figure out what time it is here!
- Next, we leave Santiago for 5 nights & head for the Cusco & Machu Picchu areas of Peru. Think there’s another time change involved. High altitude sickness opportunity, here we come!
