At 5 o'clock, I pick up my book and until 7 o'clock, I alternate between reading for about half an hour and sleeping for half an hour. Then, I play Mahjong and watch "Dead for a Dollar". Slowly, it starts to get light, and about 1.5 hours before landing, we are served breakfast. Scrambled eggs with creamed spinach and a turkey sausage, yogurt with muesli, and a bread roll with jam. The service is excellent here, and the flight attendants are very friendly.
We start slowly packing our belongings so that we can easily disembark later. Then we have another flight of almost 1.5 hours to Santiago.
After a 13-hour flight, we are allowed to disembark once we've landed with a hefty bump. Immediately after the jet bridge, a girl holding a sign that reads "Passengers Santiago de Chile" with our names on it awaits us. She escorts us to the gate. We pass through customs: there's just one lady in a booth, checking passports, taking photos, and fingerprints of only the right thumb. Diagonally opposite is the security checkpoint, a small belt with two employees. Everything can remain in our bags and trolleys. I have to take off my hiking boots, and then we continue. Fortunately, we didn't bring any more scissors or knives with us 😂. We walk to Gate 3. We still need to check in there, which is quickly done. We are almost ready to board and wait just a little longer. Then, our names are called over the intercom. What now? It turns out our luggage cannot be taken on board. They have labels from Air Canada/Lufthansa, which KLM cannot accept. They will be flown to Santiago later today with LATAM or Lufthansa, and we'll receive them there. Santiago has already been informed. Or so they say. We still need to report there to provide the hotel address, of course. It truly is an eventful journey. Jan is initially angry but later sees the advantage. We take the bus from the airport to the hotel, which is much easier with only hand luggage, of course.
Then, we finally board. We have seats 33G and H, each on one side of the aisle of the B 787-9. The flight is 1.5 hours long. In Chile, it's also 4 hours earlier than in the Netherlands. I hope we get a sip of water soon because I'm dying of thirst. We even get a sandwich and some drinks. Watching a movie isn't very feasible because our pilot is quite chatty, constantly making announcements, interrupting the movie. As we approach Santiago, we fly over the Andes. The weather is nice, with some clouds, but still a beautiful sight, despite not sitting by the window.
After landing, we start searching for our luggage. Where should we report? The message in Buenos Aires wasn't very clear. We heard something about LATAM, so we head to their service desk. The girl there speaks only a little English, but the translation app on our phone comes in handy. Eventually, a colleague who speaks English joins us, and she helps Ana call KLM. Jan takes the phone from her, and it becomes clear that the luggage is flying to Santiago with LATAM and will then be transferred to KLM, who will bring them to the hotel tomorrow. Okay. The next mission is to get some pesos. Back in the hall, there's an ATM, and the third card it swallows. Withdrawing 200,000 pesos (about €240, plus exchange fees), we head to the Turbus. It stops right outside the terminal and arrives quickly. Two tickets cost 3600 pesos for both of us, so about €7. The trolleys go underneath the bus, and we receive a receipt for them. It's almost a 45-minute ride to Alameida station.
From there, it's just a 5-minute walk to the Best Western Hotel Estacion Central. It's a journey through the less affluent neighborhoods of Santiago, we might say. Even our hotel, which is quite nice, is located on a busy street with quite a few homeless people, tents, and other makeshift structures. We also pass by a covered market with outdoor stalls on blankets, reminiscent of a flea market.
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| photo internet |
We get room 903 and first freshen up. That makes you feel human again. After that, we do the self-test for COVID-19 that we need to upload for HAL. Luckily, we both test negative and we did it honestly. Then we fill out the declaration form. It consists of one question: Have you coughed in the past week? I send some photos back home, and once the formalities are done, we go outside for a bit. A bit further back is the Lider, which is basically the Walmart here. It's gotten quite warm: 28 degrees Celsius. We buy some drinks, a bag of chips, bananas for tomorrow morning, and a brush because mine is, of course, in the suitcase. On the way back, we pass by all the shabby shops and think about what to eat tonight. It will probably be McDonald's or something like that. Back in the room, we have a beer and some chips, and Jan falls asleep while I write the report. I'm pretty tired, but I'm not sleepy. There's nothing on TV either. Lots of channels, but everything is Spanish dubbed and also subtitled in Spanish. So, it's football 😒.
I try to read, but I keep getting distracted. It's reminiscent of our very first day in America when we were in Oakland. Just as many sirens and also a run-down neighborhood. But in the end, everything turned out fine, so it'll probably be the same now.
We ended up at McDonald's. There aren't any nice restaurants here. There are stalls on the street with meat skewers that smell really good but look quite dry, plus we're hesitant regarding hygiene. The first McDonald's didn't have Coke, so Jan gave up. The second one didn't have orange soda, so I settled for Sprite. Choosing a menu wasn't easy, but we got something and it tasted good. The temperature has dropped significantly by now. Just wearing a t-shirt isn't comfortable anymore.
Even though it's only half past eight, we're getting ready for bed. I read a bit, and Jan watches football. Well, he sees the movements. It's been two busy days. Now we can only think of one thing: hopefully, we'll get our suitcases back tomorrow. After about half an hour, we give up and fall asleep like a log.