Thursday 11.9.14 – Santiago. Santiago to Quito

Awoke at 6.00ish local time, having had a pretty solid 10 hours, wasn’t able to fall back to sleep. We started moving about 8ish and went downstairs for breakfast before packing up and checking out.

The plan was to walk a bit of the city and have a look around.

Today is a Celebration day in Chile – to mark the end of the Pinochet era.

We headed off towards the Palacio di Gobierno – the Presidential Palace, checking out the shops, street vendors and people of the way. 

This great big door, had a panel
that opened, and the guard just
popped out.

When we arrived at the Palace it was obvious that something was going on. There was a ceremony at the Royal Palace with Soldiers, an Army band and mounted army folk as well. There was some music and some important folk marching out from the Palace, then some marching around the square. One of the ‘street dogs’ was in amongst the whole thing, barking at the horses and generally trotting around the square, like he was part of the ceremony. We are assuming this ceremony was part of the day’s celebrations, but not sure.

Changing of the Guard in Santiago (we realised
this on our return to Santiago)

Very long shiny boots and even a
female soldier, maybe the two if
front of her were too, as they were
definitely the short line.

The horses were barked at, but never flinched.
Two of these guys, then came back to guard the
palace for the day. I saw two last time too I now
recall.

There he goes, trotting around to the music.

Maybe he is standing to attention.

This is one of the important
people who marched out of the
Palace. It was good to see another
woman.

Then they marched off, the band and half the
soldiers marched down the street, the other half
marched into the palace.

We also came across a statue of Salvador Allende Gossens, a past president, with wreaths in front. (statue and wreath photos here) The eleventh was the date of his death. We were later to learn that he actually committed suicide. 

Commemorating Allende's death.
Also the day his reign fell and
Pincochet took over as dictator.

Given my newly learnt Spanish skills, I translated
this one to mean Convergence of the Rights.

We did some people and dog watching as we waited to see if the free walking tours mentioned in the Lonely Planet were happening – no go it seems. We wandered a bit further seeking some of the sights we had on the map. 

Possibly an example of the bunting etc up for the
day of celebration.

Visited a bookshop in search of a better map and asked after the “Oficina de Turismo” we were close, so popped in and got a couple of better maps and some information on walking tours – for when we return at the end of the trip. The bookshop was great, they display the books in an awesome way 

Then we checked out the Museo de Naturale history – Museum of Natural History, which gave a pretty good overview of Chile’s history through the ages.

Food here in Santiago is hard to find – we so far haven’t fared too well, today we grabbed a quick bite on way back to hotel – Pollo Asada w arroz & ensalada w piebre – basically chicken with rice and lettuce with a salsa. It filled a hole, but was nothing to write home about.

After a bit of a wait at the hotel, our ride arrived (after a phone call to establish where he was) and of the Aeropuerto again. After our look around today, we have a few things sussed out in Santiago for our return.

The airport was hectic – lots of queues. A little problem at check in – we were told there were no seats, after she had consulted someone else seats were found and we moved onto the next queue. Finally we found a bit of time for a Starbucks coffee and wi-fi and a start to the blog, which didn’t happen before it was time to head to the gate to board, only to be told there is a problem. The plane is delayed. With our flight du to leave at 5.25pm, we are told the next update will be at 6.15. I thought they said something about maintenance on the plane, but couldn’t be sure. At 6.15 we might learn when the plane would be ready.

I shot off a quick email to our accommodation, as we were to be pretty late arriving, now even later, but no idea how late.

I had unfortunately piffed the Starbucks password so I needed to move onto Ruby Tuesday for a Coke and some nachos and their wi-fi – did succeed in uploading some blog.

Finally we are told that we will board at 6.45 due to unscheduled maintenance and waiting to be fuelled (this is a busy time for fuelling of planes it seems)

So about 6.45 we went through the boarding area and downstairs to a bus to the plane on the tarmac, up the steps we went and eventually were seated (me in row 22 with a window and Sue in 15 on the aisle) A screaming baby and a really full plane so it could be a fun flight…never have truer words been spoken….

The sun set and reflected pinkish onto the Andes with snow, which looked great, what a shame to be stuck on a plane.

Today we are heading to Quito in Ecuador, where we have a couple of free days to look around before joining the tour.

…Now here’s where it gets interesting.

1. We are delayed

2. We board

3. The Captain says we need to refuel, should take 25 minutes or so.

• I see a fuel truck pull up and then move off again, no fuel that I can see.

4. Thirty minutes later they announce that it’s a popular time for fueling and we now are now fuelling and will be another 15-25 minutes. 

• I see a luggage conveyor pull up and a trolley, they unload some newspapers, some other cargo and put the newspapers back on the plane. Conveyor moves off and fuel truck arrives and fuels up.

5. Then at 8.10pm they announce some passengers want to get off – and they get their luggage – this will cause a further delay, we are not told how long.

• I see some people stand up looking like they are getting off, there is a growing number of people conversing with flight attendants at front of plane.
• I see the conveyor disappear to the other side of plane.
• Don’t know why these jerks didn’t decide they wanted to get off earlier, we will be at least 3 hours late leaving as it is.. God only knows what time we will arrive at hotel.
• I feel really sorry for the parents with young kids and babies, we have been sitting going nowhere for over an hour, on top of the hour or two at the gate.

6. Luggage conveyor returns to our side of plane. 

• I see one guys walk up the conveyor, looking for their bloody luggage I imagine. There is no trolley so must only be looking for 3 to 4 pieces of luggage.
• Now another guy runs up the conveyor, can hear luggage being moved around under us. Better not be throwing them around to hard.
• Lots of thumping, but nothing coming out.
• People up the front complaining are growing in number, would love to hear and know what they were saying.
• A third guy, the supervisor walks up the conveyor.
• Supervisor walks off the conveyor and turns it on. 
• 5 pieces of luggage glide off the plane.
• There are now more people up and about, can only assume those leaving the plane have done so. Maybe we are getting close.
• One lady who was sitting near us in the lounge when the delay was first announced, was not happy and complained to staff. She explained that LAN is South America’s premier airline, but they keep doing this, she feels the need to complain so that they can do better. Anyway, turns out she is in the back row behind me, and she also marches up the front with her best complainant stride.

7. It is now 8.30 – the conveyor is moved away and luggage hold is closed. Are we ready? What a SAGA!

• I’m sitting next to a lovely lady and her husband, with their two young girls (about 5 and 3) across the aisle beside us, they are off to Galapagos for 7 days – supposed to be staying in Guayacil overnight, now only a few hours. She has been passing on the messages in Spanish…just a tad frustrated, but she is very nice.

8. 8.35 – they announce we are now waiting for some passengers from Guayacil to board – so we WAIT again. This can’t be real! 

• I can’t understand why passengers arriving from Guayacil, would be wanting to return so urgently, and secondly, why LAN would let this happen (maybe someone has had bad news, that’s all I can think)

9. 8.45 – we start to taxi backwards onto the tarmac…about 9.05, the wheels finally left Chilean soil and we are on our way. ONLY THREE HOURS and FORTY minutes late. This makes arrival in Quito about 1.45am, then its about an hour trip into the hotel…another late night, guess we are sleeping in tomorrow.

• There was a small round of applause. All in all everyone stayed very cool and calm.

The trip was pretty good. Managed to type some blog and write some journal, watched part of an interesting National Geo doco on their National Geographic photographers - which they cut off mid way. Then I watched 'The Fault in our Stars' - what a tearjerker, but I really enjoyed it. The moon rose very orange, not sure if we were above clouds at this point, but the moon was spectacular. Then there was a couple of storms taking place in the clouds below us and out to the right, a pretty awesome lightshow.

So in summary our day went as follows:

Left hotel at 2.30pm for a 5.25 flight

Finally boarded at about 7pm

Finally departed about 9pm

Arrived at Airport at 2.15

Finally at Hotel at 4am ish.

Bed around 5am.

We actually gained two hours, as in Ecuador it was actually 3am.

Definitely a rest day tomorrow.