Blog 1, Santiago—Mostly observations—nothing hilarious

Our flight from Dallas to Santiago was delayed 2 hours because of a problem with the fuel pump.  I screamed, “Get me off this plane,” but a very sweet flight attendant calmed me down. (I hope you know I exaggerate).  Consequently we didn’t eat dinner until almost 11 PM.   One Ambien, one Benadryl—I slept until they woke me for breakfast, which I think I ate with my eyes closed.

American Business class is very comfortable, but the food was less than mediocre. 

Miracle of miracles—all of our luggage arrived!   If you’ve followed my previous blogs, you know this doesn’t always happen.

We had arranged to meet the rest of the group when they arrived the following morning at 7 AM (we did our own flight arrangements).  Normally Vantage won’t provide transfers unless you book air with them, but we had a 2 hour drive to Santa Cruz, and Dan kept nagging them to put us on the bus.  Dan also chose the best possible hotel.  We walked out the door of the airport, across the street and into a modern, clean, spacious, friendly Holiday Inn.  No taxis!  No worries! 

After a 4 hour ‘nap’, we crossed the street and got on a bus—clean, comfortable with A/C to city central.  Because it was rush hour, it took about 45 minutes, but we enjoyed the tour.  For some reason, Dan thought Chile would be a third world country—definitely not true.  Santiago has a population of 6,000,000.  The infrastructure is excellent—you can even drink the water.  Although there is graffiti everywhere, the city is clean.  Chile is the safest country in South America, and Santiago is the safest city.  It obviously has a booming economy mainly from metals, minerals, and agriculture including wine. 

We walked by the Presidential Palace with a flag at half -mast.  I told Dan, I bet that’s for Hugo Chavez.  He was skeptical so I went up to a guard and said porque esta baja la bandera?   He said, Hugo Chavez!    Dan was impressed.   Would we lower the U.S. flag if the presidents of Canada or Mexico died?  

En route to the city, the scenery was a bit like California in early fall, which it is here—think the first week in September.  The grass is brown and tinder try. To the east are the foothills of the Andes, whose pinnacles are covered with snow year round.  To the west is the coast range that look much like the mountains around San Jose—maybe a bit taller and not quite as rounded. A variety of trees including palms dotted the landscape. 

The historic center of the city has a very wide boulevard lined with trees and a park down the middle.  Of the 6 million people, I think 1 million were out walking the streets—young, old, families, teenagers.  We passed a couple of large shopping centers, small stores, street vendors, pharmacies.  Despite my ergonomically correct shoes, I was developing blisters so I went into one of the pharmacies, and told them in what I thought was correct Spanish, “My toes are sore.”  (I didn’t know Spanish for blister).  The pharmacist didn’t have a clue.   Two women, also customers, were kneeling on the ground examining my feet and trying to tell the pharmacist what I needed.  He brought bandages, which I already had.  Even though I don’t speak Italian, the Italian pharmacist  in Florence gave me the perfect remedy. 

If I may say so, I’m so impressed with my Spanish. I studied it at Cal over 50 years ago but, but I only learned to read and write it not converse in it.  Here everyone understands me despite my terrible accent.   With the exception of a few vocabulary words I don’t know, when I read Spanish, my brain automatically translates without conscious effort. 

We arrived at the airport at 7 to meet the rest of the tour.  We waited until 8:30 for everyone to show.  There are 23 people on the tour. 

We drove 2 hours to Santa Cruz, a town of 18,000 people in the wine region.  Our hotel is a charming colonial style on the main plaza where tomorrow will be the opening of the wine picking festival. 

Usual disclaimers:  I apologize in advance for spelling/grammatical errors and again there was nothing too funny happening so far.