Chile

My plane ride to Chile was uneventful. I sat in the window seat next to two Chileans. As we were filling out the customs sheet we notices that all three of us were left-handed and we laughed about it.
I waited for Dad for about two hours. I flew through the line where Americans have to pay to enter Chile ($131 USD!), because I was the only American on my flight. He was with a whole bunch of them and every American who enters the country has to pay $131.
We caught a cab to the hotel and settled in. We went to the center of town and went to a history museum. We both ran out of juice at that moment. I had been up since 4:30 and he had been up for longer because he had had an overnight flight from Miami to Santiago. I think the thing that killed me was all the movement. I hadn't had that much movement in a long time and I could still feel my incisions from the surgery.
We enjoyed a nice dinner at a this polynesian restaurant. It was completely empty because we ate at 7. Most Latin Americans don't eat until well after 9.


They made us a sign! The night we arrived there was a special dinner for us.

We went to Combarbala where the Galena Rotary Club has a brother club. We saw the bathrooms that the Galena Rotary helped fund and the brand new Observatory that they hope to turn into a tourist attraction.


The bathrooms funded by the Galena Rotary. These have been there for almost five years. They were funded and built and then official of Combarbala said they didn't want to pay for water or upkeep. What's a little town to do? The bathrooms were open the day we were there, but I'm not sure that they are open all the time.


A park where mysterious indigenous rock drawings are located.


Here chikey! The couple who took care of that place had a farm with chickens and lots of chicks. I tried to coerce one, it failed. But do you like my skirt?


We went to a farm where they grow many different kinds of fruit. They let us sample some table grapes! They were delicious. Chile and Peru are similar in the way that they have great climates for agriculture. I'd like to think any grapes I've had since then are from that farm.

Combarbala reminded me a lot of Sabinas Hidalgo (where I lived for a year in between high school and college). Geography wise it was similar, a little town in the valley of mountains. I found that some had similar attitudes. They were born and raised in Combarbala, had never left, and were raising their families there, too. Very few go on to college after completing high school. Something that Sabinas has that Combarbala lacks is wealth in the community. While Sabinas had a poor population they also had an upper-middle class and a wealthy class. Combarbala doesn't have a wealthy population.
We spent a few days in Valparaiso, about a 5-hour drive from Combarbala. The first night we had a great dinner at a vegetarian restaurant with organic red wine. Afterwards I had some pasta leftover and on the way back to the hotel I was asked by a guy if I had a few coins to spare. I told him no, but if he wanted he could have my pasta. His face lit up. Poor guy probably hadn't eaten for days. We spent one whole day at the beach. It was at the first time Dad had ever spent all day at the beach. I'm a seasoned pro, I've done it a few times.


Dad opened a store while in Valparaiso.

We spent the last few days in Santiago. We went to the center again and explored around and went to a museum. We met up with one of my professors from Grand Valley is on a one-year research leave in Santiago and we had coffee with him the day we left.

My flight left about four hours before Dad's did. I zipped through customs. They stamped my passport, they took my boarding pass, and I boarded the plane. I arrived in Buenos Aires and got to walk outside one more time. I enjoyed the warmth. I asked if I needed to leave security to pay the $18 airport tax because my flight was broken. They told me no and I went right to my gate.
Then I was sitting down and everyone had to leave the gate area and they did another security check. I had a few problems.
1) Since they took my boarding pass in Chile, I had no proof of how I got in the airport. This is a big problem. I hadn't paid the airport tax or gone through security. I had to explain this and they were skeptical of me.
2) I was traveling internationally for four months without luggage. (Dad took all my luggage home. I couldn't lift more than 15 pounds, so it was difficult for me to have my 50 pound suitcase.) So I had to explain and prove to them I had had surgery.
3) I had bottled water. You're not allowed to bring it in the airport. It was from Chile. I wasn't allowed to bring it on the plane.

The flight from Buenos Aires to Houston was LONG. It was 11 hours. While the plane was over Iquitos, Peru (where I went to the Amazon) about five hours into the flight, I had a bit of a freak out and didn't want to be on that plane anymore at all. Well, I got over that and finished out the flight without getting up once.
When we arrived in Houston I walked off the plane and felt a breeze of 40ºF and I was thought "WHO LIVES HERE? IT"S SO COLD!"
I went through customs and had to explain all over again why I was traveling internationally without luggage. I was able to catch an earlier flight to Chicago but it ended up being delayed because of the weather in Chicago. I arrived about the time I would have with my original flight. When I arrived in Chicago, the flight I was supposed to be on hadn't left Houston.
I met Dad and then Henry and we drove home in the middle of the snow storm. I was a little depressed that I had worn a sun dress the day before and now I was all bundled up.


Santiago, Chile taken December 22, 2008.