WELCOME TO SANTIAGO

It’s 1:00 am. I want to get some sleep. Dinner will be served once we have reached altitude. Who wants dinner at 1:00 am? We did not have time to eat, so we need to stay awake. We could sure use a drink though. Nothing is served until after we have our dinner. They’re getting pretty stingy at Air Canada.

Finally I get my glass of wine and take some Melatonin. Determined that I will sleep.

While waiting for dinner, I started to watch a movie and it is sooo good. I don’t want to go to sleep now!

I finally doze off a little, but hear everything that is going on around me. I should have brought my earplugs.

At 7:00 am Santiago time, we are served a hot breakfast. Edmonton time 3:00 am.

After being in the air for another 10.5 hours we finally arrive in Santiago.

Control here, checkpoint there. $130.00US landing fee per person. A good thing they accept Visa. Next, customs Check. A sigh of relief, we’re through without too many questions being asked.

Then another xray stop. While we place our luggage on the belt, we watch officials going though the luggage of the passengers ahead of us. We don't want to go through that. A young man in uniform approaches us as we wait for our luggage to go through.

“What did you bring?” He asks. “Frutas? Plantas? Alimentos?” We answer No to each of his questions.

Quickly Ramiro says. “We’re Canadian”. He looks at us. He looks at our luggage as it appears from the xrays machine. “How come you speak such perfect Spanish?” They start to chat, while I nervously wait. I rather not have them go through my luggage and find the chocolates, Canadian whiskey and all the gifts we brought from Canada.

The young man grabs a cart and starts placing the luggage one by one very precisely on the cart. “Follow me” he says in Spanish. Where is he taking us? I see an office with the sign “Aduana” on it. We walk right by it. I see another Sign “SALIDA” (exit).

“Disfruta su visita en Chile”. and hands over the liggage cart to Ramiro  who reaches in his pocket and hands the young man the only Canadian bill he has left: $20.00 Canadian. Pretty generous for a lousy tipper like him.

“It’s all I had” he whispers. “I had no idea where he was going to take us”.

There are people everywhere. People with signs: Taxi, Hotel Continenal, Rodrigo, Jose Acevero, and other names. But where is Wolfie?

We wait, we look around. I have no idea what Wolfie looks like, so I am of no help.

Then I see a large group of people on the stairs to the side. I see someone wave. I know it is Wolfie. I point him out to Ramiro and yes, Wolfie, Wolfie, Hola!!

We cram our luggage into Wolfie’s car and feel the heat. “It’s  30 degrees. You may find it too hot”. Wolfie says. No problem, much better than 18 degrees below zero.

As we drive through the country, I smile. “This is Chile. I like it”.

Wolfie drives us to San Bernardo, a community south of Santiago, to the Varas family. This will be our Casa Particular for the coming week. As we enter the house, Nena is still busy washing floors and getting our room ready. They have moved much of their personal belongings out of the room to make space for us. It is quite an older home; Very simple, but most hospitable.

 We talk for a while, and although we are in dire need of some sleep, we decide to walk  to the store to allow Nena to finish. We walk for a good 2.5 hours, buy a cell phone and some groceries. For less than two dollar a taxi takes us back to the house. Our room is ready and while Ramiro unpacks the groceries I take a nap and sleep for one hour. I find more people in the house when I enter the kitchen. Theresa, nicknamed Teruca, is the oldest sister of Nena. Both are sisters of Blanca, Ramiro’s late ex wife and aunties to Marco, Marcela and Elizabeth. I  meet Pepe, the man of the house and their youngest son Panchito (Fransisco). We sit down for the evening meal, which consists of tea and coffee. White flat buns with jam, and sandwich meat. I cut up a tomato and invite everyone to take some and explain that whatever groceries we bought is for everyone to use.  As it is almost 10 pm, Ramiro will learn soon to eat light at this time of the night and to skip the coffee.