9^th of November 2023

The pelican has landed

Just like a pelican with a gut full of fish in it’s stomach, my Latam Boeing 787 landed with a thump at Santiago airport.

13 hours on the airplane wasn’t so bad, but the 3 rows around me with 2 to 4 year kids does test your patience, like when they reach over the back of the seats with sticky fingers and changed the movie channel I was watching on the touch screen, and to their mothers the next morning you hear yourself say “Oh no, your kids were not so bad”

It doesn’t matter what airport you arrive in, the walk from the landing dock to customs and immigration always seems eternal, and the wait for bags on the conveyor belt is nearly criminal.

However, you have to be positive, there’s the taxi drivers waiting, dressed as humans they are really piranha’s that have been bred on the Galapagos islands. Whilst I had made a booking with the Hilton shuttle service, I was soon told by a man with a Hilton logo on his tablet that the service would take 1 ½ hours due to the fact that I was only 1 person, but hey wait ! here’s an official taxi driver who can take you for a modest fee.

Well Juan was about 28, and we walk to the car park where I noticed that his taxi was not Yellow and Black as normal here, a standard sedan, but I did confirm with him that it was $3,000 Chilean pesos to drive me the 3 kilometers to the hotel, Si Si señor.

On exiting the car park he back follows the car in front through the boom gates and the boom gate drops scraping along the roof of the car, and that’s when I started thinking, Well is this such a good plan ??

With a short stop at the supposed “official taxi controller’s station” on a side road for me to pay by credit card, it’s confirmed that their machine is not working and now its Ok to pay in cash, so Juan fumbles with his smart phone for a GPS map of where the Hotel is whilst I’m insisting that its on Vespuchio road and close, Why don’t you know the hotel I ask, Oh señor, it is my first day driving Juan tells me.

Pulling up out front of the hotel, an unmarked taxi cant enter the grounds due to security, I tell Juan I can pay in cash, but he has no change for 10,000 pesos, so I throw him 2,000 in small notes and jump out of the car, whew that was a close call, at least I’m safe now………..

The Hilton, is a Hilton, do I have to say more, at reception I was faced with the new reality that my confirmed booking in Aust dollars, is actually US dollars of the same amount, ah but senor, if you pay by credit card you don’t have to pay taxes, ah señor ! you only have debit card so you must pay the full amount ( you know that magical feeling when someone has just pulled your pants down and stuck a coke bottle up your ass )

The room is Hilton, its comfortable, clean and the shower feels wonderful, welcome to South America !

Stephen, on route to the Falklands