Antarctic Adventure Part III

I'm stranded in Chile. For 2 days. Luckily, my ship doesn't leave until Sunday, and my tour's contact person in Argentina said they would send someone to Ushuaia airport to pick me up upon my arrival so they could shuttle me straight to the ship. Hopefully nothing else will go wrong from here on in.

So how did this interesting turn of events occur?

Well, when I arrived in Santiago, I went to customs and immigration. They asked me where I was going, and I told them I was going to Argentina. They said it was an international connection, so they sent me to the international terminal. The monitors said my flight (Santiago to Ushuaia via Punta Arenas) was at gate 20A, so I went there. I was the only one there. It was weird, but I figured not a lot of people go to the southernmost tip of Argentina, so it's not that weird. On the other side of a glass wall was gate 20B. Same flight number, but the destination was domestic (Santiago to Punta Arenas), so it was on the domestic side of the terminal.

I waited around and saw several groups of flight staff fiddle around at the counter next to my gate and then promptly left. When I realized that no one was going to be attending the gate on my side, I knocked on the glass wall to ask what was going on. A flight attendant told me I was supposed to be on the other side. Why on earth did they give my flight a spurious gate number if they weren't going to board from the international terminal? In order to get to the other side, I had to leave the international terminal and enter the domestic terminal. That required a trip through customs. And a trip to the baggage claim. And to the ticket counter to check in my bags again, followed by security, etc.

There was no way I was going to make it in time for my flight. When I got to the baggage claim, there were conflicting stories of the status of my bag. One airline employee said it should have arrived and that it might have been set aside because it took me so long to claim my bag. Another said it was already on the flight I missed because while I had to go to the domestic terminal, my bag was considered an international transfer, so it was put on my connecting flight right away.

I proceeded to the ticket counter to see what they could do for me. On the way, a guy in a blue shirt and black tie with white dots said he would escort me to the counter. He spoke enough English to make some small talk and reassured me that I would get on the next possible flight without any problems. He was very aggressive about pushing my luggage cart (full of carry-on luggage only) into the first possible elevator, even telling off the grannies and moms with children in tow who tried to cut in front. When we got to the ticket counter, he asked for a $10 tip. Okay, that was a total rip off, but he saved me a bit of time and you wouldn't believe how nice it was to talk to someone in English amidst a potentially heart breaking ordeal. Therapy costs more than that, so whatever.

The next flight to Ushuaia is on Sunday morning because they don't fly to the southernmost tip of Argentina every day. In addition, the LAN ticket agent told me that LAN is the only airline that flies in to Ushuaia. I doubted that claim, but how was I supposed to confirm that right there and then? And what would it cost to get a flight on another airline today? On the bright side, the ticket counter was able to confirm that my bag was already on its way to my final destination. I don't have a change of clothes, but at least I know my stuff is not lost. I accepted the earliest flight they could give me and set out to contact my tour group.

I tried calling collect to Argentina on the pay phone, but it didn't work. I was given the option to pay by credit card (I didn't have any Chilean cash yet) but they said the rate was $50/minute. I asked them if it was 50 US Dollars or Chilean Pesos and they said, "US Dollars." Screw that.

I went to the info booth to ask how I can get a phone card. It turned out that there were Entel phone company reps roaming around the ticket counter area. They told me I could buy a 30-minute phone card for $3000 CLP (about $5 USD) which sounded much safer than using my credit card for an unlimited amount of money. I got some Chilean cash at the forex booth and made my first purchase.

I called Marcelo, the Quark Expeditions representative in Ushuaia and he said he would pick up my luggage early and arrange for me to get a ride from the airport to my ship.

Then I called Mike to QQ about my ordeal, not realizing that it was 7 AM PST.

Since life handed me a huge lemon, I decided to make lemonade. Not having planned to spend any time in Santiago, I didn't know anything about the city. I attempted to buy a Lonely Planet book on Chile, but the only edition the airport book store carried was in Spanish. I picked up a free tourist map and saw a double decker bus tour that looked good for getting a whirlwind tour of the city. I put one of my carry-on bags into storage at the airport (I don't need my winter jacket and accessories since it's summer in Santiago), bought a bottle of water and a bus ticket to downtown Santiago.

The ride from the airport to downtown was interesting to say the least. Cars tailgate mere inches from the vehicle in front of them. Car alarms go off randomly in moving vehicles full of occupants. There are vendors who run out on to the street to sell their wares when cars are stopped at street lights (squeegee kid style) but they sell things like drinks, popsicles, fruit or fake Rolexes.

When I got to the last stop at Terminal De Buses Los Heros, I was hungry and I needed to pee. I looked around for a restaurant while inching closer to the sightseeing bus stop. I finally settled for a shawarma place (or shawerma as they call it here) called Al-Jazeera. The chicken shawarma was alright overall, but the sauce was too rich and the chicken was oddly textureless. The pita was quite fragrant so I ate half of the fillings and all of the shell. The coke here tastes refreshing, just like Mexican coke. Thanks to my knowledge of French and the time I've spent eating at taquerias in California, I've actually picked up trace amounts useful Spanish for dining out.

It was just my luck that there was an Internet Cafe right next to Al-Jazeera. I popped in to print out an important document (that I forgot to pack) for $200 CLP (about $0.33 USD) and then set off to buy a ticket for the Turistik double decker tour bus. Every vending kiosk pointed me to the next one, saying that they didn't carry the tickets, but the next guy down the street did. I ended up asking all the kiosks around Plaza de la Constitucion until I found the correct kiosk all by myself.

I rode the bus around the full circuit and identified some places to visit tomorrow. Then I ventured into el Centro Cultural Palacio de la Moneda where they had a Frida Kahlo exhibit. I needed to pee again, so I decided to stay the night at Diego de Almagro Centro where they have free wifi, an included hot breakfast, and a kidney-shaped swimming pool. I nixed the cheapest alternative of pulling a Tom Hanks and staying at the airport because I needed a shower really badly and I didn't want to keep one eye on my belongings all night. I wanted to make myself as comfortable as I could, given that things have already gone pretty badly.

Now I'm going to forage for dinner. There is a Burger King downstairs so I'm probably going to compare how Burger King in Santiago differs from Burger King at LAX.