The South American Adventure - Day 13!!

Day 13 - An All Day Flying Adventure

Should I be concerned that Day 13 will be spent on two planes??  I'm not a superstitious person, but...man.  And if we're talking about numbers...there are three days before we go home. And if you add the day and month together, you equal the year (6+5=11)!!  I just noticed that today :)

Easter Island was at an end.  We conquered the island and knew that while we would never be back, we would have the best of memories and experiences.  I hope to be able to close my eyes and think of the Moai during sunset.  Or when we were the only people at Tongariki.  I do have the pictures, of course, but the feelings...the sense...that's what I want to remember. 

Wake.  Pack.  Breakfast.  Finish packing.  Check-out.  We're pros at this point.  I was excited for breakfast because of the oatmeal.  Oh, the oatmeal.  The guava juice was good too, but I couldn't shut up about the oatmeal.  Unfortunately, Vai Moana didn't get the "Carrie Wants Oatmeal" memo.  Negative on oatmeal this time.  I won't deny I was more than surly about this turn of events.  I retaliated by eating three pieces of toast and clearing out the cake.  So take that, hotel!!

Check out was fine, but we got a pleasant surprise from the hotel as the driver/front desk guy gave us a farewell necklace.  Awwww...cute!!

The airport on Easter Island was tiny.  We didn't have a ton of time to explore when we got in a few days ago, so we didn't notice the airport situation.  I guess though, when you have one flight a day (or every two days??), the airport was bound to be small.

We began worrying about our flights yesterday.  Not Easter Island to Santiago.  There was nothing crazy about that one.  It was the connection time between Santiago and Lima.  1:20.  That is not a lot of time to go from the Domestic to the International terminals and through Immigration.  So we worried.

When we arrived at the Easter Island airport, we held our breath.  Going from Lima to Easter Island, we had to wait in Santiago to get our boarding passes to Easter Island.  If we had to get our boarding passes in Santiago for Lima, that 1:20 connection becomes much more difficult.  And so we held our breath.  Happily, our boarding passes were given for both legs.  And we knew our biggest issue now was speed.  If we had to, we could run.

The flight was fine.  I appreciate the little things on LAN.  The food has been fantastic (chicken/pollo lasagna with some tres leche pudding/cakey thing...ordered because I understood pollo...not much else).  Plus, they are very liberal with the wine.  First off, it's free.  And when you see the flight attendant walking down the aisle with two bottles of wine for refills...love!! 

It makes me wonder why the airlines in the US can't do the same thing.  My guess is that the folks in South America don't do a lot of flying because of the cost.  Maybe that's the reason.  The surprising part about the airport security outside of the US is how quickly we get through.  The lines to get checked pre-security...minimal.  The lines to get through Immigration...minimal.  The lines to get through customs...minimal.  And all are quick.  This was mighty helpful when our Easter Island flight was 20 minutes late.

Yes, our 1:20 connection time was now down to 1 hour.  We walked very fast.  Very fast.  We never flat out ran, but we got close.  Luckily, security was a breeze and so was immigration.  We went from our flight to the gate in 15 minutes.  Possibly a record in this airport.

Our next flight was slightly delayed. No biggie at this point.  But again...food and wine.  I love you LAN!!  Even better, we had individual TV screens again, so I was able to get through even more of The Good Wife today (ep 7-16).  Woo hoo!!

We also saw rain for the first time in 13 days.  That's not bragging.  That's stating a fact (trying to NOT have Weather Karma find us).  Now, the rain was when we landed in Santiago, but it was significant.  And surprising, since I hadn't seen it in a while.

We landed, found our luggage and soon made our way to the 3B's.  Our first and last hotel in Lima.  Sadly, we were in a room with no cell service or WiFi, so there was a bit of groaning.  Then again, it's after 1a.  There's no need for WiFi at this time anyway...

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