Santiago: Arrival, laptop, and I plan to eat some more weird fish stuff.

 Something about flying to another country from another country... It really gives me a charge.

I'm traveling pretty light, I've got all of my paperwork in order. All I need to do is answer the questions when the airport folks ask them and this is pretty easy to do anywhere that's not the US. Security is real but not over the top. I never feel abused by the customs people and even when I drift into the wrong aisle no one yells, pulls out a tazer (or worse ) and starts pretending they're lead asshat in a stupid movie. Funny thing is that I did drift through the wrong door and the guy was serious, but was actually more interested in what my goal was rather than assuming I was trying to hoodwink someone or bust the ruuuules. Anyhow the Trip to Santiago was cool.

Highlights:

I ate a horrible airport burger, texted with a buddy from home and flew out. I did have some some interesting airplane food (Causa!)
The guy next to me (Alberto) practiced his English and showed me pictures from his travels and vacations. He was a pretty interesting gent and traveled to Santiago once a month for work.
Behind us an elderly woman is crooning some hill music from her home.

It's so sweet it hurts. No one complaining. I tried to record some but the ambient hiss from the the engines cancel it out. My neighbor and I exchange a smile and enjoy. The flight attendant got a smooch from for helping her get to el servicio. A little later: Wow, that lady is really starting to belt it out now. I got her on recording now, I think folks are starting to get a little full, she's narrating too.

 Huh. Alberto chuckled when we got off the plane, remarking "That's Peru", and explaining that most flights he's on seem to have someone like that. Funny.

Okay, customs was a breeze. And out the door I went. Staying at a major hotel has its benefits, and a free shuttle is one of them.

Last week I mentioned that my laptop became gone. Well, a good Samaritan in Florida found it and offered to send it directly to me. I figured it'd probably be easiest to send it to where I was going to be rather than to sit around and wait in Lima, so I set up an account and expecting us to intercept each other out in Santiago. Easy, right? Wrong.

While the folks at the Fedex in Delray Beach did a good job packing it, they didn't let us know that a commercial invoice that was required. So I was up until 3:00 in the morning on Thursday night trying to nurture at 2 business-day process into 1 single day.

Here are some things I learned;

I. Shipping anything into Chile could require a commercial invoice. How it is filled out is a mystery of the Holy Roman Church.

II. Fedex international shipping phone support is as useless as tits on a chicken. What information they did provide was worse than useless, it was incorrect. I incurred expensive international phone charges for no reason at all.

III. When Fedex puts a trace on a package, you get a trace agent in the process. That person's value is defined in #2. Worse than useless, a red herring. I could never reach them.

IV. The guys in the airport Fedex office and the dude out at the airport Fedex cargo location were the only people between me and a shipment bound for /dev/null. Thank God I realized I was within walking distance and walked over in the best clothes I brought.

Also deserving of special mention is Julio Salfate of tenispro.cl who helped me find (and delivered me to) the airport location (not easy!) so I could hand deliver the hand crafted paperwork and retrieve my package. There was no reason for him to involve himself. He was a total stranger who had the compassion and made the time to inconvenience himself on my behalf. The time and hassle that he saved me was not trivial.

And again, I shout the benefits of staying at a major hotel, because after I got my box I bounced on over to TripVIP and said, "Hilton Garden, por favor, my good sir."

 So; Mike K. in Delray, and the other gentlemen who I will mention by name a little later; I raise a toast to you. You revitalize my sense of trust in my fellow man. I thank you.

I ended up spending so much time on this that I only got to see a little of Santiago, which is a shame. Leaving the airport in Santiago you would swear you were in the States. Alberto (from the flight) suggested it was more like a European city than South American and I bet I'd agree; but I haven't been to Europe yet. I only had a little time and didn't want to get caught up in a shopping mall or business location so I consulted Tripadvisor.com, my go-to travel source these days. I heard the Belle Arte location was worth checking out so I did. I'm starting to run down a little so I'll post a little of that tomorrow. I'm a couple of days behind and posting from Valparaiso now and it's pretty much the high point of the trip. I'll have a bunch of pictures of that too.