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More Patagonia Bolivia Patagonia Peru More France London Chile France Norway New Zealand Indochina Alaska More China China Day 10: Santiago to Chicago by Joanna Updated: April 4, 2024 2 Comments After yesterday’s late night of travel stress, we slept in a bit today at the United-provided Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Santiago. But! We also intended to wake up in time for the free breakfast and take advantage of our bonus day in the city. The weather this morning was beautiful and the sky seemed more clear than our previous visits to the city. Could even see the Andes in the distance. Looking for Easter rock concerts We started with the breakfast buffet, which was solid. Then we heard some music coming from the event space near the lobby and discovered a big Easter rock concert/mass thing. Hard to tell, but we watched and rocked out for a couple minutes before they tried to seat us. Fun fact, there was a Bat Mitzvah in the same space when we arrived at 2AM last night, so look no further when considering where to book your next religious music party in Chile! Once we hit the streets, our plan was to hike up to see the Virgin Mary statue atop San Cristobal Hill — a hike we did back during our visit in 2019. Only this time, it is more thematically appropriate because it’s Easter Sunday! Also, this hike is a good choice because while a lot of places are closed for Easter (La Burguesia… Noooo!), the public park stays open. Along the way, we encountered some sort of biking event which closed the streets to traffic and filled them with cyclists instead. Then we discovered the same sculpture park we wandered thru last time. And finally, we found a series of promotional tents giving away useful sample items to the masses — ranging from sunscreen to toothpaste. Colgate even set up a trampoline exercise workout zone to get your heart-rate pumping before your hike and/or bike up the hill! Santiago’s version of Bike the Drive” Wish Chicago had this park More clear view of the city than our last visit After having some fun, we hiked up the hill. Started on a paved road, but mixed in some forested, mountain-bike paths for good measure. Finally, we made it to the top and Easter’d it up with people attending mass by the Virgin Statue. We rewarded ourselves with Mote con Huesillo – a sweet peach drink with husked wheat. We walked back down the road and back to the hotel. In total, we walked about 6.25 miles. Beautiful bonus day in Chile Happy Easter!!! Pro tip: We each got our own this time Bees approve! Curly fry art Back at the hotel, we finished our leftover pizza and packed up for our return to the airport. We got an Uber and arrived perfectly just before check-in time. Because we were now flying Delta, we were also allowed access to the Priority Pass lounge that shot us down yesterday. From the windows of the lounge, we could see our broken United plane from last night still sitting on the tarmac. Solid martini from bartender Jo Our cancelled fight from last night still hasn’t moved Given our last-minute booking on this flight from another airline, we didn’t have seats next to each other, but they managed to help us change our tickets and seat us together. The plane actually boarded, and even took off! We were on our way from Santiago to Atlanta on the overnight flight. Finding two seats together like an Easter Egg hunt Santiago sunset Next stop ATL We arrived in Atlanta a few minutes late. We were at the back of the plane so it took a while to get out. Are Delta passengers slower than usual??? Hard to tell. Anyways, we breezed passed everyone in the very long customs line by going through Global Entry. But then, of course, we still had to wait for the bag, and get back in the single security line. Eventually, we made it to our gate a few minutes before boarding, and once again, they managed to seat us together. ATL to ORD Back in chilly and rainy Chicago, we landed in concourse M (which is in Terminal 5, in case you were wondering!). Again, we were seated in the back of the plane, so we enjoyed another chance to observe Delta passengers setting records in the most time needed to deplane” category. First time we’ve been the LAST two people off of a plane! Anyways, good thing we weren’t in a hurry. We grabbed our bags and eventually made our way to the Blue Line. Nice try Atlanta, but this is the real plane train” Despite losing a day to the cancelled flight, we managed to pick our schedules up pretty well. Jo headed straight to work from the Addison stop — which is fitting because that’s how the trip started. Meanwhile, Matt headed home on the 152 Bus and was able to pick up Poe no earlier than we would have if we had arrived yesterday. So, all good! And with that, another trip blog is in the books! Day 9: Patagonia National Park to Santiago by Joanna Updated: April 2, 2024 Leave a Comment We had an early wake up call today in order to depart Explora and be driven to the Balmaceda airport in time for our afternoon flight. We enjoyed one more breakfast and said our final goodbyes. We hopped in the van and set off on the six-hour drive. One last Explora Double Cappucino incoming The sun finally appears It rained for the first couple hours but eventually cleared up. The drive was very scenic — especially if you are awake (lol). It was nice to catch the impressive Patagonian views we missed on the drive in when everything was covered by low-handing clouds last week. As a final wildlife bonus, we also spotted a male huemule along the way. Driving view #1 Driving view #2 Driving view #3 Driving view #4 The Balmaceda airport is pretty small and they don’t start checking baggage until exactly two hours before the flight. Thankfully, our timing was pretty good and we only had to wait a few minutes. We had a drink at the restaurant to pass the time until we headed into the single gate area. We have arrived at Balmaceda Airport Maqui ale, good stuff! All aboard LATAM to Santiago Flight left on time and was smooth. We arrived at Santiago airport, collected our bags, and walked to the international terminal. We found a table at a cafe and waited roughly 30 minutes to check our bags once again. Once we were allowed, we took care of that task and went through customs. Too bad for us, the only Priority Pass lounge in the international terminal is for people flying on Sky Team flights (aka. Delta), so we slummed it at Ruby Tuesday’s for a very fried dinner. Don’t make the Santiago PDI dog sad by smuggling anything Pilot: We hear a loud tapping coming from our empennage!” Spoiler alert! We might be here until Tuesday! We arrived at our gate right as boarding was starting… and then, everything promptly stopped! We were told a maintenance team needed to fix something on the plane and the flight was delayed. After a series of We’ll give you another update in 20 minutes” announcements, the gate area began to resemble a Lord of the Flies situation as all the children gathered for pre-boarding got their hands on the blue balloons United had decorated the gate with (why??? no idea). Finally, after waiting about an hour and a half, the flight was cancelled. We were directed to go back through customs, collect our checked bags, and get on a bus. They were putting us all up at the Intercontinental in downtown Santiago. They also said United would be contacting us about re-booking. When we attempted to re-book using the app, it said there were no available re-booking options for THREE DAYS. Not being too keen to learn if that was accurate, we instead chatted with a United agent who booked us on a flight tomorrow night with Delta. Party’s over! Take down those balloons the kids didn’t already destroy Loading luggage on the coach buses to the Intercontinental It took a couple of hours, but eventually we made it to the hotel. They offered us dinner” of pizzas and pudding delivered to our room, which we gladly accepted. We spent some additional time working on tomorrow’s check-in and...