HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Finally on my way
BUMMER OF THE DAY: It’s the end of a great adventure
WORD OF THE DAY: Holy lightning strike
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 5296km
Today I leave the South American Continent. After 154 days, 5.5 months, 11 countries including the Galapagos Islands and of course the great white continent of Antarctica I leave South America proper this afternoon. I am travelling to Easter Island which is a territory of Chile, so technically I am still in South America, just not on the ‘mainland’ as such. I do touch down back in Santiago in 5 days’ time as a transit passenger on my way to Barbados via Miami, but really this is my last day. It will all sink in when I say goodbye to Sharon at 1pm and then I follow here 2 hours later at 3pm for my flight.
Shaz and I decided to have breakfast with the plebs in the general restaurant this morning. There was just too much pressure for us in the ‘Smart’ lounge and we really wanted to pig out today being a flight day for both of us. Flight days when you are travelling a long way always throw your eating patterns out as well as your sleeping patterns. It was so difficult for me to recover from my last trip to Ethiopia, I was sort of glad the ferry the guys were on was delayed as it gave me extra time to recover. But in my defence I was battling emotionally leaving Zeme after a full on 25 days, 24-7 in his company to just leave and anyone travelling 36 hours over 3 continents would also feel a little ‘tired’ I am suspecting. I better toughen up though I as I have 15 flights in the next 52 days, bar 6 of those which are internal flights in the US they are all international flights. Joy oh joy, I bet nobody want to be me on those days!
It was a hotel morning. I still hadn’t packed my bag, but it all looked like it would all fit okay. I uploaded 2 blogs and I only had to complete yesterday’s and then I was up to today. I have finally caught my tail and hopefully I will be able to keep on top of it now being on my own for the next 12 days at least. I’ve had 31,450 hits on my site since leaving last year, so I am pretty stoked. I never in my wildest dreams think people would come back to read my posts. I can’t wait to be able to get it into print format and read my whole trip from start to finish all over again. I have a feeling there maybe a little bit (okay massive amount) of editing that will have to be done, but maybe that can keep me busy in Ethiopia for my first 3 months? I’m really liking the idea of just getting into the swing of things and learning the language for the first 3 months, home for Christmas, and then look for a job in earnest in the new year. I think it is a bloody marvelous plan and hopefully Zeme will agree when I run it past him.
Sharon was able to catch the free hotel shuttle to the airport. The last one left at 2pm and I was leaving at 3pm. That would be right. I knew the taxi would only be around 10USD so it didn’t worry me too much. It was sad to say goodbye to Sharon, but knowing we would definitely be seeing each other again in late August, definitely as we have booked and paid for a 10 day tour of Scotland, it took a little bit if the sadness away. We travel well together so it will be great to see her again. It will be strange as I would have been home and refreshed and restocked the wardrobe and she will be in the same clothes from South America just like when I saw Zeme in October and then again in February, I also still had the same clothes. That’s long term travel for you I guess unless your name is Blue Heather (group joke). So chow and adios Shaz, have fun back in Europe for your last 4 months and see you on the 20th August in Edinburgh.
After waving Sharon off I headed back to the room, ordered a tuna fish sandwich via room service and then got stuck into my packing. I could probably get rid of some t-shirts that I have been carrying, but they are more dress shirts and I will need them more than ever heading back into the western world, so I will hang onto them a little longer. So packing, rolling and with the last few items, stuffing I got my bag zipped up and it weighs a ton. I haven’t had all my possessions packed in this bag since arriving for my tour at the end of November. I have had all my stuff spread out on Rosita for the last 5 months in 10 different bags. Even when I went to Ethiopia, I only took what I needed and left the rest on the truck. So the last few items were a squeeze, but I got it all in and zipped up. High five me. My small backpack was another matter. For some reason it weighs more than a ton. Seriously it is so heavy and I put it on the scales and it is around 12kg!!! This is my hand luggage. The main weight culprit is the jewelry pouch that would weight 1kg on its own, I have coins from the entire trip that weighs a fair bit and then after that I am not sure what the hell is making it so damn heavy. Let’s just hope they don’t weigh my hand luggage as I maybe in a little strife if that happens as you are generally only allowed 7kg for hand luggage. But I got everything in there as well, just, so I am happy being back to my big backpack, my small backpack and my shoulder bag.
Part of being on the Smart floor of the hotel was we could get a late checkout automatically till 3pm, subject to the availability. My flight was at 6.40pm, so I figured 3pm was okay, by the time I checked out, got a taxi and the drive, it would get me to the airport a little early but by 40 minutes or so I could live with. Well 3pm rocked around and I thought 30 more minutes wouldn’t make much difference to them and it gave me a bit more TV time and a little less airport time and when I checked out at 3.40pm nothing was mentioned. I asked for a taxi and what I got was a private car transfer which I had to pay the concierge before leaving. It was a whopping 5USD for the 15 minute journey to the airport. How cheap is that. Most of the taxi rides within the city are 3-5USD it is so cheap to move around. Because it was so cheap I tipped the driver 2USD. Trolleys are 2USD which I think is worth its weight in gold and knowing I had some coins to get rid of O was more than happy to oblige.
There was only 5 people in front of me at the check-in counter; I only had to wait 10 minutes before finding myself at the counter. This particular flight, Quito to Lima, was on its own ticket and then I was picking up my round world ticket from Lima to Easter Island. I found on my Europe flights that if you had connecting flights on different tickets they wouldn’t even contemplate checking your bags to your final destination, but I have found with all my flights in South America the airlines have all been more than obliging checking my bag through where they can and this guy was no different. He checked a few things and then said no worries he could do it for me; I would just have to get my onward boarding pass from LAN once I had arrived in Lima. Thanks buddy. So that was great news that I won’t need to see my bag in Lima. I will be surprised if the side handle survives this section of the trip, with the top one already ripped off and this one half ripped already, it will just make it back home I am guessing, where I will buy a new one. I have definitely got my monies worth out of this one with it previously doing 4 weeks in Central America and 3 weeks in India. So with a window seat boarding pass in my hands, my 23.1kg bag checked all the way through, my departure form filled in, it was time to make my way through immigration. There was only one person waiting in front of me, so I was processed and through security within 10 minutes. Quito International is not a big airport with only a Subway food outlet and one other food outlet and a handful of local handicraft shops and one duty free shop, I just pulled up a piece of floor at 4.10pm and finished yesterday’s blog, uploaded it (they have free Wi-Fi), had a chat to Mrs. Brown on Facebook in LA and munched on a packet of Doritos that Sharon had left in the room and before I knew it, it was nearly boarding time. We were supposed to board at 5.35pm but they didn’t make the first call till 6.10pm, but with the plane only ¾ full we were all belted in and on the runway at 6.35pm. What a great effort. I had 4 hours to play with should we have been delayed for any reason and at one point I didn’t think we would leave on time with the delay and there was also a massive thunderstorm rolling in and some of the flashes of lightning was a little disconcerting to say the least. I just HAD to make my connection in Lima as the flights are not daily to Easter Island, so if I missed the connection I would only get like 2 nights on the Island, but all went to plan and we left Quito on time.
I was booked as a Taca passenger but was sitting on an Aero Gal plane. It looked brand new and was an Airbus A320 with a seat configuration of 3x3. Initially there were 3 of us in our row and when they announced that the doors had closed the lady in the middle seat jumped to a spare one across the aisle so I had a spare seat next to ne for the 2 hour and 15 minute flight to Lima. They had in-seat TV’s showing a selection of new releases and oldies. I didn’t see the Hostees give out headphones, but the jacks were a single plug, so you could use your own headphones, so just after take-off they switched on the entertainment system and I settled in to watch the new Drew Barrymore movie Big Miracle about the 3 whales that got stuck under ice in Alaska in 2008 based on a true story. It was a 1hour and 47 minute movie and I just got to see the end before they switched off the system preparing to land. What a great way to wile away 2 hours on the flight.
We landed on time into Lima at 8.50pm. No time change between Ecuador and Peru and as I waited for the plane to disembark I turned on my mobile phone and for the first time in 4 weeks I had reception on my German number and 3 messages received. Welcome back little fella, I have missed my text messaging that is for sure. I was a transit passenger so after passing a security screening there was a LAN counter, so stopped to get my boarding pass for my next flight and then I found my way to the gates and duty free shops of Lima’s international airport. I had time to kill so I had a look in one of the souvenir shops and found a really cute soft toy turtle. There is a personal joke with Omar, Nic and I and I couldn’t resist this little guy, I also bought some Peru/ South America stick pins and 2 small colored Inca statues. So much for just having a look!!! Not enough credit is given to some retail therapy! As my flight wasn’t leaving for another 4 hours, there was no gate number on the departure screens, so after buying a ceasar wrap and some Inca Kola (Peru’s version of Coke and I missed this stuff) I found some seats to set myself up in and start to blog today’s events. It has been a longtime since I have blogged on the actual day and it feels good. I only got to arriving here as my battery went flat, now that I am finishing this blog in Easter Island I really didn’t have much more to write about as it hadn’t happened yet. Get it?
At 11.30pm my gate was allocated so after a quick toilet stop I went to my gate and waited for my flight to be called. Boarding was supposed to be at 12.20am, but they didn’t start it till 12.50am and we were all locked and loaded at the departure time of 1.20am. One thing to be said about South American travelers is they know how to line up and board planes, no offence but the Americans are the worst ever. LAN is also good by having 3 lines to board all their flights and they do them in seat numbers. 40-13, 30-21 and then 20-1. So then people orderly stand in the line that pertains to them and then we board. Genius and I do believe it helps the speed up the boarding process. This flight was operated by a Boeing 767-300 with a seating configuration of 2x3x2. I was in one of the 2 seats hoping that the seat next to me would be free. Well that lasted 5 minutes when a Peruvian lady sat next to me. Dang it. There was a family in front of me and they had their seats already fully reclined, I hate that, but after 10 minutes they were moved to a bulkhead seat to give them ‘kiddie’ room. I was waiting for the lady next to me to jump seats, but she was happily reading a magazine oblivious of the spare seats. Well the couple across the aisle was more switched on and they jumped into the 2 spare seats. But that left 3 seats across the aisle free. So again I hoped the lady would move so we could spread out and after another 10 minutes a lady from the other side of the plane in the 2 seats jumped into the middle of the 3 seats so she could lie down after take-off. Smart, but then that left her 2 seats free, and again I waited for her to look and move and still she didn’t even look around. How do you ask someone to move seats without seeming rude, so I then realized unless I wanted to move (I didn’t’) that we were going to be stuck with each other. I didn’t want the middle seats as I was hoping to see a great sunrise and wanted to be next to the window. Oh well the flight was only 5 hours and 50 minutes and I guessed I would be sleeping a lot of that anyway. But what is wrong with people not jumping at the chance to swap seats? We were fed dinner at 2.30am and it was the full hot meal with salad and dessert. I had started watching a movie but after dinner my eye lids just wouldn’t stay open any longer and I succumbed to some sleep for the rest of the 3 hour flight waking up when the cabin lights came on in preparation for landing. Movies and sleep are the 2 best things to make flights to quicker and I am lucky I can do both.
Landing onto Easter Island aka Isla de Pascua, it was 5.50am winding our watches back an hour. The airport is what you would expect of a small tropical island and reminded me of Papeete or Fiji. We disembarked via steps straight onto the tarmac and then we had to wait in a line to get processed by immigration. The line went from the building, under a thatched hut and then continued to along a path that wasn’t covered. This was okay till it started to sprinkle for the next 20 minutes and guess where I was, yep on the uncovered path and when I reached the thatched roof; yep you guessed it stopped raining. I was in line for 1 hour and 20 minutes and when I finally got to the customs guy I could see there were only 2 of them on the job, 2 people for a flight of over 300 people they had TWO people on. Geez no wonder it took so long, and I was one of the last 20 or so of the whole flight. The upside is that my bag was ready and waiting for me and after all my bags going through a scanner I was through and my transfer was ready and waiting and with another couple staying at the same hotel we drove for the 10 minutes to get us there finally at 7am. Considering I had been travelling for 17 hours and been up for nearly 24 hours I was feeling okay. It was still dark at this stage and the rain had really kicked in and was coming down in buckets.
The hotel is right on the water front and located on the west side of the island so I am hoping to get some great sunset shots from here. Check-in wasn’t till 2.30pm and it was now 7am. I wasn’t going to wait for another 7 hours to get into my room, so I paid a half room rate of 80AUD to be able to get into my room straight away and it was money well spent if you ask me. Wi-Fi is only in the public areas, breakfast is included and when I got to my room the TV was limited to 3 channels and they are all in Spanish. Welcome to island time, no one and nothing is in a rush here. Breakfast runs from 8-10am so I will stay up, have some breakfast and then come back and have a LLD (little lie down) and use today as a recover day as the next 2 days I have 2 full day tours and I can’t wait.
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