Monday, 19 February

Disembarkation and Santiago – We were out of our suite in plenty of time to enjoy a last breakfast in the dining room. Then we found a comfortable place to sit until our tour was announced. As we were leaving the ship, Larry was called back because we’d left our binoculars in one of the cabinets in our suite. We still were not last to board the bus, so no worries. It was a large, comfortable bus, with a great audio system, so we had no trouble hearing and understanding our guide’s excellent English. The drive from San Antonio, where we docked, to Santiago was about an hour, through agricultural country, including many vineyards. 
It’s great wine country.

First stop was the magnificent cathedral, on the main street of the downtown. It was rebuilt in 1910, after being destroyed a few times by earthquakes and fires. We walked around the main square, with its impressive buildings, and statues of several former presidents. 

The president’s palace is there, too, and heavily guarded. Our lunch stop was at a really-i nteresting modern complex containing several restaurants. At one of them a young man with impeccable English arranged a garlic- and onion-free hamburger for me.

Then we moved into a really cute little ice cream parlor for dessert.

The last stop of the day was a lovely little enclave of artisans’ and artists’ shops on the site of a monastery. We were at the airport 2 hours early for our cleck-in, so found seats (having to shoo a sleeper’s feet off one of them) and waited. Eventually, we checked in and cleared security, only to find that our gate had not been announced and there were no seats available in the central part of the terminal. We wandered along one very long corridor until we found a place to sit. An hour or so later, our gate was announced, ‘way down a different corridor. Lots of walking and lots of waiting. Strangely, as we boarded the plane, our carry-ons were opened and searched on the ramp [drug smuggling check]. The overnight flight went, as they always do, slowly. We took off at about 11pm and they served us dinner at either 11:30 pm or 1:30 am, depending on whether we’d reset our watches. It was quite horrible, except for the little chocolate bars.

Photos of the day

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Tuesday 20 Feb:  The Last Leg (aka OUR last legs) – Breakfast on the plane was a bit better than dinner, thankfully. We arrived at JFK around 7 am, tired and cranky – just the way you want to go through that nightmare airport. We had to claim our bags, go through customs and immigration, re-check our bags, then go through security. The security line was very long and very slow because TSA is apparently grossly understaffed. Three of them were just outside the area shouting at each other over whose job was what. People in line were trying to talk their way to the front because their flights were soon, but everyone’s flights were soon, so that didn’t cheer anyone up. Only one of the three possible lanes was open and the staff were even more stressed than the passengers. To complicate matters, they were using a process that meant everyone needed 2 or 3 bins, with a lot of stuff pulled out of bags. Larry got held up because he set off the screening machine, so I tried to find all our bins as they came out randomly. I never found my new straw sun hat, but I think I got everything else. By then it was past our boarding time. Of course, our gate was about a kilometre away, and we were beyond being able to race, but the gate was still open when we got there. Then our boarding passes were rejected and we had to wait for that to be sorted out. When we finally got on board, one of the young women we’d met in the TSA line said “Oh good! I told them you were coming! I’m so glad to see you.” That was nice. And the cabin crew slipped us some extra snacks, too. 

Pearson was just plain spooky – we were literally the only passengers in that huge customs and immigration hall, then 2 of about 5 passengers in the gigantic baggage claim area. Too bad our luggage wasn’t there, but the Delta staff assured us it would be delivered to our home that evening. Easy limo ride home and pretty much straight to bed for an afternoon nap. Later, sure enough, 2 bags were delivered. Sadly, one of them wasn’t ours. But the missing one turned up on Wednesday, having been accidently switched with someone else’s and taken to Oakville. Phew! This was a fabulous vacation, in spite of some glitches, and we’re very glad we did it.

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