I flew into Santiago on American 954 - a pleasant 8 hr flight which lands at 10am - perfect to get at least some sleep. The first thing you have to do after you disembark is pay the 131 dollar fee that US citizens are charged because our govt. charges Chileans 131 dollars to come to the US. Then another line through immigration - easy - no visas or anything needed. But they give you a card which you must NOT looose! If you do - upon exiting you would pay another 100 bucks to get another one. Then customs - to be safe declare everything food, spices related. If you forget the orange in your backpack - it could land you in trouble so discard all food you brought on board to eat. I declared all my Indian spices - the mustard and cumin seeds were confiscated but the rest was fine - all the powders were fine.
Alina Prus picked me up and we drove into Santiago to the hotel - the El Bosque suites - so so hotel but fine for a day or two. Tried to get the internet working at the hotel which was an extra 10 bucks but come to think of it no one charged me. May be ALMA got charged for it. The bell boy was funny - did not say a word until it was time to collect his tip. Then he speaks in perfect English and says "I will take dollars if you have them!" Ha ha ha!
I then got refreshed and headed out to meet with Alison and Mark Rawlings at the Starbucks - Franz Bauer was supposed to meet us there but he went to the wrong one - we found him eventually. Starbucks proliferate the streets like rats in New York! Pretty much everywhere you go - and also the Chilean knock off "Star Light".
We took a city bus then to Los Domenicos which is at one end of the city and to the little area of local artisans etc. Alsion did a bunch of shopping and we window shopped.. drank some good fruit juice and relaxed. Then back in Las Condes - drinks at TGIFs and then dinner at the local Tiramisu Pizza place. I was pooped. WEnt back to the hotel and crashed!
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