Chile Day Six

We awoke to our mountains missing in action once more. A rainy day which made me glad we were not hiking and thinking that if we were staying at Tierra Patagonia one more day, it would be spent in the spa. But alas, we were leaving this morning.

We had a lovely breakfast – I will admit to a migrain this morning – so the first thing I had after my migrain pill was a couple of stiff cups of coffee. That took care of the really bad part of the headache.

We lugged all our luggage out to the lobby, still unsure of what was meeting us to take us back to Punta Arenas, because all the info we had was that someone would pick us up at nine in the lobby. And low and behold they did – amazing.

So, we said good bye to the Hippy and his wife and then I went out ot the lobby to – yes – use the bathroom. Then my beloved and Chip joined me and I saw the two Brazilians and went to say goodbye to them. As I was walking thru the dinning room Bel Aire wife said “I am sorry if we offended you yesterday. Really I'm sorry.” I looked at her and said “thank you” on my way by thinking I wonder if she would have said that if Bel Aire husband had been sitting next to her.

So I said my goodbye's to the now friendly Brazilans, got hugs and kisses and left my email address because they asked for it. I still do not really know their names Fabiana & Fabulosa? I will simply refer to them as Sporty Spice 1 & 2 until I find out otherwise.

We got in the van and started our journey back to Punta Arenas to catch a plane to Santiago and then on to La Serena and Suzy No No.

We drove – actually it was very nice to have someone else be doing the driving – and drove. It seemed longer going back. I decided that in the event of the Zombi Apocolypse southern Chile just might be the place to try and get to. Anyway, after a while we (meaing I asked Chip to ask the driver) how long until we stopped for a bano break. His response – 35 minutes. I'm thinking OK, I can do that. Well I could not, when I asked again it was another 10 minutes – he looked at my face in the mirror and said something like “or I can pull over here” - yup, that would be good. Now, keep in mind there is no cover on this highway. No trees, no bushes, so public toilets. So I jump out and squat behind the van and do my business in the rain. I jump back in and say gracias to the driver and we are on our way again. In another 40 minutes or so we reach the afore mentioned bano break and I utiltilize those facilities as well. As Chip says, always use a bano when one is offered. Good advice.

And we are off again. We finally reach the airport with plenty of time to spare. Check our bags in, have a queso sandwich and fly off to Santiago, via Porta Morts? Yes, we do not to to change planes here, but we do stop and let others off and new people on and up back in the air. Santiago, finally!!

We deplane, down a flight of stairs, on to a bus and to the terminal, where we are let out on the first floor. Then we go up to the third floor, thru security and back down to the first floor to our gate, back onto a bus, driven across the tarmac – at this point Chip says – if we get back on the same plane this will be stupid – we pass our original plane and get on the next one. All this in less than 25 minutes. I was wondering the entire flight if our luggage had made the same journey.

We fly with a young male team of soccer players returning from some game somewhere. The coach was sitting in front of my beloved and Chip – surrounded by curious young boys – could see him. He did not like flying, tears on take off and landing. Imagine the ribbing he was going to get from the team, they were all watching him very closely.

After a short flight we arrived in Le Serana and Chilean Sister and her partner, Star Gazer were waiting to greet us. It was so good to see them. I miss my baby sister. We talk more now – thanks to Facebook – then before she moved to Chile and I like her. Star Gazer is an astronomer, she studies black holes in the universe, and Star Gazer girls sounds a whole lot better than Black Hole Girl, hence the nom-de-blog. She is also nice and we found out last night that she can cook Indian food, so now we are never letting her go.

Anyway, we were hungry and asked if there was anyplace we could grab something to eat. Chilean Sister looks at her watch and says - “Yeah, it is only 10, lets drop off the bags and then head out.” And we did. Chatting and eating until finally we headed back up the hill and to bed.