It’s great to be back on the road

After an all night fight from Auckland, I arrived late afternoon?? tomorrow?? yesterday?? in Santiago, Chile, something to do with the date line... I had been warned that Chile immigration can be difficult but with my $200 visa I got through Ok. But they did ask to see my boarding pass, which of course was left on the plane!! I did get the Tourist Card (Tarjeta de Turismo), which seems more important than the visa as it saves you paying the 19% tourists tax, but you have to pay with a credit card to avoid the tax (not debit cards), so you need to have a fee free credit card! Sounds crazy, but this is South America where 1 Aust dollar buys 600 peso, so a gin and tonic costs $8600!!

I was going to Uber to my hotel but the airport only had 3g network so my phone didn’t work, so I decided to take an “official” taxi. But when I went to get in, the door handle fell off. The driver tried to break the speed record on the freeway, nudging 150km/hr through bumper to bumper traffic. Meanwhile, all the electric stuff in his cab stopped working, including the aircon and electric windows and the internal temperature inside the car went above 50*C, so his phone died! We arrived at the hotel in a bucket of sweat! Welcome to South America….

I cannot wait for tomorrow 😀