We´re in Chile!!

Hello Everyone,

Well, we made it to Chile. We had a shaky start when we left our passports at the baggage check-ín counter in Portland. We were already at the gate and people were boarding when they called our names over the intercom to come back to the ticket counter. A little jog back and forth and we had our passports again and were the last ones to board the plane. Whew!

Here's a shot of Mt. Hood as we flew away. Goodbye, beloved mountain! We will return!

We had a nice layover in Dallas where Dave´s friends John and Becky picked us up for a our last American dinner. Pizza, of course! We almost missed the flight - they were calling our names on the intercom when we got there (twice in one day!), but it was worth the stop. Once again we were nearly the last ones to board the flight. Oh well - the less time on the plane the better, right? After a day and night of travel we finally arrived Santiago where we had a 4 hour layover before our next flight back up to Northern Chile. We had visions of running into town for lunch, but our hopes we're dashed with a 2 hour customs line.

Here's Dave looking really excited to be standing in the customs line. At least he's a little more pleased than the lady to the left who looks downright pissed. The best part is that at the end of the line you get to pay $100!

Finally after one more hour in flight we arrived in Antofagasta, a city in Northern Chile. Antofagasta is an industrial town on the Pacific Coast built on a mining industry. We´re in the middle of a desert and when we landed from the plane all we could see was sand and water forever. Here's a shot of Antofagsta from the air.The town itself is not gorgeous, but there is a pretty square and a long outdoor pedestrian shopping mall. People were out in droves last night shopping until 10pm. It´s odd to think that Christmas is coming since it´s hot and sunny.

As far as we can tell we are the only tourists in this city and so far, the only ones that speak English. We´ve also discoverd that our ATM card doesn´t have the ¨Plus¨ logo and therefore doesn´t work in any machines here. Whoops. We´ll figure it out. We have enough cash and Traveler´s Checks to get by for a while, then we´ll figure out some other way to get money off our card.

Our hotel was super basic and a bit rundown, but it´s in the middle of the action, which has made it easy for us to explore. We´re not so impressed with the culinary wonders of Chile yet, but we have strayed into local cusine much, either. All I can say is Chilean pizza isn´t quite what we had hoped for.

In about an hour we´re off to the airport again to fly to Bahia Inglesia where we meet up with my sister and brother-in-law. We are anxious to see them since they´ve been traveling here for a month now and their Spanish is much better than ours. It will be nice to see some friendly faces and sit down with a glass of wine to relate the adventure so far.

We miss you all and would love to hear about what´s goingon back home.