Santiago, here I am

Inés and I

The journey to Chile was quite an odyssey. Already on the airport in Rome I was informed that my flight to Buenos Aires would be delayed about three and a half hours which meant that I would not reach my connection flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago neither. For I had lots of time in Rome I went to the city and roamed around the Roman ruins over there which are indeed quite impressive, had a last original pizza and enjoyed some last rays of hot summer sun. At least I already could change my connection flight to Santiago at the airport to the next possible flight but the rest of the journey was quite a horror. I would not really recommend fly with Aerolineas Argentinas to anyone. The plane was damned old, some parts sticking out of the inner covering, the seat rows horribly close to each others, without screen for entertainment program. The stuff either unfriendly, old, ugly or any combination of these attributes.

The plane finally departed 4 hours late. I was sitting next to an Uruguayan who had the same problem as I with his flight connection from Buenos Aires to Montevideo. We came to talk (what for you have a lot of time on a 14 hour flight) and he told me that he is going to visit his home for the first time after 24 years that he had been living in Italy. Because both of us had to change the airport in Buenos Aires, right from one end of town to the other, we took a taxi together. When we arrived at the second airport there were 15 minutes left to the departure of my flight. The monitors already announced the 'last call' for it. I ran to the check-in counter just to hear from the lady over there that the gate recently had been closed. Damned! I was already travelling more than 24 hours and just wanted to arrive. Well, at least I got a free meal from Aerolineas Argentinas (as I already had in Rome for the delay) and was without any problems rebooked to the next flight but had to wait for it three and a half hours more. I called Inés - who already was at Santiago Airport - as I had already did from Rome to tell her I would be late some more hours. The waiting time I spent with Horacio the Urugayan which abated my own excitement and agitation because compared with the 24 years he had not seen his home my three months of 'loneliness' seemed to be ridiculous. So we were taking some beers and cigarettes talking at cross-purposes - he from Uruguay and I from Chile and Inés - nevertheless understanding one another quit well.

Finally I arrived in Santiago more than 7 hours late and after a journey of more than 36 hours.

At the house of Inés' sister where we stayed there I felt asleep almost immediately. The next days we enjoyed finally being together again, strolling through Santiago, meeting friends, having first beers, asados, pisco sours, hamburguesas and all that Chilean stuff together again, bought some things for our shop and just enjoyed.

One day we went to the 'Cajon de Maipo'-valley right out of Santiago where a friend of mine is working as a rafting guide and ran the 'Maipo' river. For it was the first time on white water for Inés she was not that convinced about it at the beginning but finally we all enjoyed it and had a lovely day with another closing asado.