Tim and I arrived in Santiago early in morning along with Francisco and his son. Unfortunately one of Francisco's suitcases did not arrive and that caused a delay. He had hired a vehicle so gave us a lift to the hotel and once we settled in Tim and I went out to do the bus tour. I had done it before but it was great to revisit everything, problem was it was an open top bus and it was raining. There was a cover on top which kept out light rain but it didn't help with the cold.
As before the thing that struck me most about Santiago was the electricity wires in the suburbs, low and spaghetti like, although Francisco later told me that part of it was that being prone to earthquakes they don't like to bury the wires.
As we enjoyed the tour it got colder and it got wetter and by the time we returned to our drop off point we were still laughing but cold, tired and damp.
There was a large modern shopping centre next to the hotel but because of the rain everywhere was full so we went to Starbucks and simply had Coffee and Croissants. Tiredness was winning the battle.The arrangement was to meet for breakfast and then go with Francisco to the event. I was awake early for a UKOUG board call (3am) and doing some work when Tim rang and said was I not doing breakfast.
Chile have this year changed their rules not to use summer time so it was actually the same timezone as Brasil despite Apple telling me it was an hour earlier. I was furious and then rushed. I checked out and the hotel staff told me that many of their guests had been caught out. So why don't they tell them when they check in!!!!!!!!!!!
In fact when we left Santiago that evening the national airline LAN still had the old time on their in seat displays!
The University where the event was held is at the foot of their main park Cerro San Cristobal, which has a funicular railway to get to the top of the hill. I had not done this before and as I wasn't speaking till the afternoon decided i would go up when it opened at 10. So I was very disappointed it was closed for maintenance that morning but not as disappointed as the to coaches of tourists who arrived just after me.
I was able to do a quick trip between my two sessions and the views defiantly made it worth while. I even bought a hat for poor Tim who constantly moaned about the cold. The views were spectacular and well worth the visit. It was a little misty but one of my trip highlights.Chile was our quickest stop with Francisco dropping us plus Ronald and Kerry off at the airport straight after the event, another journey in traffic toying with an entry in my top 10 to be forgotten.
Chile and Argentina were experiencing unseasonal rain but it didn't really affect us much. My boss has a daughter who was coincidentally travelling around S America at the same time and she had to change her plans as the crossing between the two countries in Patagonia was closed and a state of emergency declared.
Luckily Kerry and i had lounge access so the four of us where able to enjoy a few drinks and food till our respective flights.
Next Lima
No comments:
Post a Comment