Travel Update! June 29, 2009

Well, I’ve been here 4 full days,and had yet to get out a travel update, so here it is…

My mom and dad  helped me at the airport for as long as they could and then Dad prayed for me and we said goodbye. That flight was pretty uneventful as I remember. When I arrived in Texas, the first major thing I noticed was the heat. The second major thing I noticed was a Bass Pro Shop right in the airport. I thought that was funny, and somehow fitting of Texas ; )

On the flight to Panama I sat next to a guy who was from Panama. My flight from Chile to Panama did not have a number gate assigned to it yet so after giving up on getting help from the information place (the lady was having a fun chat on the phone), I went to go figure it out on my own. I got to the right place and I was pretty proud of myself! I had heard that there was wifi but couldn’t get it working. I was barely sitting down at my gate for 5 minutes before it was time for me to board. (It had taken us forever after landing to actually get off the plane into Panama!)

Okay, so I go through the door after having my ticket checked and go down some stairs to a waiting…BUS on what looked like the street! A bus? I thought I was going to be getting onto a plane?! There was a man outside the bus who I showed my ticket to and he told me that was right. Well, I suppose that was the gist of what he said…I don’t thing it was in English though! ; ) Weird. What am I doing? So I get on the bus, and then thankfully I saw a man who I knew was going to Chile from my flight! We drove to the plane I would be talking from there. That was the longest flight of my adventure. Like 6 hours. I got fed 4 times on flights and that doesn’t even include the cereal I opted out of. The food was generally pretty bad, but it kept something in my tummy ; )

K, so when I got to Santiago from Panama I realized it was cold…and I was in flip flops! People were in their boots and coats, and here’s miss dummy California over here in her skirt and sandals(and as I found out later, they didn’t heat their building!). Customs and what not were interesting. I almost got my trail mix confiscated (I only found out later that there’s a $200-$1,000 fine that they can charge you…Yikes!). I had to wait a while for the Sky Airlines place to open up and then I got all set and headed to where I would wait for my flight. There was a Starbucks, but it didn’t work out for me to get any : (

My flight from Santiago to Iquique was a connecting flight which I wasn’t privy to before I was in Santiago and about to board. Things looked pretty good though, so I had them look at my ticket and hopped on. At the first stop, I didn’t really know what was going on ‘cause it was all in Spanish, but I finally asked and found out that my stop was the next one. Good thing I didn’t get off!

I got to the airport and we exited the plane pretty quickly. When I got down to baggage, Mr. and Mrs. Reinhardt were waiting outside the glass doors for me. We got my luggage and headed home and the rest is history!

Praise the Lord for a successful trip!

Chao Chao! (as they say here; )

Advertisement