Arrived Safe and Sound

All went well on the trip to Chile. 4 hours from rainy Seattle to Dallas, 3 hours to wait for our next flight, 9 1/2 hours from Dallas to Santiago, a quick trip to the ATM machine and then an aiport shuttle bus to a bus station where we caught another bus (about 90 minutes) to Vina del Mar, and a 10 minute taxi ride to Paula´s sister´s Lola´s apartment.

We´re just three blocks from the beach. Weather feels like it´s in the 80s. And it´s a huge change from 24 hours ago in rainy Seattle.

It turns out that, probably due to daylight savings time here, Chile is 5 hours ahead of Seattle. So that means I´ll find out who wins the Seahawk/Carolina game 5 hours before any of you Seattlites... I won´t spoil it for you.

Vina is a beautiful beach town with crowds of people at this time of year. The oceanside walk along Avenue Peru was filled with vacationing Chileans. Street performers earn a few pesos from motorists at stoplights with juggling, mime, or other acts. One of my favorites was a guy painted all in silver and dressed up like an old west cowboy. He was standing as still as a statue at a stoplight on a busy corner near the beach.

One of the first impressions on the bus ride from Santiago to Vina is the struggle many people have making a living in Chile. While it´s one of the biggest (if not the biggest) success stories in South America economically speaking - it´s still obvious from the houses clingling to hillsides and people hustling jobs that many many people have to scramble to make a living. We were met by a phalanx of taxi drivers and hotel agents at the airport and again at the Vina bus station. I´ve been through so many of those gauntlets that I don´t think twice about a distracted smile and ¨no gracias¨ when they approach. It´s not as easy for Paula who sees beyond the annoyance of fifteen people approaching with, "you need taxi?" and sees the importance of each commission to these people and their families. It gave me a new perspective.

Tomorrow I´ll be wandering around town in the morning and then in the afternoon we´re heading north a couple towns to Concon for a Chilean lunch at the home of one of Paula´s cousins. The invitation is for 2:00pm - but in Chilean tradition we wouldn´t think of getting there on time. We´ll be arriving around 2:20 or so...

Chao! (The Chilean goodbye - not to be confused with "ciao" in Italian)