OCT 25 - Fri - Day 8 - Fly to Santiago

Last Updated: 29-NOV-2019

OCT 25 - Fri - Day 8 - Fly to Santiago - Chile

DAILY WRITE UP - We've been wondering about this transition from Peru to Chile for a couple weeks now due to the major rioting that is occurring down here. But so far we've had no issues. We're staying at a Double Tree Hilton about three miles out of the center city of Santiago and being it's Friday night there are major problems.

Our day started with a 3:30 a.m. wake up call then we flew approximately 3 hours and then it was about an hour from the airport to here.

The city went under a curfew at 6 p.m. It gets dark here around 8 and it really did clear out but we still are hearing people banging drums and sticks and there's still some cars driving by and our tour guide said a lot of people just ignore it but the military has shot people on sight as over 20 people have been killed so far. So we're happy to stay in our little fort and we're on the 16th floor so we should be relatively safe.

Chile is a lot different than Peru since it looks very much like Southern California. We got here and it was probably close to 90 and we're around 1500 FT elevation versus the 12,000 that we've been at for the last couple of days. The woods that I saw as we're driving along look very much like home and I'm not seeing a lot of palm trees and things like that here.

So tomorrow we're going to travel around the city but with great caution and we're actually not sure where we're going to go but I'm sure we'll have fun looking around. Sunday is our next big travel day where we fly 5.5 hours West of here to Easter Island and we'll stay there for number of days then we fly back to Santiago

We change 2 hours from Peru time which was central time and now we're on Atlantic time. Very strange.

Couple things that are strange about South America as they do not have washcloths here. Also the water they say is safe to drink here I will stick with bottle of water just in case.

Using a GPS tracking software to see exactly where we traveled each day. Here it is overlayed onto Google Earth. We really did not travel much today. I did not track the flight as I was not by a window. This was our path from the Santiago Airport to our stay at the Double Tree by Hilton Santiago

ROAD SCHOLAR WRITEUP -- Fly to Santiago - Chile

Santiago

B,D

DoubleTree by Hilton Santiago

Activity note: Today is a long travel day; the flight from Cuzco to Lima departs very early in the morning and the flight into Santiago arrives in the evening. Airline schedules are beyond the control of Road Scholar. Driving approx. four miles to airport; about 1/2 hour. Flight from Cusco to Lima is approx. 1.5 hours; Lima to Santiago is approx. 3.5 hours for a total of roughly 5 hours airborne; responsible for own luggage in airport. Driving from airport to Santiago hotel is approx. 12 miles; about 1/2 hour.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Rising early, we will transfer to the airport in Cuzco for the flight to Lima, and await our connection flight to Santiago, Chile.

Lunch: On your own during the layover at the airport in Lima, Peru.

Afternoon: Board the flight to Santiago, Chile, and arrive in the early evening for transfer and check in to the hotel.

Dinner: At the hotel, enjoy plated meal with coffee, tea, water included; other beverages available for purchase.

Evening: A local expert at the hotel will give a lecture on Chilean history.

Amazing we are now at 33 degrees south

Our drive from the airport to the city center hotel. Looks like California

Our hotel - DoubleTree by Hilton Santiago

US Embassy Santiago Chile

Nice room and after 2 nights at 12,000+ feet I needed a very good night sleep.

Some bad traffic shots from our room

We encountered these all over the place in Peru & Chile. You had to put the room key into this to turn on the power. It had an occupation sensor so you could not leave the second key in it when you left. I hated them as the A/C would turn off when you left. I am sure these stupid things are coming to the USA.

So, how far back to home ? 8,156 KM or 5,067 miles. This is air miles.

Looking east at the Andes

Gran Torre Santiago - is a 64-story tall skyscraper in Santiago, Chile, the tallest in Latin America - It is the third-tallest building in the Southern hemisphere by highest architectural feature (behind Australia's Q1 and Australia 108)

Snow Melt ? Its late spring

Amazing - A Carl Jr's next to our hotel - So we got to Santiago in the afternoon and were told that there is a curfew tonight which starts at 6 PM due to the riots. So we checked in to our hotel and then took a walk. We saw that a number of restaurants were already closed (Wendy's) and then Ken saw Carl's Jr. so we ate our lunch there so we were not out past 6 PM. We had a group dinner and presentation on Chilean history at the hotel.