Side note:  Sadly, sometime in the middle of last night, something didn’t agree with either of us, and well, who knows? Was it the juice on the tour? Or some bad ceviche at dinner?  Or just a 24-hour kind of bug? We’ll never know, but we were not happy campers most of the night.  Fortunately we felt well enough in the morning to be able to contemplate flying and went on with our day…praying we wouldn’t have a relapse on the way to the airport! We didn’t…phew.

Our driver was early, which was fine by us as we were ready and just hanging out. So, off we go downstairs, and…yep, you guessed it, no driver!  Booking.com didn’t give him the hotel name. That seems to be a problem with renting an apartment. But after texting him, he found us and off we went.  The first part of the drive was fine, fast, not too much traffic. Past rocks in the road from the earthquake and a crew cleaning them up.  He’d obviously not been out to the airport since the metro construction coz the GPS confused him. So while we were sitting at a traffic light (they are all LONG!) he waved down the car next to us and asked about it. Had this long conversation with the guy who obviously told him what was what.  Too funny – and nice. They all drive like, well, I don’t know what, but except for the horns, they are pretty polite.

But then, OMG!  The turn for the airport! Getting into the airport was uncontrolled chaos.  But our driver just did it like it was nothing different. There was this crazy traffic circle with no one directing traffic, 2 lanes turning into airport, people coming over from inner circle, going every which way. Nuts!

Once inside – after the guard let us in – though, it was smooth as silk.   There was a special check in room for business – yes we bit the bullet – figured what the heck and it wasn’t that much cost.  The “room” was “around the white wall,” seriously just this little room tucked away around a corner that had 3 counter staff waiting to check you in.  Perfect.  Then once we found the correct security line (not the best signage), we got through there in no time. Without any requisite liquid checks or computer checks. You could bring anything you wanted through security. So different, even from Europe. 

Because we were Business, we had access to the Business Class lounge which was a blessing, because the Priority lounge had a huge line.  That would have stunk. It’s not even 8am and we need coffee, would have been very sad if we couldn’t have gotten into a lounge.  But, we did, and had our morning caffeine, charged our phones, made good use of the bathrooms and we were ready to roll.

At the gate, we were first on the plane with excellent comfy seats and all the amenities.  A very good breakfast menu, and then fabulous views over the sprawl that is Lima as we take off to fly our way to Santiago.

The flight is smooth and easy, the view over the mountains as we cross the continent spectacular, and we arrive in Santiago right on time. 

Grabbing a cab, we head over to our Recoleta apartment.  As we are approaching, our cabbie tells us it is muy peligro aqui.  Hmmm…really?  Dangerous?  This is in the vicinity of where we stayed the last time we were here, albeit some years ago, and we didn’t think it was that bad.  But….out we go to check in, and the apartment does have a locked gate that the front deskman has to buzz us into, but other than that?  Doesn’t seem bad.  And our apartment is great! Top floor, lovely little balconies overlooking the Mapocho river and a fantastic skyline view over to the Andes.  Wonderful.

Getting settled and organized, we decide that while we feel better, we still aren’t 100% and don’t want to try to go out for dinner, so we walk to the grocery store a couple of blocks away – where we had shopped on our last visit – to get some basic supplies and maybe soup for tonight. Oh, this has changed.  It isn’t well stocked at all, the produce is poor to say the least and, well, maybe this area has gone downhill? At least this store sure has. But the people are friendly and they have everything we need – so we leave with out instant soup mix and beer and wine and bread and bananas and water – everything our stomachs might need!

And that concludes our day – better safe than sorry – we spend the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out in the apartment, relaxing and letting our bodies sort of heal.  Not really a bad way to spend time – and we’ve got plenty of exploring coming our way soon.