This morning there´s a knock on my door.  “Sra. Ruth, son las 6:30am.”  This was how I was woken.  This was not how I was supposed to wake up.  I had set my cell phone to wake me up twice (it has to do something other than search for service!) once at 5am and again at 5:15am.  What happend?  I decided to wear earplugs when my neighbors got noisy last night.  Brilliant idea. 

“I guess I´ll take a cab!” I yell as I jump out of bed and get dressed.  Thank God I had packed my bag the night before and even left a note taped to my door reminding me to take the yogurt I left on the window sill to stay cool overnight.  Up at 6:31.  Out the door at 6:40.  It pays to plan ahead. 

I had a 8am flight to catch to Easter Island.  I told the cab driver I had to board by 7:30am and he seemed confident.  We got there at 7:15 and I got to security by 7:30 something.  Then I saw this this large plexiglass box with a tall pile of scissors, exacto knives, and Swiss Army knives.  SWISS ARMY KNIVES???  I left mine in my day pack which was ON MY BACK!!! I love that thing.  I´ve had it since my first backpacking trip to Europe.  I made mad dash back to check-in.  They said the flight was closed.  One woman checked again and said there was still time, so I had to check my second day pack and all was well.  They let me take a large bottle of water on the plane though.

LAN airlines is very nice.  Breakfast & a light meal for the 6 hour flight.  Oh, and the entertainment:  a screen in front of every passenger, TV shows, movies, music and games.  Classic movies, documentaries, recent movies.  And their were 160 albums of music to choose from.  Coldplay, 10,000 maniacs, Madonna´s Hard Candy.  I´ll take advantage of that on the way back.

Easter Island is small and the water is beautiful.  It´s cooler than I expected.  Reminds me of the countryside of Puerto Rico.   Everyone speaks Spanish.  Some people look Polynesian and others look of Spanish descent.

Saw a few Moai today and couldn´t believe I was actually here.  I got all emotional as I was walking up to them.  The sun was behind them so I couldn´t get the greatest shots, but I´ll be out again tomorrow.

Moai with Eyes

I have a private room and bath.  I´m going to head back now to cook dinner now.   I´ll share some more pix tomorrow!

Now the bad news.   I had to cough up $200US before I even set foot out of the airport.  There is a one time reciprocity fee of $131 for American air passengers arriving in Chile.  It´s valid until your passport expires.  Uh huh, that´s generous.

Then I start to go through customs and I see a sign with a big green apple with a red circle and a diagonal line going across it - just like the one in my bag.  So I tell the baggage handlers that I have an apple in my bag.  I search for it and one guy tells the other “she ate it already”and they both chucke.  So I´m digging through my bag for this green apple and pull out a little baggy of my Trader Joe´s nut mix. ”Oh, you have nuts?  Just carry the bag and tell him (the inspector) that´s all you have”.  OK.

I put my bags through the scanner, walk to the other side, the inspector asks me if that´s all I have, and I say ”Yes, and an apple.”  He opens my knapsack and finds my Trader Joe´s turkey and cheese sandwich and salad.  “Oh, yeah!  I completely forgot about that.”  “You said this was all you had.”  Suddenly I´m feeling like a drug smuggler and a stupid one because I say “I didn´t even know dried fruit was prohibited.  In that case, I have a whole bag of them in my backpack too.”

Full disclosure did not help my case.  He gives me a dirty look and tells me to open the bag.  Tomato sauce (ok), pasta (ok,) quinoa (ok), walnuts and dried cranberries (not ok).  Nuts must be roasted and salted.  “Because you lied to me, you must pay a fine.”  Oh my God.  “But it´s not like I´m hiding drugs!” He didn´t care.  I officially hate this country.  I wanted to say “Look, give me my $131US dollars back, I´m going home!!!”  Mother effer!!!  I looked back at the baggage handler and he just shook his head at me in pity.  The lesson learned?  Read the fine print Ruth and eat everything before you get off the plane!!! I brought most of the food for my trip to Easter Island.

The inspector weighed my contraband one item at a time.  Then I had to wait to go into an office with a two way mirror where I would have to make a statement and pay the fine.  Misery loves company so I felt better when I saw that other people were busted for bringing vacuum packed chunks of meat and sausages, a big wheel of cheese and even honey spread.  Somebody spent a small fortune and it was being opened or cut in half and then tossed into a garbage can.  I felt even better when I saw a little white haired lady walk out of the office.  If she was guilty too, I couldn´t be that bad of a felon, right?  I didn´t hear anyone gasping or crying as they left the office, so I figured the fine wouldn´t be a thousand dollars.

So this SAG (Servicio Agricola-Ganadero) official who was kind of cute and nice, typed up my statement and asked me to sign it.  I asked him to correct the line where he said the inspector discovered the large bag of nuts to say that I had CONFESSED to them.  (Did you see Midnight Express?)  He said because there was no mal intent, I would be paying the minimum fine of about $70US.  I paid it and left.  Easter fucking Island better be worth it.

Now that I got that off my chest… The Good News:  I had been up til 3:30 am prepping for this trip for a few nights in a row.  On the flight from LAX to Miami, I was able to secure an empty center row with 3 empty seats!!!!!! Yay!!! Then on the flight from Miami to Santiago, same thing!  Score!  Thank you God.  I was able to sleep fully reclined for about 1/2 of the 14 hour flight time.  I even got a late dinner and breakfast on the international flight.

Flew over the Andes in the morning.   They were covered in slow and clouds.  Amazing.  The weather is nice and spring like.  I´m glad I brought a fleece jacket.

Residencial Londres

My hotel Residencial Londres is lovely, simple and clean.  Reminds me of Europe and so does the neighborhood it´s in.  Near Universidad de Chile.  It´s centrally located and has a metro nearby.

The people in Santiago seem polite, serious and respectful.  Not snooty like in Buenos Aires.  They speak Spanish at a lighting clip, but they drop their S´s and some syllables just like Puerto Ricans do, so we´ll get along fine.  I met some nice ladies last night.  I listened to my nano pod before bed and actually got some comfort from it.  Brushed my teeth with a big bottle of sparkling mineral water.  Read the labels Ruth!

This woman Nitza that I met in the van on the way to my hotel recommended some food I should try while I´m here.  One of the dishes was Lomo a lo Pobre.  It´s a steak with fried eggs and french fries and fried onions.  Yum.

Lomo a lo Pobre

I had some for lunch yesterday at a smokey restaurant near my hotel.   Bar Restaurant de la Unión.  Mostly older men eat and work there.  They wear white jackets and bowties.  They also had 4 framed posters of those pool playing bull dogs.  The meal was a little greasy, but I´d give it another shot somewhere else.

I´ll do a little exploring today, maybe hit a museum as I shop for a short sleeved T-shirt and some non-fruit/cheese and meat items to bring to Easter Island.  They say the food is expensive there, so I´m going to do some cooking.

Hope you´re all well and I´ll be sure to keep my posts shorter, if I can!

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