WAY South of the Border

So far, our South American adventure is off to a great start. We had been worried that our government would  shut down again,  resulting in TSA being under staffed and flights being cancelled. Once THAT got resolved, we turned our attention to the next potential spoiler, the weather.  

It was hard to believe that yesterday we had a snowstorm bad enough to cause flight cancellations, given that by today’s  2 PM pickup, the roads were clear and dry. Surprisingly there was very little traffic, so  we were at JFK, checked in and through security by 3:30. Pretty amazing.  Right now, we are feeling pretty lucky, especially because OAT was able to get us amazingly inexpensive business class tickets—much cheaper than we could have gotten on our own. I feel like we won the lottery!

My family will not be surprised to learn that despite my lists and careful planning, I forgot something. Not an essential item, like my passport, or credit cards or camera or Mike. Nope. I forgot my iPad. So much for my plan to run down the battery on one device while charging the other. But considering what COULD have gone wrong, this is a minor hiccup. Just be prepared for lots of typos, (or at least more than usual) as I peck out my blog on my iPhone.

We will be in Santiago by 7 AM tomorrow, a day ahead of our OAT tour group.  We built in that extra day because of the aforementioned weather worry, but also because it gives us time to adjust to the 2 hour time difference (Chile is ahead of us, so our bodies will think it is 5 AM when we land) and to get over that disoriented feeling that always accompanies an overnight flight.

It is not immediately obvious from the map above how great the distances are between the places we will

be visiting. Easter Island is 2,300 miles from Santiago, which translates into a 5 hour flight.

From El Calafate to Buenos Aires is 1,300 air miles, roughly the same distance as Boston to Miami. And, like someone whose vacation plans include an extended period in Boston, followed by an equally lengthy time in Miami, we needed to pack for the two climate extremes. We managed to jam everything in—at least I THINK we did. Of course, I also thought I packed my iPad, so we’ll see.

Our plane is here, so time to sign off. See ya in Chile!