February 10, Sad goodbyes in Melipilla, Welcome to Iquique!
 

We were not looking forward to February 10th. Although we were continuing on our Chilean adventure it is always sad to say goodbye to friends, especially those whom you only get to see every 4-5 years!

We woke up early, dropped the kids off at nursery school as soon as it opened at 8:00am (6:00 D.C. time) and headed off to the airport via Ruta 78.

This was to be my first time at the Domestic Terminal in SCL. It was wonderful. Bright and airy at check-in and the gates. We arrived the airport at about 9:30 for our 11:10am flight to Iquique.

Check-in was quick but not without a bit of LAN inspired insanity. We approached the counters (no line) and were told that we have to check in on a machine (set away from the counters, not like in the States where self-service is at the counters), before we could approach the counter. We try to use the machine and it says it can´t check us in because we are on a special type of ticket. We return to the counter and are again told that we HAVE to use the machines. Fortunately, my friend started talking to one of the LAN supervisors, too quickly and heated for me to catch much of the words, and suddenly LAN realized they could check us in at the counters and accept our bags. This whole process only took maybe 10 minutes but was wholly unnecessary. (In fact and I´ll be posting about it in a conclusion post, LAN has Awesome in-flight service, but it´s ground service is completely inconsistent.)

After check-in we headed to Dunkin Donuts where we all enjoyed coffee until 10:30, when we headed to domestic security. Domestic Security in SCL was so civilized. Shoes stayed on, liquids could be any size, laptops could stay in their bags, personnel very, very polite. For some reason the extra batteries for our noise-canceling headphones caused alarm and my bag was hand-searched by an exceedingly efficient, polite and competent employee, who started by apologizing that my bag had to be checked, explaining why it was being checked, asking me if I would prefer a male to check my bag (I´m male and the security officer who was about to check my bag was female). I told her I appreciated her politeness but I was just fine with her checking my bag. She found the offending AAA´s, ran them back through the X-ray alone and sent me on my way with wishes for good travels and apologies for holding me up. TSA, ARE YOU READING THIS? I FELT JUST AS SAFE IF NOT SAFER THAN WHEN I TRAVEL IN THE US, AND I WAS TREATED POLITELY AND HUMANELY.

Mrs. Dcstudent and I headed first to gate 25, a bus gate, but we were soon changed to a gate upstairs with an airbridge. Just as in Iguazu, boarding was a cluster. US unions would love to have LAN´s work rules. It took no less than 6 people at the gate. Two, at the counter. Two checking boarding passes to make sure we were in the right lines (Preferencial Boarding, Rows 15-29 and Rows 1-14. Two more to scan our boarding passes and send us on our way. It was serious craziness.

We boarded, took our seats and I (surprise ;) fell asleep before we pushed back. My wife tells me that they handed out a very nice snackbox and did two drink services during our 2 and 1/2 hour flight.

Next: Arrival in Iquique

We landed in Iquique just prior to 2:00. Iquique´s airport only has three gates and the gates are for general airline use (as far as I can tell there are 3commercial airlines serving Iquique). We went downstairs and the bags were already coming out on the carousel.

Unfortunately, the airport is about a 25-30 minute drive from town and is only served by two transportation companies. One has lower rates if you are willling to share a van, and one has lower rates if you want a private car. They have desks in baggage claim. You get handed a coupon for the company you choose and then a driver takes you outside. You pay the driver when you reach your hotel. We took a private car for 17500pesos or about $36.

We chose the Holiday Inn Express Iquique because the Hotel Terrado Suites did not have any rooms available, and let me tell you, the Hotel Torrado Suites would definitely be my only option the next time...more on that later.

Anywho, we arrive at the Holiday Inn at 2:40, only to be told that check-in is not until 3pm and we have to wait or pay extra. Look, I get it, I have no status with Priority Club and they don´t want or have rooms available at 10am in high season. But this was 20 minutes before the official chck-in time. Whatever, we sat in the lobby sipping on overpriced sodas from the Holiday Inn Sundries Shop ($1400pesos for a coke or $2.86). At 3pm we were checked-in and assigned an ocean-front room on the 3rd floor. The room was spotless and totally to Holiday Inn standards but there is a very busy 4 lane highway between the hotel and the beach and it seems the hotel has no soundproofing as the noise was very loud, even late at night/early morning.

We walked a block from the hotel to Jumbo and purchased sodas and bottled water at a far more reasonable rate than in the hotel.

At 8pm we headed to dinner at Tres Ojitas, a lovely restaurant in a garden setting that was just wonderful. Mrs. Dcstudent had a vegetarian curry and I had a noodle dish with chicken, plus appetizers and drinks for only 28,000 pesos or $38. Not bad for such a good meal, in a resort town, in high season.

After dinner we went back to the hotel where we relaxed until falling into a peaceful sleep.

Ok, so why the Hotel Torrado Suites. Unlike the Holiday Inn, the Torrado is oceanfront right next to the swimming beach, Playa Cavancha. The Torrado is not on the main road (it is on a quiet side street) and all rooms have balconies, with nothing between the ocean and the hotel. It also has much better pools than the Holiday Inn.

February 11 - A short day of relaxation
 

We awoke at 8am and headed downstairs to breakfast as it was included because of Holiday Inn Express standards. Well it may be standard to include breakfast, but it was pretty gross. Fruits that had gone bad, scrambled eggs so runny you wondered whether they had been cooked after being scrambled, sausage that was rather unsausage like. We stuck to tea and pastries. The pastries did not taste particuarly fresh but they were ok.

After eating we went upstairs to change into swimwear and took our 10 minute walk to the beach. We had bought beach towels the day before at Jumbo for 4,000 pesos or a little over $7 each. At the beach we paid $3000 for an umbrella, or about $6.15. The beach was wonderful and we spent the entire afternoon there. Mrs. Dcstudent was excited by the presence of seals swimming within 50 meters of shore, and Dcstudent enjoyed swimming with said seals, getting within 10-15 feet of them while swimming behind the wave breaks. The water was absolutely frigid at first touch (thanks to the Humboldt Current) but you warmed up a bit (only a bit) while swimming.

Around 5 or so we headed back to the hotel, showered and headed back to Tres Ojitas for dinner. Dinner this time came to about $24,000 pesos or $49 but we drank just a little bit more than the night before. ;)

A cab back to the hotel and we crashed.

Well you're right, there's only one eightblack, but you've done an admirable job of reporting on an excellent trip so far. I've enjoyed reading about it. ^^

Update on Updates
 

Hi all, sorry for the lack of upda.tes until today but we didn't have wireless until arriving at the Arica airport today to start heading home. In fact, some days/nights we didn't have power or water!

Oh, and especially to give our parents a heart attack we spent part of one afternoon stranded in the wilderness when our 4x4 sank in a road due to extremely heavy and unusual rains, and we were afraid we might have to walk 17km to the nearest police station.

It's been a crazy awesome end to the trip and as soon as we get home tomorrow I'll start finishing it up!

(is it sad that after a few nights in accommodations that shouldn't count as accommodations I'm actually looking forward to a night in a LAN 767 exit row in Y?)