26 Aug 2004 7:00 pm EST, Depart Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, USA
26 Aug 2004 9:30 pm EST, Arrive Miami International Airport, Florida, USA
26 Aug 2004 10:30 pm EST, Depart Miami Internation Airport, Florida, USA
27 Aug 2004 7:30 am EST, Arrive Santiago Aeropuerto International Arturo Merino Benitez
After waiting in the customs line, the customs officer impatiently waved his hand at us to go "back over there" to pay our entry fee. Luckily we were over-prepared for the entry fee for U.S. citizens - the travel book was out-of-date. The $45 fee had risen to $100 per U.S. citizen! It's the Chilean's payback for the U.S. visa costs, we hear. It's a lot cheaper if you are Mexican, Australian or Canadian. For others there is no entry fee.
However, you must have perfect bills only. Seriously, only absolutely perfect $20 USD bills are acceptable. Not even those tiny tears from folding the bill. I thought the woman was going to whip out a magnifying glass as we handed over bill after bill for her quality inspection. Others in line were frantically trading bills - we never found out what would happen if all your bills were imperfect. Maybe they are still wandering around Arturo Merino Benitez, begging for bills from incoming passengers?
Anyway, we are now allowed through customs - stamp, stamp!
In the madhouse of taxi drivers outside airport customs, George the driver finds us and takes us to Hotel Plaza San Francisco.
See the woman in the coat in the hotel picture - wierd, it wasn't cold - cloudy and 65° - in Chile that's about 21°.
One great thing about traveling 11 hours directly south in the same time zone - no jet lag!
Other stuff:
- In Miami, during the 2 hour layover, we enjoyed a walk through the newly remodeled Miami terminal, very nice, open, airy, well-lite and delightful colorful fish sculptures on the walls and ceilings and fun artwork in great little art gallery called Modern Threads - I hope it's all still intact after the recent hurricane season.
- In Santiago, George, the friendly taxi driver gave us his cell phone number in case we needed help with transportation while we are here - he was just the first of many friendly people we met.
- On the way home, we connected thru Miami in between Hurricanes Frances and Ivan - missed our connection by 5 minutes because our skiis were the last luggage to appear. We got a flight to LaGuardia NYC (that American Airlines had added to the schedule to get people out of Miami); our skiis got lost; our car 30 miles away in Newark NJ; we were sleepless and starving but eventually arrived home after 24 hours travel.