We Made it to Santiago, Chile!

Well, after a brutal travel day we finally made it to our hotel in Santiago, Chile. Coming off our LONG climbing day in Bolivia, we were up early the next morning and off to the airport. We awoke to a La Paz covered in snow! Nothing quite like a snowy July 27th. Fortunately, the airport was operational and after a drawn out check in we boarded our Lan flight departing from the world´s highest international airport. An hour later we landed in Iquique, Chile. From 19,000 feet on Huayna Potosi to sea level in 30 hours. Iquique is a unique coastal town located in the Atacama Desert, where there is literally not a plant in sight. Turns out the rest of the passengers on OUR flight were heading on to Santiago immediately. For some reason our booking skipped the next 3 flights and left us with a 10 hour layover! We tried the stand-by rountine, then gave up and headed into Iquique as originally planned to spend the day. A nice taxi driver took us to town, gave us a little tour, then returned us to the airport 8 hours later. We enjoyed a great walk along the beach, explored the town´s historic district, had great seafood, and sampled Chile´s beers. Our Santiago bound flight arrived at 2:00 AM and to our great relief our bags arrived safely once again!!! This was a huge milestone as our ski gear has now traveled through 9 airports enroute to this southern hemisphere ski destination. Our first no show transfer of the trip left us to find our own ride to the Hotel Orly, where we arrived (at a reduced rate no less) arround 3:30 AM. Makes us tired just thinking about it. Our hotel is wonderful and we are excited to explore Santiago over the next 2 days before heading up to Valle Nevado ski resort.