Departing South America – Chile 2nd May 2019
It’s our last day in Santiago, Chile’s capital and South America in general, being 2nd May 2019 however, we are scheduled to leave 00.45am tonight (3rd May actually) but completely lose a day when we arrive in Melbourne across the International Date Line to arrive on 4th May 2019. Spins your mind a bit when trying to schedule things on a hidden (lost) day to suit the correct timing. The IDL was the reason why I had 2 birthdays in April (Australia & Sth America timelines).
Following on from my previous blog post in Santiago we arrived safe at the Santiago Airport after our wanna-be Formula 1 limo driver (140klms/hr in parts) changed lanes like a magician and promptly aligned the car to the gutter where we alighted at the correct location for the terminal access. We tried to tell him we had plenty of time (midnight flight) but that was definitely lost in translation. We successfully checked-in and made our way to a cafe. Santiago Airport is quite active in the afternoons and seems to be a gentle build up to the early evening rush seeing this airport is the major interconnecting point for international travel. We arrived with 6 hours till our flight (no point staying in the city) so we will enjoy the people watching and a couple of coffee servings to kill the time.
Enjoying a coffee and some not so bad airport food in the general public area Scott and I eventually made our way into the departure section which is basically a 3 metre wide opening in a glass wall which confuses quite a few people thinking they can venture through this “traveller’s only” opening. To somehow overcome this, the airport has this entry manned to refuse public entry. He is quite busy and I’m sorry, it can be quite amusing at times watching their capture and refusal. Surely, they could improve the area to rectify this fault. Happens all too frequently.
Immigration/ Customs and scanning, etc went OK and we took up some seating for the next couple of hours. Not quite sure why we couldn’t get a quick nap in and for some reason we were both wide awake in this departure lounge. Scott was desperate for a good book to read in the plane but despite a thorough search of the airport there were absolutely no English books of any kind which was very frustrating. Time ticked along and then I received a message from Qantas that our Melbourne to Brisbane (home) connecting flight has been cancelled however, they have placed us on a flight some hours later. I will have to wait till Melbourne now to quickly request Con-x-ion (bus transport pickup at Brisbane) to reschedule our journey to my home in Gold Coast and hopefully this can be achieved without added fees or hassles.
It is just after midnight and finally, our flight is called and after quite some minutes of queueing to present our boarding passes, we notice no-one is progressing through the line but the Latam staff (Qantas associate airline) are running around like scared chickens in a panic. No communication and/ or announcements, so Sth America continues along that line of response action (nil).
After some 15mins or so standing, the line progresses through all so slowly. No-one is talking in our line (2 lines are queued) so no-one knows what is going on. We all show confusion judging by the myriad of traveller’s faces. We show our passport and our boarding passes as per normal and proceed one step into the aerobridge (connecting structure to the plane) and stopping again. The air is heating up, as no air conditioning is present and the aerobridge is completely full of people literally like sardines in a tin.
Looking through the wall of travellers I note staff are demanding people open their carry-on luggage for another detailed inspection. They have 2 small collapsible tables in use but the progress is all too slow. Some of the passengers are so slow to assist and not in readiness to get their act together and that just adds to Scott and my frustrations and the extraordinary delay.
Finally, we are at the desk. My passport, boarding pass and backpack are at the ready (unzipped) expecting a quick pass through. The Latam lady officer quickly scurries through my backpack, pulls stuff out roughly and then spies my Katmandu see-through water bottle with about 10mls of water in at the bottom. I thing she was going to confiscate it as she could not tip the water anywhere. I grabbed it and drank the entire 10ml dry (say two teaspoons). She then allowed me to board. Hard not to vent my frustration as to the crap experienced. Scott, seeing what transpired drank his 30mls and was at the ready. We both boarded the plane, and again, present our passports and boarding passes for further scrutiny. Arrghh!!! What a send-off after spending 5 weeks in South America. From memory, I believe it took another 20mins for everyone to gain their seating and then another 15mins after that to start taxiing out.
This flight will be a major test. It will be my longest flight to date (my 2016 USA connection flight was 10hrs and our Auckland to Santiago was also 10hrs) and Scott is dreading these upcoming 14hrs. The flight path brings us just over the southern tip of the Sth Island of New Zealand so that is a lot of water to cover. Scott & I struggled to sleep so we both completed 3 movies each by the time we reached Melbourne. The movie that really stood out of the 3 watched was “Bad Times at El Royale”. What a movie of twists set in past years. The cast were fantastic and Chris Hemsworth was mind blowing even though it was a small part he played. Highly recommend for viewing.
Another movie that played loonies with my mind in another way was “Robin Hood” a 2018 movie. It was too contemporary and so bewildering and a movie not to watch. I like the traditional Robin Hood stories far better.
Arriving in Melbourne at 7.30 am local time we had an extensive delay getting through Immigration and Customs with travellers not having documents ready or custom cards filled in and stuff in bags avoiding declarations. You can see why the Customs staff are non-personality plus in dealing with the volume of travellers. I think our Customs officer was relieved he had 2 organised Aussies in compliance.
After 2 phone calls I managed to get in contact with Con-X-ion to alter my Brisbane pickup so all is good with the world again. We venture to the domestic terminal end of the airport (Melbourne has combined terminals in the one massive building whereas Brisbane has 2 separate terminals connected by transit bus or the elevated airport train which can also take you into the city for Gold Coast/South or Sunshine Coast/ North) and with a reasonable break we alight the connection plane to Brisbane. Melbourne does not have the latest scanning technology and it is a bit cumbersome whereas Brisbane does, so the inconvenience and scanning time is more than halved of Melbourne. Brisbane is about to open its 2nd runway so I have no information yet on how that will change things, apart from extended air taxi times to the terminal buildings.
Arrived in Brisbane and both Scott & I are still wide awake and no jet lag so far. We searched the outside terminal after picking up our main backpacks for the Con-x-ion bus for home (towards the Gold Coast) but with no luck. Another phone call has us going 180° and up a set of stairs and then down a set to a split roadway. We are now set for the next Con-x-ion bus, apparently. Within the hour we are sitting down into my loungeroom speaking to my brother and chilling out. Scott & I were still on a high but my brother is never one for being involved in travel talk (can’t figure that out) so the conversation is limited. Scott’s friend, Sam is finishing his night work duty, and he’s on the way to pick Scott up for his home further down the Gold Coast. My brother is off to spend the night with friends some 20minutes away so I get slightly unpacked, showered and head down to Broadbeach using his work van (I sold my car the day before I left for Sth America) to meet up with Scott and his friends again for coffee and to meet & greet. Everyone was excited to see us and talk about our travels .. such a blast!!! Home again, beyond midnight and a timely crashed sleep. No jet lag though … Go Figure??
Post Blog: Coming home the world changes;
Ecuador/ Quito – Very violent protests against the Government and centralised in the same street we stayed in. Contacted the Hump Day Hostel and wished them safety, etc and they responded with concern but crossed their fingers on their safety and knew things would soon subside. They welcomed my contact and wished me well. Such kind thoughts in times of stress.
Santiago Chile – Very violent protests against the Government and was centralised about a 1klm from where we stayed. Protests kept escalating for many weeks until the Government relinquished their tough proposed legislation.
Valparaiso Chile – Massive bushfires in the neighbourhood hills surrounding the lower CBD area. Thousands of people now without homes. Total devastation to a once very colourful and pretty skyline.
New Zealand – A Massive volcano eruption on White Island, located off the North Island of New Zealand where 17 people have now been confirmed deceased with several still in hospital with extreme burns. The people were from a cruise liner out of Australia so most of the deaths were Australians. Very brave rescues were undertaken to bring them back and recover the bodies, however 2 remain missing. I had several emotions to this disaster as my eldest son & I just came back from venturing onto 2 active volcanoes in Ecuador (Cotopaxi & Quilotoa).
Australia – Well into Spring and now Summer has hit. We are in the most severe drought in recorded history and our annual bushfire season has started in a big way and early. The Left Wing politicians and Greenies and the ill-informed have blamed it on Climate Change but this is a financial scam set by the UN and Al Gore corruption. Climate does change but history tells us it comes in cycles and not some CO2 bullshit and rising seas.
The catastrophic fires are due to our Greenies tree hugging policy makers and our 3 levels of inept Governments that cowered to their stringent land management policies where our National Parks were extended, closed off to our farmer’s cattle, campers, public, tree logging, and even our Fire Services for well over a decade that increased the fuel load of bark, leaves, branches and fallen trees. Even farmers were criminalised if they fell a tree or cleared land on their own property. Ludicrous.
When the fires started our fire crews could not drive into these areas as their old access roads were now blocked with fallen trees, etc due to no maintenance management in our forests. In some places the fuel load was so high you couldn’t see over it. Obviously, this created such fuel and fires with enormous power. To date, over a thousand homes destroyed, about 8 deaths, a $3 Billion insurance bill, a million or so wildlife killed including thousands of defenceless koalas. For almost 30, 000 years our indigenous aborigines conducted hazard reduction burns to enable passage through forests and to uncover animal food and this prevented such large fires by reducing the fuel load. These devastating fires have NOTHING to do with CLIMATE CHANGE, GLOBAL WARMING or any of that nonsense.
THE NSW Govt purchased a huge fire-retardant airliner but of course we need more as this plane was even sent to Western Australia for a few days to combat fires there. The Federal Govt finally agreed to use the Defence Forces to assist but several weeks late. We even had to use the Navy to carry out one of our largest evacuations of the public in Victoria when the public was forced to the sea to escape. Our firies mainly consist of trained volunteers and they have been on the go for almost 2.5 months now without much respite. They are our TRUE heroes. The Govt has now agreed to set up a payment plan for the firies for their lost income and family struggles which has never been done previously, such is the scale of these fires. This tragedy has been escalated now that over 100 imbeciles have now been caught lighting fires over these months (quite a few children involved). These arsonists are yet to appear in court.
Some months ago, there was outrage from the world for the hazard burning by locals for the Amazon Jungle. This pails into insignificance when Australia has lost probably 50 times or more forest than the Amazon was burnt.
Many thanks for reading my travel blogs … really appreciate it and look forward to any comments that may arise. Had a few requests for my Cambodia and Vietnam travels last year (4.5 months of it). See what happens. Cheers.
BH Life Travels 