Plane Ride

The plane takes off and we're on our way to Dallas...the plane ride is short and exciting. We never imagined being able to go to Chile so soon. It all came up so quickly. We land in Dallas and hurry to get into the tram to take us to our gate where the plane leaves in 30 minutes...Dallas airport has this great tram system to get from one end of the airport to the next. It's almost like Disneyland!

The plane ride to chile is 8 hours...almost like driving from Utah home to California. On my right is Cesarito and on my left and a Chef from the World Chef's society on my right. I loose my book under the big chef and can't find it for the life of me...I watch the movie that is on the screen and the voyage seems eternal.

Cesar turns to me and says, "I've figured out who the Chileans are here." [Chileans are not all dark like him. There are a lot of them who are fair skinned and have blue eyes or blonde hair] So I ask, "How do you know?" Cesar then points out to seats around him that are empty. I look around and see several seats in different rows that are completely empty. They were occupied when we boarded the plane. "What happened to all of these random people?", I ask. "They're Chileans," he responded and signaled toward the back of the plane. [we were sitting close, several rows from the back]. I see a big group of people congregated in the back laughing and talking softly. "But how do you know they're Chileans?," I ask. "Look!" he says, "they're all back there drinking." I chuckle to myself in disbelief...As the minutes passed, the conversation and laughing in the back of the plane grows louder...sounds like they're having fun. A few hours later one of the group members who was sitting close to us comes back and sits down. The smell proved it all. haha "So that's what Chileans are like?" I say. "Muy fiesteros (they love to party or in better words drink)," he says. haha even in the airplane.

I start to think about the voyage. Airplanes are so amazing. You board and plane and you an be on the other end of the world in less than 24 hours. In 8 hours we will be in a place that I have never seen. In 8 hours, I will be hearing everyone speak a different language, eating different foods, different architecture, different customs. It is so exciting. Anyone can just jump on a plane and be in a completely different place. I think to myself, how blessed we are to have the opportunity to go to Chile. Airplanes are so incredible. They take hundreds of people and a tremendous amounts of weight in luggage to anywhere you like.

We land in Santiago and get to the immigration counter, or in other words, the counter where you pay with new, impeccable, and perfectly crisp bills. However, we don't know this yet. We get to the counter to pay and hand the lady $120, two 20-dollar bills and one 100-dollar bill. "I can't take this bill," she says. "Are you serious? Why?" I ask surprised. "The bill is marked," she states and hands the bill back pointing to a small black mark that was on the 20-dollar bills. Really?! haha Seriously? So Cesar looks through his wallet and pulls out another 20-dollar bill and hands it over. "I can't take this bill," she says. Seriously, I think, who is this lady? "It's ripped?" she says. I take the bill back and almost had to take out a microscope to see the miniscule rip that was at the top of the bill. Finally we found a bill that was in mint condition and passed it over. So luckily Cesar had more than three 20-dollar bills, otherwise I don't know what I would have done? Stayed in the airport without entering because my money wasn't in mint condition. It turns out that the bank that they take the money to doesn't take bills that have marks or rips...I guess it isn't worth as much? haha

So we get in the line to hand in another form that we had filled out and we chat with some really nice Canadians. We laugh about the bill situation. They had a hard time as well and finally had to pay with a credit card.

Santiago is a very large city with hundreds of huge buildings and mountains as their landscape. There is a lot of smog but I imagine that it must be so beautiful when the smog clears. There is so much life. The mountains look like Utah, but the vegetation looks like California in the summer. It is so different. It is clean and modern, not what I had imagined. I am excited to see more!

January 19-20, 2009*