Plane ride was smooth but not very quick. Paula got us bulkhead seats and even with the extra leg room - nine hours is nine long hours sitting in one place. Paula slept with her little magic pill and dreamed the people on the plane were collecting jelly beans from all over the plane floor and sorting them by color into their shoes. This actually has a logical explanation. I would doze for 20 minutes then wake up - play candy crush then doze again and repeat the process. We both had our shoes off. I always love telling Paula her halcyon stories the next day.
After a false start we finally caught up with the Holland America people and was bused to our hotel.
We only had an afternoon free so we decided to take a tour using the Santiago Turistik Hop Off Hop Off double decker bus. Paula as usual did her pre-trip research and found a restaurant that was recommended by her various sources. And I had some inside information about shopping from Jay, our Marigold Ct. traveling pro. As we were waiting for our bus we met Martha from central Mexico, who was taking our same tour. She ended up being just one of the angels we met this afternoon. She not only stayed with us and helped us find the restaurant, translated menus, checked bills and even ordered the Chilean local foods. She asked directions of two gentlemen and one of them, another angel, actually stopped talking to his friend and walked us to the restaurant. It reminded a lot of China in that people were willing to help total strangers in their country. It happened many times with me during my 3 years.
We had a wonderful lunch at the Bar Liguria with 2 appetizers of bread with fresh salsa, mussels with cheese and olive oil and 3 main courses of steak, chicken and cod. My favorite was the pisco sours - a wickedly strong drink made with egg whites. Martha told us all about her family, her travels and shared photos. After a couple of false starts, with much running and retracing steps we finally found the our tour bus stop. We got off in the Bellavista area which had a lot of lapis lazuli and other native crafts. We saw some wool sweaters, scarfs, and hats but it was too hot to even touch them. Paula and I bought some earrings and I bought a penguin. Martha negotiated a taxi for the three of us to get back to the hotel and crashed. We had to pretend we didn't know her so that we wouldn't be charged tourist prices.
We have a slight mix up as to where and when we catch the bus tomorrow, but I am sure we will get it straight there eventually.
