Why 4 1/2 hr connections are actually a really good thing...

So I made it! Let's all just rejoice at that fact for a moment. Breathe it in. Ahhhhhhhhhh. That's better.

I left my house in Dallas at 8:30am on Saturday morning and arrived here at my hotel in Ushuaia at about 5:00 pm on Sunday night. And that's without much of a time change. Dallas - LA - Santiago - Punta Arenas - Ushuaia. Let's just say I'm happy that's over.

The trip begins with the captain of my Dallas flight coming over the loudspeaker to announce that we have "mechanical difficulties" because they were short on planes so they just wheeled this one out of the hanger. Too bad it had been sitting there too long and no one bothered to wipe away the cobwebs before we boarded. So great, we're going to be delayed and I'll miss my connection and never get to Ushuaia in time to catch a boat that sure as hell ain't gonna wait for my free-loading ass. At least that's what went through mind for 30 seconds until the captain got back on the mic to say, "nevermind, guess it's all fine, the engineers are going to sign off on the book, so we'll be out of here in 5 minutes." WHAT?? Now I'm really worried, cuz I don't know about you, but I'd rather be late than dead!

Fortunately it was just the entertainment systems that were malfunctioning, so no biggie really, and we made it to LA in plenty of time. Out of security into security sandwich eaten soda gulped electronics charged last phone calls made flight boarded.

I arrive in Santiago and proceed to the international terminal to catch my flight to Argentina. I go through security again. (I'm telling you, by the end of this trip I must have been the most secure person on the planet.) Proceed to the international terminal, but I cant find my flight number or gate info anywhere. Through some ugly broken spanish (yikes I need practice) I find out that my flight stops domestically in Punta Arenas before continuing on to Ushuaia, which is in Argentina. I have to go back down and out and through immigration and customs. Not only does that mean I have to pay the $131 reciprocity fee for entering the country (despite the fact that I'm really just passing through), but I have to wait in line twice because there are NO signs anywhere that say you need to go around the corner to pay this fee before you get in the immigration line. And since I happened to be caught up in the international terminal (can't figure out why I thought I should have gone there for my international flight) I was the last one down there and didn't have the benefit of herd mentality where I could just do whatever "they" were doing. Ugh. I also had lively debates going with multiple airport, immigration, and airline employees as to whether or not I needed to pick up my bags and go through customs in Chile or if they were checked all the way through like I was originally told. Long story even longer... I did pick them up, but didn't have to go through customs with them. Go figure. This makes little to no sense to me, but my bags got here with me in the end and that's all I really care about.

After all the craziness (and trust me, that was a brief synopsis) I had only about an hour left out of my 4 1/2 hour layover, so I'd say keep that in mind if you're thinking of connecting internationally in South America. Turns out that it can be a real pain. Music played coffee sipped book read flight boarded.

The rest is history really. An hour or so in Puntas Arenas and finally I made it here. It's about 10:15 pm as I'm writing now and it's still very much light outside. It's hard to get a handle on the time when you're this far south. On the plus side I took a shower at about 9:00 and enjoyed stunning vistas of the water and mountains from the bathroom window in full daylight. I'll try to remember to get a picture later for you guys to see at home. Now I'm just killing time until the ship comes in and I can go have a drink with that fine bar manager of theirs. I wonder what the drink special is tonight....? ;)