April 27,

Transition day!!

We were up early at 0445, before the alarm of 0500! It was raining, of course, it was raining. We readied, getting out by 0535, and at the airport by 0538. Jeff took the rental car back, as I found a cart and seats waiting for him. We had put 1338 miles on our cars here in Chile. He wasn’t very long and it had stopped raining. We checked into Latam Airlines and dropped off our bags. They have been cleared through to our final destination. Yay! We went through security without any hiccups, and arrived at the lounge by 0610. We settled in and had our Javas. I had an apple, and Jeff a banana; we both had tried a bite of the slider sandwiches, but they were bland. We left the lounge – thankful for coffee, and arrived at the gate by 0650. We then boarded by 0700 with the plane backing up at 0727 – four min. early – with take off at 0738. The first 2 min. had some turbulence as we climbed through the rainy clouds.

Once at elevation that stopped, thankfully. The view outside was just a white out…couldn’t see anything! It’s gonna be a long hour and twenty minutes flight! We were served beverages and caramel popcorn. Our plane landed in Santiago at 0858; and sat on the tarmac until 0910, awaiting a gate. Finally at a gate, and by 0918, we exited. We had to walk outside, over to Terminal 2, shades of India for Jeff. We entered and went through security to another lounge. We weren’t sure if we were allowed in this one, but it worked and we got in. Yay!

We left the lounge finding our gate after a 10 minute striding walk. We boarded our next plane at 1200, but it didn’t back up until 1233 – 13 minutes late – with this take off at 1253. From the sky above – the sprawl that is Santiago, we still see the smoggy and/or hazy air, but I can see the mountains that encircle it also. Around 1430, we were served a heated sandwich, a fruit cup, and a mini chocolate bar. Somewhere during this fight we crossed a time line and time changed, an hour later. At 1735 the plane touched down, and at 1748 we disembarked. We went through immigration, with probably the pleasant immigration official I can recall – and we have met a few. We found & claimed our bags; and went outside. Oh my muggy heat wave!

     Welcome to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!!!

The weather difference was a stark change. Anyway, we were waiting for our prearranged ride by 1835…right at an hour, not too bad. By 1840, we were in the car ride that Jeff had prearranged and were heading to our new home, in the now dark, night streets of Rio. We arrived, got checked into a condo-type place, found & into our place, unloaded, showered and crashed!