Going to Chile was no easy task. It took us three attempts at going to the airport to actually make the flight due to the ice storm a day or so prior that grounded most of the flights out of Atlanta. The flight's duration was only about 9.5 hours, which I was totally thrilled about since everyone was saying that it would be closer to 12 hours.
First Day (Monday):
We got off the plane about 9ish Santiago-time. Stood through customs (another hour or so) and finally made our way out to the "Ground Transportation" area. We were under the impression that the hotel (Hotel Manquehue) was going to send a shuttle bus for us per the group leader, however.. Manquehue doesn't have a shuttle bus! So we undergo the chorus of "Me take you to Hotel!" until we find someone who will take us there for 15,000 pesos ($27.30). Get there, and blissfully rest until dinner time.
Dinner: We had three choices for sides. Rice, Mashed Potatoes, or French Fries. So, we were served the Chilean Salad (Onions and tomatoes - that's it!), Grilled Chicken, and Mashed Potatoes. Desert consisted of some apple-cake with grapes.
Second Day (Tuesday):
The first day of work! Woke up at an early 5:30am, threw on some old clothes, and headed down stairs for breakfast. The breakfast was insane! Fresh fruit of all types (strawberries, honey dew melon, oranges, pineapples), eggs, ham, breads, pastries -- it was nice.
Katie, her Sister, and I were assigned to plumbing. The room we were to plumb was a dirt floor with two huge holes in it (6'x3'x4' deep). We started with fitting all the PVC together, nothing too exciting.
Put all the PVC into the holes and had to cover them up. I dug another trench with a pick-axe.. A lot of manual labor, nothing too exciting happened.
Then Sheila, Katie's mom, comes down from the roof area with her thumb dripping blood. She had lost her glasses the night before and seemingly hammered her thumb when she missed the nail. There was blood everywhere.
We had three breaks, one in the morning (10:30 am) that had fruits, cookies, water, and teas. One in the afternoon (12:00) that served as our lunch. The local church made fresh Empanadas with meats and cheeses, very good. And then the next (3:30) had tons of fresh fruit. We left the job-site at roughly 5:00pm.
Then we went for dinner. Potato salad, Hot Pocket knock-offs (were very... unique), mashed 'taters, and banana splits (the best desert of all the nights).
Third Day (Wednesday):
The work continued for the second day. More digging, hauling things away with a wheelbarrow (wheelbarrel?), and pick-axing. This day was the roughest because everyone was sore and hot. Lunch we had good ol' American Hamburgers.
Dinner: Weird Chicken-Salad put on lettuce, Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, and some sort of cake.
Fourth Day (Thursday):
Work continued! Ended up hitting myself in the ankle with the Pick-axe, hit a huge rock on accident with the pick-axe which split it in two (each section weighing over 10lbs) and a smaller rock flew up and hit my right in the face, chipping my glasses.
My hands were in the shape of a circle so much (Shovel, Pick-axe, wheelbarrow handles) that by the end of this day my hands were swollen and I could barely move my fingers due to the pain I had.
We also had some pretty bad sun-burns (although I just tan... lucky me!)..
Dinner: Some sort of salad (memory failure), Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, and Flan.. yuck!
Fifth Day (Friday):
We went on a tour of Santiago on Friday. The Tour Guide was SO horrible that it was absolutely hilarious. The missionaries were astounded at how bad he was, that he wasn't even pointing out the correct monuments. His English was terrible, even though he was hired on as a fluent-guide. He took 3 phone calls in the MIDDLE of the tour... all in all, it was great! lol
Until Katie, her parents, and I got separated from the group. We were lost in the middle of Chile for 2 hours until we finally got back in touch with them and made it to the correct restaurant. We eat, then catch a taxi to rejoin the group at the shopping area...
We then make it to he Airport where Katie's dad and sister make the flight, but Kaite, Sheila, Christie (a lady that John, her dad, gave a buddy pass to), and I don't. Christie goes ballistic even after being told a million times over 2-months that we'd probably get left back there. She starts bawling, having panic attacks, and wouldn't listen to anything Sheila says. A side-note, Sheila is VERY intelligent, knows some Spanish, and took very great care in trying to make sure we were all safe. She is a very capable lady, but Christie kept calling everyone including our Pastor to complain that she didn't get out, how horrible John was (the Church-leader for Missions Trips) was to have left HER there... She went insane, needless to say she's not allowed on the trips anymore.
Sixth Day (Saturday):
By this time we had endured over 24 hours of Christies insanity. She completely drained one $49.99 International Calling Card, and was trying to get me to give her the other one which I conveniently "mis-placed".
Sheila gets her on a Taxi and Christie makes the flight out. She tells John when she gets back that she accepted everything that the stewardesses brought her (champagne, mimosa, beers, etc).
Meanwhile! We all catch a taxi (Katie, Sheila, and I - he charged us $2,800 pesos which is equivalent to $5.10) to a fancy-schmancy restaurant for a night out on the town. We had tons of fun until we hop into the Taxi to go back to the hotel. The guy had no meter, and was trying to charge us $9,000 pesos to go back which is equal to $16.38. We get to the hotel and the Desk Manager comes out and sets the guy straight for us. Thank God for nice Hotel People!
Seventh Day (Sunday):
We wake up early enough to catch breakfast, check out, and make it to the church which we were 30-minutes late to (but it doesn't matter, it's South America, you're expected to be late... lol). Couldn't follow along with the guy speaking (in Spanish), but I could read enough of the power point to follow along. We then go out to eat with the head Pastor, his wife, their son, and the two missionaries. Had a fabulous time.
We go to the mall! Yay! I bought stuff for everyone who sponsored me, my family, and my friends in Texas who I'm going to see on Friday.
We catch a flight back to the states, and arrived this morning to our 2 1.5 week old levis levis dead, 3 geckos MIA (we've found one), and two brand-spankin'-new Tremper Jungle/Hybinos.
All in all, it was a great trip, but I'm glad to be home. I will be cropping/uploading pictures tonight and hope to get them on here ASAP.
First Day (Monday):
We got off the plane about 9ish Santiago-time. Stood through customs (another hour or so) and finally made our way out to the "Ground Transportation" area. We were under the impression that the hotel (Hotel Manquehue) was going to send a shuttle bus for us per the group leader, however.. Manquehue doesn't have a shuttle bus! So we undergo the chorus of "Me take you to Hotel!" until we find someone who will take us there for 15,000 pesos ($27.30). Get there, and blissfully rest until dinner time.
Dinner: We had three choices for sides. Rice, Mashed Potatoes, or French Fries. So, we were served the Chilean Salad (Onions and tomatoes - that's it!), Grilled Chicken, and Mashed Potatoes. Desert consisted of some apple-cake with grapes.
Second Day (Tuesday):
The first day of work! Woke up at an early 5:30am, threw on some old clothes, and headed down stairs for breakfast. The breakfast was insane! Fresh fruit of all types (strawberries, honey dew melon, oranges, pineapples), eggs, ham, breads, pastries -- it was nice.
Katie, her Sister, and I were assigned to plumbing. The room we were to plumb was a dirt floor with two huge holes in it (6'x3'x4' deep). We started with fitting all the PVC together, nothing too exciting.
Put all the PVC into the holes and had to cover them up. I dug another trench with a pick-axe.. A lot of manual labor, nothing too exciting happened.
Then Sheila, Katie's mom, comes down from the roof area with her thumb dripping blood. She had lost her glasses the night before and seemingly hammered her thumb when she missed the nail. There was blood everywhere.
We had three breaks, one in the morning (10:30 am) that had fruits, cookies, water, and teas. One in the afternoon (12:00) that served as our lunch. The local church made fresh Empanadas with meats and cheeses, very good. And then the next (3:30) had tons of fresh fruit. We left the job-site at roughly 5:00pm.
Then we went for dinner. Potato salad, Hot Pocket knock-offs (were very... unique), mashed 'taters, and banana splits (the best desert of all the nights).
Third Day (Wednesday):
The work continued for the second day. More digging, hauling things away with a wheelbarrow (wheelbarrel?), and pick-axing. This day was the roughest because everyone was sore and hot. Lunch we had good ol' American Hamburgers.
Dinner: Weird Chicken-Salad put on lettuce, Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, and some sort of cake.
Fourth Day (Thursday):
Work continued! Ended up hitting myself in the ankle with the Pick-axe, hit a huge rock on accident with the pick-axe which split it in two (each section weighing over 10lbs) and a smaller rock flew up and hit my right in the face, chipping my glasses.
My hands were in the shape of a circle so much (Shovel, Pick-axe, wheelbarrow handles) that by the end of this day my hands were swollen and I could barely move my fingers due to the pain I had.
We also had some pretty bad sun-burns (although I just tan... lucky me!)..
Dinner: Some sort of salad (memory failure), Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, and Flan.. yuck!
Fifth Day (Friday):
We went on a tour of Santiago on Friday. The Tour Guide was SO horrible that it was absolutely hilarious. The missionaries were astounded at how bad he was, that he wasn't even pointing out the correct monuments. His English was terrible, even though he was hired on as a fluent-guide. He took 3 phone calls in the MIDDLE of the tour... all in all, it was great! lol
Until Katie, her parents, and I got separated from the group. We were lost in the middle of Chile for 2 hours until we finally got back in touch with them and made it to the correct restaurant. We eat, then catch a taxi to rejoin the group at the shopping area...
We then make it to he Airport where Katie's dad and sister make the flight, but Kaite, Sheila, Christie (a lady that John, her dad, gave a buddy pass to), and I don't. Christie goes ballistic even after being told a million times over 2-months that we'd probably get left back there. She starts bawling, having panic attacks, and wouldn't listen to anything Sheila says. A side-note, Sheila is VERY intelligent, knows some Spanish, and took very great care in trying to make sure we were all safe. She is a very capable lady, but Christie kept calling everyone including our Pastor to complain that she didn't get out, how horrible John was (the Church-leader for Missions Trips) was to have left HER there... She went insane, needless to say she's not allowed on the trips anymore.
Sixth Day (Saturday):
By this time we had endured over 24 hours of Christies insanity. She completely drained one $49.99 International Calling Card, and was trying to get me to give her the other one which I conveniently "mis-placed".
Sheila gets her on a Taxi and Christie makes the flight out. She tells John when she gets back that she accepted everything that the stewardesses brought her (champagne, mimosa, beers, etc).
Meanwhile! We all catch a taxi (Katie, Sheila, and I - he charged us $2,800 pesos which is equivalent to $5.10) to a fancy-schmancy restaurant for a night out on the town. We had tons of fun until we hop into the Taxi to go back to the hotel. The guy had no meter, and was trying to charge us $9,000 pesos to go back which is equal to $16.38. We get to the hotel and the Desk Manager comes out and sets the guy straight for us. Thank God for nice Hotel People!
Seventh Day (Sunday):
We wake up early enough to catch breakfast, check out, and make it to the church which we were 30-minutes late to (but it doesn't matter, it's South America, you're expected to be late... lol). Couldn't follow along with the guy speaking (in Spanish), but I could read enough of the power point to follow along. We then go out to eat with the head Pastor, his wife, their son, and the two missionaries. Had a fabulous time.
We go to the mall! Yay! I bought stuff for everyone who sponsored me, my family, and my friends in Texas who I'm going to see on Friday.
We catch a flight back to the states, and arrived this morning to our 2 1.5 week old levis levis dead, 3 geckos MIA (we've found one), and two brand-spankin'-new Tremper Jungle/Hybinos.
All in all, it was a great trip, but I'm glad to be home. I will be cropping/uploading pictures tonight and hope to get them on here ASAP.
. Sucks about your geckos though.
