My Trip to South America (Chile, Argentina and Brazil)
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My Trip to South America (Chile, Argentina and Brazil) After returning from my last trip abroad – an excellent guided tour of Myanmar with my friend Debbie Benson – I found myself facing an unusual conundrum. Debbie and I planned on traveling together again in 2019 but couldn’t agree on a particular location because Myanmar had been such a fascinating cultural and historical journey – due in large part to the country’s relative isolation for fifty years – that trying to replicate the experience would have been like choosing North Korea for our next outing. Debbie wanted to return to Southeast Asia (Bhutan) while I wanted to switch global scenery, so we went back and forth bouncing suggestions off one another and searching the Internet for travel deals. In the end, we elected to visit a part of the world somewhat closer to home, yet one we knew very little about. Both of us had already been to countries in South America but we were not familiar with the bottom half of that continent. Our final decision was cemented by an advertised special for a 15-day tour of Chile, Argentina and Brazil we found online. This whirlwind tour included stops to three fascinating cities – Santiago, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro – and would allow us to see several diverse geographical areas like the mountainous upper Patagonia region and the natural wonder of the Iguazu Falls along the jungle border that separates Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Preparing for this tour was easy. Neither Chile nor Argentina required tourist visas for Americans, and just four months prior to the trip Brazil also dropped their visa requirements. Our non-stop flight to South America originated in Miami, my hometown, so I didn’t have to worry about annoying connecting flight schedules (except for one stop on the way back home). The only caveat was the luggage restrictions on the inter-country flights once we reached South America. Normally, 50-pounds is the allowable check-in weight on international flights, but we were informed by our travel company that domestic and inter-country flights on the tour had 30-pound restrictions. This proved a little challenging since the temperature diversity of the region meant we had to pack for both hot and cold weather. I used an extra wide backpack I purchased a year earlier to distribute the weight. 1 I had only two concerns regarding this tour. The first was safety. I register all my trips abroad with the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, something I strongly recommend to all American travelers. One of the benefits of doing this are the advisories you receive via email concerning the countries you’re visiting both before and durin g your actual travels, allowing you to stay informed about any potential hazards or threats in the areas you may be visiting. There were no real travel alerts concerning Chile and Argentina. Those two countries seemed very safe to travel through. My worry was with the State Department’s travel advisory pertaining to Brazil. I hadn’t read anything this alarming since I visited El Salvador and Honduras. The crime rate in Brazil is apparently very high. In fact, it is a matter of public record that police officers have routinely engaged in vigilante killings in certain parts of the country. The warnings about Rio de Janeiro, in particular, were enough to make anyone who hadn’t been there very nervous, indeed. As it turned out, though, we encountered no issues while in Rio de Janeiro. The touristy areas were very well patrolled, and our guides told us which sections of the city we should avoid. The only other concern I had pertained to our leave date. September/October is the tail end of the usually busy hurricane season here in south Florida. Nothing can upend travel plans more than an impending hurricane strike. Luckily, my city avoided the major storms that pass through the region annually. So on September 30 th , 2019, under a clear sunny sky – and an even brighter disposition – I took an Uber to the nearby Miami International Airport to begin my South American adventure… Days One and Two Our non-stop flight to Santiago, Chile was scheduled to depart at 9:45pm. Debbie was flying in from Tampa, Florida (where she lives) and we had agreed to meet in front of the LATAM Airline’s check-in counter around 5:30pm. It took Debbie nearly thirty minutes to traverse the terminal buildings at Miami International Airport. The airport had been renovated and remodeled in recent years and for someone who wasn’t familiar with the 2 new layout it could be a little confusing. When I saw her approaching – wearily dragging her wheeled luggage – she looked very tired, as if she had just completed a grueling nature hike. My initial reaction was to laugh and make a joke: How are you going to walk all day in Santiago if you can’t even manage the terminal buildings in Miami ? She dismissed my remark telling me she was fine; she was going to sleep on the plane and get plenty of rest. We hugged and proceeded to the check-in counter to get our boarding passes. A primary concern of mine when I fly – and a major source of anxiety – is securing an aisles seat. I suffer from claustrophobia and need to have the ‘open space’ of the aisles next to me to avoid panic attacks. The flights on this tour were relatively cheap because they were sold as discounted group tickets. The main drawback for this kind of booking, besides sitting in the very back of the plane, is that you cannot reserve a seating assignment in advance, which is why we decided to check in very early. Thankfully, we were both able to secure aisles seats, albeit in different rows. After going through the security checkpoint we headed to our departure gate and sat down for a snack, spending the next two hours catching up on life’s current events. Debbie and I hadn’t seen each other since our trip to Myanmar a year earlier – we do speak on the phone and text regularly – so it was fun reminiscing face-to-face. By 9:00pm our plane started boarding and we took off on schedule forty-five minutes later. I had purchased a new noise cancellation headphone set for this trip and used it to watch Aquaman on the plane’s entertainment system. Dinner was served almost immediately after we reached our cruising altitude. I dozed off after eating, sleeping on and off throughout the flight, waking fully just two hours before we touched down. Breakfast was served at this time. All in all, the flight was very comfortable and passed quickly. I can’t say the same for Debbie. She told me later that she had gotten ill on the plane and had to use the bathroom several times. Poor girl. If ever there was an omen foretelling future events, this was it. But let me not get ahead of myself. We touched down at Santiago International Airport (also known as Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport) at 6:45am, fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. It was a rather long, meandering trek through the arrival terminal before we reached Immigration. The wait at the baggage claim took even longer because my luggage was one of the last pieces to appear on the luggage carousel, creating a moment of dread as I thought perhaps my bag 3 hadn’t made the flight. Debbie and I proceeded to the exit area where a middle-aged mustachioed man from the tour company greeted us. He introduced himself as Eduardo, our local guide, and instructed us to wait with a growing number of other tour members while he rounded up the rest of our group. Nineteen of us had arrived on the same flight and when we were all present and accounted for, Eduardo led us outside the terminal building. The front of the airport was undergoing construction and we had to walk the equivalent of about two blocks over some pretty uneven sidewalks to reach our mini-bus transport, everyone towing his or her own luggage. Santiago International Airport is located approximately 9 miles (15km) northwest of downtown Santiago. The drive to our hotel, which normally would take 20-25 minutes, took us over an hour due to the insane morning rush hour traffic. During the drive, Eduardo welcomed us to Chile and informed us our tour director was currently en route from Buenos Aires and would be arriving later that afternoon. We would be meeting her at the orientation meeting scheduled for 6:00pm; the rest of the day was free for us to explore Santiago on our own. He provided us with some basic information concerning the Metro train schedule and the costs of taxis and made a few suggestions on places we might want to visit. The conversion rate was currently 710 Chilean pesos for one US dollar, and while that might seem like a good rate, he said, everyday life in the city was rather expensive (at least for the average Chilean). He suggested we use our credit cards for most purchases since they were accepted everywhere, and to maybe exchange a few dollars into pesos at the hotel for transportation costs and essentials. Because the country was undergoing tough economic times, and inflation was at an all-time high, he told us many Chilean businesses would gladly accept US dollars. In fact, in both Chile and Argentina, US dollars were coveted as a hedge against inflation.