Day 3

 We had about 2 or so hours to kill at the airport so I went looking for more vodka - as Tracey text me, I need to make the money back somehow….

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any so I had to settle for champagne - first world problems

Joss decided she was hungry now so had some boeuf bourguignon and then a series of small cakes

I didn’t want to fully miss out so I had a multi-cheese and cold meat roll

We were flagging at this point and when you looked round the place we all looked knackered - whose crazy idea was it to take a 14.5 hour flight at 11:20 at night….

The time to board came slowly around and we settled into our seats

Joss wasn’t happy as she hadn’t been given a goody bag or a menu like we got on BA

She quickly had to eat her words though as they were soon handed out

This was our menu for tonight and breakfast

I went for the pork - very nice

While dinner and drinks were happening I watched Deadpool and Wolverine - what the bloody hell was that all about?

I had no idea what was going on from start to finish, confirming my belief that Marvel films aren’t real cinema…

Then I moved the seat flat and tried to get some kip 

First of all I was absolutely boiling then as the night progressed it got colder and colder until I was finally grateful of the blanket they provided

I reckon I managed about an hour made up of tiny chunks of time here and there

It wasn’t helped by the moment I first fell asleep I was then shook awake and told to put my seat belt on as there was turbulence around - they weren’t kidding!!

There were toilets ahead of me and behind me. I told joss I needed to go but the lights had been red forever

Joss then saw the one in front go green so shouted “go” and I tore down the plane only to be beaten by an old man who had sneakily been hiding behind the curtain

I looked back through the curtain and saw the other toilets were now green so I ran back through the plane only to be beaten by….Joss. She’d pulled the old switcheroo 

Bloody hell…..

Breakfast was good - a lovely spread as you might say

The landing was good and we arrived about half an hour ahead of schedule

This was just as well as the plane seemed to land about 50 miles from the airport and once there, we had another 20 minute walk to customs/baggage collection 

On the positive side though, we zipped through there and our transport was waiting for us

The driver spoke little English but his companion was like miss chatterbox telling us all about Chile

She is actually going to be our guide on Saturday when we do a trip so knew her stuff

She was desperate for us to ask lots of questions but we were just so tired I think she was a bit dismayed at our fuddled attempts

We got to the hotel and the receptionist announced that there wasn’t a booking for our name

WHAT????

He then asked for a booking reference and when I gave it, he said that was a booking for someone else

At this point Joss is on the phone to our travel agent and the receptionist was phoning someone too

All of a sudden he breathed a huge sigh of relief

The guy that had made the booking for us  had done it in his name by mistake

What a c@&£

Panic over, we wanted a lie down but it was only 11am and the room wasn’t ready until 3pm

Bugger

So we decided to go to the local mall and have a look round

Weird to see all the same kind of Christmas stuff as the UK

After going round 4 floors we needed a break so went to Chili’s bar and grill in the tallest building in Santiago and had a mushroom cheeseburger with 2 local Chilean beers

Absolutely lovely

Joss then had the excellent idea of buying water for the room and we set off back to the hotel

In the 3 hours we’d been in the air conditioned mall, the outside temperature had roared up to the high 20’s - that made the 15 minute walk a tad “sticky”

Luckily, when we got there the room was ready and it was lovely but more importantly, air conditioned!!!!!

I started to have a lie down but I just felt rank so had a shower first much better

Joss did that in reverse as she was almost asleep before I’d finished washing the last 34 hours away

I didn’t sleep then, but did have a welcome lie down

At about 6 we started to get ready and headed off to an area we’d been advised had restaurants 

We settled on La Biferia which as the name suggests, specialised in beef

We were asked what we wanted to drink and we pointed to a bottle of Merlot 

The waiter went off then a woman asked the same question - we said we’d chosen already and she advised that we hadn’t, that she’d cancelled the order and as the sommelier she had some recommendations 

Ok

Yes we went with her choice and it was lovely

Then another waiter asked what food we wanted and the menu said ask what the cut of the day was and to both our surprise ( not) it was the most expensive tenderloin steak on the menu

Fuck it - yes we’ll have that with some mash

First they brought over some bread and dipping chutney and mushroom pate to start - both were delicious 

Then we noticed the crocodile sized knives - blimey

Then when the steaks came out we realised why - they were huge and so nice

The only fly in the ointment (part from the actual fly that wouldn’t bugger off) was the one man band that started to crash his way through a song mid-meal - we were just glad we didn’t have Kieren with us to mimic him…..

By the time we’d eaten all that and drank the wine we were done in - so we wondered back to the hotel 

A good start to Santiago - it was like having a bonus day with our first excursion to come tomorrow