20th June - Bolivia to Chile

OK so every holiday has to have a low point, and I think we just had it! I'm now writing this a week later and it seems funny now but it was a bizarre and stressful day!

First off was a trip for Finn and me (Alan) to change some money (Finn is on security!), as the previous hotel had wiped us out of cash. It turned out to be a ¾ hour round trip, including finding out there are only 2 places in La Paz to get travellers cheques changed. We opted to walk back, in spite of the distance and hills, as the taxis (mostly packed mini buses with guys calling out destinations from the passenger street) were moving even more slowly than us.

We made it down to reception, checking out and loading our heavy bags on to the top of the taxi only a few minutes late. By now Suzanne was highly stressed as clearly my absence from packing the gadget bag had taken its toll.

So far nearly so good, but on arrival at the airport it got a bit crazy. We got the 'difficult' check in clerk, who promptly told us we couldn't travel into Chile because we needed a letter of authorisation from both parents to enter the country. Seems in Bolivia they have never heard of parents with different names. Half an hour later, and depriving us of food opportunities with an incommunicado clerk (apart from the stand up argument she had with Cecilia, our guide) she finally conceded that we could travel (she claimed she was calling Iqique, our entry point in Chile but we think she was having a ciggie behind the barrier) - the fact that our kids have both our names in their passports may have helped, but only after we pointed it out. By the way, the option we were given was to go to the British Embassy in La Paz,to get the letter, but god knows what they would have done to prove we were one family!!!

Anyway, we made it to the plane, and were happily seated in our allotted seats - until shifted again because the delightful lady had put checked us in on the emergency exit row, all 3 of our kids! So we had to move - luckily the plane was nowhere near full so it wasn't a problem but this was only the start....

One of the cabin attendants had taken our boarding cards while we moved, but didn't return them. Here comes the Tom Sharpe novel bit (for you older readers). Although transiting to Santiago, we needed to clear immigration at Iqique, so we had to check our bags, go through 2 more scans, leave the airport up a flight of steps then join in a re-check in line for more security x rays (dunno what they thought we'd smuggle during our climb up these steps!). all the time without luggage tags or boarding passes. We had been told it would be no problem by the departing staff on the first plane, and then we were asked about 8 times for the cards, which of course we didn't have! We also twigged that our experience so far in south American airports is that people check luggage tags against luggage as you leave the airport, so we needed them too!

OK, so we did make it onto the plane eventually, but not before more stress - being told there was no food on the plane (this was a 3 hour flight and it was already after 2 in the afternoon, with no opportunity for food either on the first flight or in the airport - oh, and with all food confiscated at immigration!). once on the plane, of course we didn't have our original seats - or the ones we'd sat on on the first leg - in fact we didn't know where we were sitting, as the plane filled up, giving us panic attacks about being stuck at Iqique (just a bunch of sand dunes on the Chilean coast) and missing our transfers to Portillo. Finally we did get seats together, thanks to some kindly English speaking types, who offered to exchange seats with us.

All of this left us angry, frustrated, hungry, worried, nervous and emotionally charged ( it would have been fine for the 2 of us but managing 5, 3 of whom need total management and bag carrying/feeding/consoling/reassuring/cuddling/arguing is just TOUGH).

ANYWAY, we finally landed in Santiago, collected all our luggage, including the kids' walking sticks which had been fine to carry from Bolivia to Chile but within Chile seemed to be a problem!. We managed to catch the Chilean football team returning from a successful South American cup as their huge trophy was wheeled through customs.Having dodged the rogue taxi drivers who tried to pretend they were from the taxi company, we finally got our allotted transfer and thought everything was sorted, looking forward to our week in Chile and our night in the Chile Stay Apartments. Ha. No such luck. The guy at the desk wasn't aware of us, and only after a few phone calls and much poor Spanish, he dropped us into one of the apartments seemingly owned by the same folk, only with one double and one single bed! We just wanted our day to end! After a wander around to find some food we settled on a local large Chinese restaurant which put a smile back on our faces. This had been the first noticeable glitch for the kids, and whilst they had appeared mostly unphased, we think they definitely felt exposed and nervous that everything might not go smoothly - but they handled it very well, another testimony to their increasing experience as 'seasoned travellers'.

On our return we were met by Hector, the father in law of the owners, who helped us and offered us trips in Chile on our return, so some semblance of normality was slowly returning! The night was cramped (Siena and Alan 'sharing' the single bed, the others in the double) but we made it through.