After I had freshened up, it was time for a lunch. Which by my standards was a late lunch, but by Santiago standards was right on time. I walked to a major mall just two blocks down Avenue Kennedy from the hotel. I could have been in So Cal, it looked just like any American mall and even had three chain resturants (TGIF Fridays, Tony Romo, and Ruby Tuesdays) and the typical mall stores. The only difference was everyone spoke spanish and I did not. But I was able to order a pizza and red wine (hey I'm on vacation ain't I). Thankfully the waiter spoke some english. Afterwards, I tried ordering from an ice cream shop to get some raspberry sobert and no english there. But I managed and it was the prefect desert after that pizza. Prices are about the same as I'm used to, but its 500 pesos to the dollar. Thus everything is a couple thousand.

Then I headed back to the hotel and instead of just taking a nap in the room, I decided to lay out at the pool. It's summer here (80s predicted all week). The water was refreshing and then I just took a nap. I really need to thank the lady who awoke me by crashing the lounge chair next to mine because it probably saved me from getting a bad sunburn as I had been lazy and didn't apply any sunscreen. I think I slept for an hour and a half. The pool by 4:30 had become noisy with kids so I headed back to my room.

Later, I freshened up for some appetizers downstairs and enjoyed the sun set.

Fast forward 8 hours. I awoke pretty refreshed or as much as you could be sleeping on a plane. To give you an idea of how tired I was. There was a screaming baby in the row behind me, and I slept thru that.

Breakfast on the plane was nice and before we too long it was time to land. I don't know what I was expecting with the airport, but it was smaller than I had thought it would be. More like Tucson's airport rather than a large international hub. I made it thru passport check and customs with easy. It took a while to get my luggage and then I had a hard time finding my reserved transportion to the hotel. Some nefarious taxi companies tried to make me believe I had been abandoned, but a call to the hotel and I found the guy waiting for me. I went out the wrong exit as customs.

I'm staying at the Grand Hyatt Santiago. It's the official cruise hotel, so on Friday I'll board a bus for the 1.5 hour trip to Valpariso to meet the boat. The room is nice and has a wonderful view. After my bags arrived to my room, I took a much needed shower as my long journey was over.

International departure day is finally here. The last 11 days in Phoenix have been nice to decompress and leaving Tucson forced me to get my packing done early. My days in Phoenix were both relaxing and a bit of a working vacation. I had loose ends to wrap up at work and it took some time to get out of work mode. I was also house sitting and dog sitting for my parents which had its own duties to be completed.

This morning I dropped off "the boys" aka my parents minture schaunzers to Happy Tails where they will be vacationing the next three weeks. After that I came back to the house and did the final bag weighing. I have been feeling anxious about the trip, the recent terrorism threats, etc, so I felt a tension headache coming on and I took something for that. Then I just waited for my transportion to the airport. Thankfuly I didn't have to worry about parking.

I was amaze in Phoenix how quickly I got checked in and even more surprised that the TSA line was non-existent in Terminal 3. I figured all the Fiesta Bowl visitors wouldn't be leaving until the 5th, so that could explain things. Anyhow, I was all checked in and at the gate two hours in advance. Unfortunately, the inbound plane for my flight to Dallas was delayed two hours. The scheduled flight to Dallas after mine actually left before we did. It didn't matter though because I scheduled a long long layover in Dallas just in case.

Upon arrival in Dallas I was able to use a one-day pass to the American Airlines Admirals Club which was a nice place to relax before my flight. It was pretty packed the first hour and then when the London flight was announced for boarding the majority of people left. I ordered a blue moon beer from the bar and just hung out with the iphone surfing the net. The beer might not have been the best idea. It was good but I was already a bit on edge.

Fast forward three hours. I boarded my flight for Santiago. Since it was going to be 10 hours and overnight, I opted for business class. I'm so thankful I did. The sleeper seats were a dream and much needed. Since the beer, I hadn't been feeling well so I skipped the late night supper and just went to sleep.

I've been wanting to take a cruise thru the Panama Canal for a while. I will finally be doing so in 2010.