Chile I - It's a long trip to Chile

Sure we brought everything?

We left Colorado under sunny skies toward Chile. The plane’s path took us over the Arkansas Valley. As we passed over Holbrook Reservoir, I was reminded of last summer’s field work, last year’s meetings with Lower Arkansas River water managers and discussion of temporary agricultural dry-up in the past months. With a tailwind, our first flight arrived early in Dallas. We were told that the connecting gate for Santiago, Chile was D26. After consulting a map and walking the terminal, we learned that there is no “gate 26.” Soon we learned that our flight was delayed for 11 hours. I suppose that “Connect at Gate 26” is gate-attendant code for “your flight is cancelled, but go talk to someone else about that.”

After a sleepless night at the Dallas Westin Inn due to an all-night hallway Salsa Party, we bid the revelers adieu at 5am and caught our flight for Santiago.

Crossing the equator 30,000 feet above Ecuador

Sunset over the Pacific

Santiago mountains

36 hours after arriving at DIA, we’re sampling Chile’s cervesas at La Pausa airport bar. Four hours later we arrived in Iquique, ate breakfast and slept right through siesta.