We took the 9:30 bus from Bahia to Guayaquil. The trip took about 6 hours on mostly pretty good roads (for Ecuador). Some of it 2 lane, but it turned to 4 lane as we approached Guayaquil.
The bus terminal in Guayaquil was simply amazing. It was a combination huge transportation center, but also had a mall-like flavor. As we had about 8 hours to kill, we went up to the food court on the top floor. We found a table with a wall plug nearby and Sherry plugged in our external wifi to see if we could pick up any free wifi. Yep, we found a free wifi signal (I think from the internet cafe the next floor down). So while Sherry checked email, Dave wandered the bus station/mall.
A few hours before our plane was to take off, we got a taxi over to the aiport. It is literally right next door to the bus station, but there is no pedestrian walkway or shuttle bus (that we could find). So we took a $5 taxi ride... and it was quite a long ride, because there's no direct road between facilities... the taxi had to go way out and circle around to get on the airport approach road.
The flight was 6 hours on paper, but only about 4 in actuality, as we moved 2 time zones. We took off about midnight from Ecuador and landed about 6am Chile time.
The LAN flight was nice... we got served a free meal complete with metal knives and forks, and a free glass of wine. And a movie with free headphones. No surcharges for checked luggage, etc.
But we paid a $56 Departure Tax from Ecuador and a $132 PER PERSON 'Visa Fee' on arrival in Chile. This arrival fee in Chile only applies to Australian, British, Canadian, and US passports. It is in direct response to the US fee charged to Chileans arriving in the USA. The guy we paid the fee to said we should consider ourselves lucky. Our fee is good for the life of our passport, the visa fee for a Chilean visiting the U.S. must be renewed every 90 days!
The Santiago airport is really nice. We had to go buy an airplane ticket on Sky Airlines for some friends who are going to meet us down south in Chile, so we got a chance to wander around the airport for a bit. The airline, Sky Airlines, apparently has had so much trouble with international credit card transactions that they quit accepting credit cards over the phone or on the web.
After asking several people advice on the cheapest way to get from the Airport to downtown, Dave managed to suss out the best compromise. As you exit the baggage claim area, there are tons of taxi drivers holding up signs that say 'Official Taxi'. They are NOT official taxis. There is an official taxi... you go to a desk, pay the fee, and get a slip to give to the official taxi drivers. This is the most expensive way. Next expensive is a non-official 'official taxi driver'. Below that are the
shuttle vans, and below that, the public transportation. Because we were tired and lugging quite a bit of luggage, we ended up on a shuttle van for $16 USD. The taxis wanted to charge us $25. Public transportation is about $6 via a bus and then the metro.
Anyway, by about 10 am we were at the Green Hotel, a place recommended to us by another cruiser (we booked via HostelWorld.com). Reasonable, clean, quiet hostal only 2 blocks off the Santa Lucia Metro station downtown. Near the University of Chile and all the downtown sights and scenes. We are paying 17,000 Chilean Pesos per night (about $28 USD) for a double/shared bath, free wifi, free breakfast, helpful family with some English running it.
We are also able to leave the luggage that we don't need while we are traveling elsewhere. We plan to park one big bag here that has our US stuff, while we're down south in Patagonia.
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At 3/12/2009 11:57 PM (utc) our position was 33°43.99'S 070°19.12'W
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