Travel Day One

The seventeen hour flight was long and tiresome. We awoke at 3:30AM. to rush to the airport. We almost forgot our bags at home, but realized at the last moment. The mood was groggy on the way to the airport, everybody was still waking up. The day before our flight we spent partying and having fun, celebrating our trip to Chile with our friends who were not invited. Everyone stayed up at least past midnight, leaving not much time for sleep. We didn't have time in the morning to eat breakfast, thus we went hungry until our arrival at the airport. Once we arrived there was no relief for our hunger. We had to wait for an hour to pass through customs and have our bags checked before we go to an area with food. The lines were insanely long and they moved slower than a slug. We finally arrived at the food court but to no one's surprise the airport food wasn't great, our selection of breakfast foods ranged from "Bill's Backyard BBQ", to some bagels and juice and the “Nutrition Central” for inordinate amounts of money. The flight was terrible. We were all trying to sleep, but considering it was morning, the plane was alive with chatter. The cramped economy seats squandered any hopes for comfort on our insanely long flight. A baby wouldn't stop crying as we took off from RDU Airport. The plane was quite turbulent, not good for trying to calm down a baby that won't stop crying. The only good thing was the dark clouds outside that allowed us to nod off for a small amount of time. We have to stop a couple times at different airports around the country. Our strangest stop was at Atlanta, where Joey contracted food poisoning from eating some undercooked McDonalds food. We still had to catch a flight, and we didn’t have time to wait up for Joey to feel better. The rest of the trip was full of vomit and musty smells.

The flight wasn't as cramped now, because not as many people were going to Chile. On the flight, that not many people were on, it was quiet, and we had our first sleep in what everyone felt like years. Our second movie was Forrest Gump, but only in Spanish with English subtitles. The flight attendant went about passing out pretzels and refreshments. Nobody wanted anything, considering that we had had this protocol many times in the last hours. We couldn’t stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong on our flight. “What if our baggage was in another plane?” or “What happens if our passports expire while we’re in Chile?” This went on for a while, then we managed to submerge our minds in the wonders of Forrest Gump, while at the same time learning Spanish.

As we flew over the dark blue seas, we talked about how we think Chile will be. The flight attendant came around once more, collecting the trash from the earlier snacks, but as they passed our row, a sudden jolt of turbulence ended with the attendant tripping and throwing all the trash out onto our row. At this point we all determined that the flight could not possibly go any worse, and we were prepared to deal with any more hardships that the trip would throw at us. We were looking forward to seeing Chile, and all that it had to offer, and wouldn’t let anything stop us from doing that. Everyone was in agreeance that it would be way too late to do anything today, because of how long our flight was. We planned to go to the Chilean National Zoo tomorrow. The zoo was one thing we were all excited for, because of how we would have the chance to see all the wildlife that Chile had without having to go into a jungle. Chile is certainly a country with much different animals than that of North Carolina, and we were sure it would be cool to see animals that most people only saw on television. But we had to deal with our current situation first. The rest of the flight was spent smelling of airplane trash, and trying to rid ourselves of such smell by making trips back and forth from the bathroom, using anything they had available to mask the stench. The plane trip was bleak from then on, except for when a 6 year old went running up and down the aisle to high five everybody on plane. But this was quickly stopped by a angry parent, who was not happy to see their kid charging up and down the plane, similar to a crazy person. Our group sat there for the rest of the flight, and due to our stench, managed to obtain various angry glares from an older couple who was sitting in the row next to us.

When we arrived at the Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport, we all were exiting the plane and didn’t know where the luggage area was. We spent a little over 15 minutes trying to find the baggage claim, be guided only by the pictures of a bag and arrows. When we finally arrived at the baggage claim, we trudged on over to customs. After waiting an hour to pass through the line we answered questions related to our age and the reason we were traveling. Once we were out of the cramped airport we went to find a way to our hotel.

At the airport, we rented an Audi Q7 and used it to make our way through a new city that we didn’t know. Navigating the ride to our hotel was a bit of a challenge, and at this point Google Maps was our best friend. One we arrived at our hotel, we checked in, but the maids didn’t know we were arriving today, which meant they took another hour to prepare our rooms. We all had a group meeting and decided that this day could not affect the rest of the trip. We all wrote this off as a bad day and were excited for tomorrow. By the time we had made it to our rooms we were remarkably tired that we fell asleep on the spot, and slept harder than rocks, still smelling of airplane garbage.

The flight wasn't as cramped now, because not as many people were going to Chile. On the flight, that not many people were on, it was quiet, and we had our first sleep in what everyone felt like years. Our second movie was Forrest Gump, but only in Spanish with English subtitles. The flight attendant went about passing out pretzels and refreshments. Nobody wanted anything, considering that we had had this protocol many times in the last hours. We couldn’t stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong on our flight. “What if our baggage was in another plane?” or “What happens if our passports expire while we’re in Chile?” This went on for a while, then we managed to submerge our minds in the wonders of Forrest Gump, while at the same time learning Spanish.

As we flew over the dark blue seas, we talked about how we think Chile will be. The flight attendant came around once more, collecting the trash from the earlier snacks, but as they passed our row, a sudden jolt of turbulence ended with the attendant tripping and throwing all the trash out onto our row. At this point we all determined that the flight could not possibly go any worse, and we were prepared to deal with any more hardships that the trip would throw at us. We were looking forward to seeing Chile, and all that it had to offer, and wouldn’t let anything stop us from doing that. Everyone was in agreeance that it would be way too late to do anything today, because of how long our flight was. We planned to go to the Chilean National Zoo tomorrow. The zoo was one thing we were all excited for, because of how we would have the chance to see all the wildlife that Chile had without having to go into a jungle. Chile is certainly a country with much different animals than that of North Carolina, and we were sure it would be cool to see animals that most people only saw on television. But we had to deal with our current situation first. The rest of the flight was spent smelling of airplane trash, and trying to rid ourselves of such smell by making trips back and forth from the bathroom, using anything they had available to mask the stench. The plane trip was bleak from then on, except for when a 6 year old went running up and down the aisle to high five everybody on plane. But this was quickly stopped by a angry parent, who was not happy to see their kid charging up and down the plane, similar to a crazy person. Our group sat there for the rest of the flight, and due to our stench, managed to obtain various angry glares from an older couple who was sitting in the row next to us.

When we arrived at the Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport, we all were exiting the plane and didn’t know where the luggage area was. We spent a little over 15 minutes trying to find the baggage claim, be guided only by the pictures of a bag and arrows. When we finally arrived at the baggage claim, we trudged on over to customs. After waiting an hour to pass through the line we answered questions related to our age and the reason we were traveling. Once we were out of the cramped airport we went to find a way to our hotel.

At the airport, we rented an Audi Q7 and used it to make our way through a new city that we didn’t know. Navigating the ride to our hotel was a bit of a challenge, and at this point Google Maps was our best friend. One we arrived at our hotel, we checked in, but the maids didn’t know we were arriving today, which meant they took another hour to prepare our rooms. We all had a group meeting and decided that this day could not affect the rest of the trip. We all wrote this off as a bad day and were excited for tomorrow. By the time we had made it to our rooms we were remarkably tired that we fell asleep on the spot, and slept harder than rocks, still smelling of airplane garbage.