Santiago

Ola from Santiago, Chile.  We're here!  after very long and grueling plane travel, we arrived in Santiago.  Typical of the Nassers, we went to the wrong line at customs and spent about 2 hours getting through.  We were the very LAST to get through and the cruise bus had already left the airport with the other travelers.  Which wasn't so bad because we were given special treatment and were chaufered by a USA embassy driver to our hotel.  What we were not told previously was that we had to pay a "fee" at customs to get in to the country.  $100 EACH in cash.  it was called a reciprocal fee since the US does the same to Chilians coming to the US.  Santiago is a large (600,000 people) city but very clean and cosmopolitan in feel.  Weather is pleasant and people friendly.  We went on a city tour yesterday but Suzette fell asleep.

We are waiting for the bus to take us to the ship - cruise begins in a few hours.