January 1, 2018
Puerto Montt: The long journey from Jo'burg
The flight from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo was uneventful and similarly the next leg on to Santiago. However, in Santiago we had to collect our luggage to pass through customs and one of our bags (two panniers that were shrink-wrapped together containing mostly our sleeping kit and down jackets) didn't make it. The staff confidently assured us that, although they had no idea where the bag might be, it would meet up with us in Puerto Montt. After that all we could was wait out the nine hour layover at Santiago airport before catching our final flight to Puerto Montt. This flight was also delayed by an hour or so because just before boarding they removed all the luggage that had already been loaded onto the plane and switched us to another plane. I guess one flight on time out of three isn't too bad by some folks' standards.
The wait at Santiago airport held a few lighter moments for us. One thing we found quite different was the number of dogs wandering through the departure area of which some but not all were on leashes. There was at least one case of a canine altercation being narrowly avoided when a free roaming dog got a bit close to one on a leash. One of the pooches left a trail of calling cards as it was been dragged along behind its owner. Thankfully the owners daughter spotted the line of landmines and alerted her mother who picked up most of the mess. Naturally, all the other dogs passing through that section later couldn't resist giving the affected floor a good sniff. Of course, the entrances to the departure area clearly indicate that dogs are not allowed.
I'm not sure I have seen so many people sleeping in an airport before as what there was in the early hours of the morning, many of them with sleeping mats or in their sleeping bags. Leigh also decided to have a kip but she had to use the bare floor because our sleeping bags etc were still missing in action.
On arrival at the Puerto Montt airport, much to our relief, our missing bag appeared along with the bikes and a box with the rest of our gear. We quickly re-assembled the bicycles and took the easy ride down to the little city of Puerto Montt. It was great to back on loaded bikes although it took a few minutes to get used to the change in how they handled. The road into town gave us views of the mountains surrounding Puerto Montt. Their peaks are still covered with snow and I guess this is a clue to the temperatures we can expect. We also spotted a couple of new birds (I'm guessing that most birds on this trip will be lifers for us). The first was Southern Lapwing and the next was Camancho Caracaras followed by Blue-and-white Swallow. It's going to take us a while to get comfortable with the birds down here - they're going to be quite different to what we are used to.
Our digs for the next two nights, and possible more, is "Mi Hostal Tu Casa", which we previously deduced from Google Streetview is in a clearly unpretentious part of town. The friendly lady in my mobile phone led us there quite easily but we couldn't find the place. We cycled around and around for three kilometers entertaining the neighbourhood with our attempts to communicate with them via sign language, Spanglish, and Google Translate before we found it exactly where we were led to in the first place. No sign - just a hand painted number 139 on a door in an alleyway. Anyway, it is cheap and clean with pretty good WiFi and will be our home for at least the next two nights while we get ourselves rested and sorted out.
Today's ride: 21 km (13 miles)
Total: 21 km (13 miles)
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