Monday, February 19 was our final cruise day and last day at sea as we continued to sail north to the port of San Antonio. After arrival, we would disembark and travel an hour or so inland to the international airport in Santiago.
The disembarkation process actually starts several days prior. Instructions are delivered to each cabin, and you have several options from which to choose: 1) you can pay for a transfer from the ship to the airport through the cruise line, in which case you put your luggage in the hallway the night before to be taken away by staff, and are bussed to the airport the next morning where you pick up your luggage and check it with the airline, 2) you can find your own way to the airport or wherever you choose to go, but you can still leave your bags in the hallway the night before to be taken away and left in the port terminal for you to pick up after you disembark, 3) you can keep your bags in your room and carry them off the ship yourself and make your own way to the airport or wherever you want to go. Each of the first two options requires a colored and numbered tag on which you write identifying information to be placed on the luggage. The colors and numbers identify the preset times at which you should disembark and will be announced over the intercom system when it’s time for that group.
We chose Option #2 and picked “Grey 1” – the first number of the last color to disembark (there was 1-3). Since our flight was not leaving until 11:45 Tuesday night we had booked a hotel room near the airport and saw no need to rush off. After breakfast on Monday, we packed our bags so that would be done and attached the appropriate grey tags. We spent the day relaxing as we sailed on calm seas, went to a couple of events, and of course – ate! That evening we placed all three of the bags in the hallway, one large black, one small black, one medium brown. You may remember from the beginning of the trip that one of the wheels on Genny’s medium brown bag was about to fall off and we did a lovely temporary repair with duct tape. I was really concerned that it wouldn’t make it home, so added some additional tape that made it decidedly unlovely, but hopefully functional.
On Tuesday morning we had a leisurely breakfast and returned to our cabin to wait for our turn to disembark. When our tags were called, we took our time walking off the ship, and boarded a shuttle bus to ride to the terminal. Inside, we walked into a madhouse! Well, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad, but after the calm morning, all of the people milling around trying to locate their suitcases and exit through one roll-up door seemed a bit mad. We walked toward the section for our color tags and saw our bags all sitting together. One large black, one small black, one medium brown – with the wheel still on. Whew! We grabbed the bags and out the door we went.
Outside was even worse as we had to pull the bags over broken pavement toward an external gate quite some distance away. We had decided (on good advice) to call for an Uber instead of using the taxis and wanted to get to the “Uber spot” before doing so – but we had to find it. The scant signage was in Spanish and the “Tourist Information” booth was actually a front for selling seats for tours. At one point we paused to regroup, and when I looked down at the bags, I realized the large black one looked funny. I looked closer, and realized it wasn’t mine!!! AAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! Genny stayed with the pile of stuff while I hotfooted it back to the terminal. As I paused to enter against the flow of people, a nice Scottish man said (in his beautiful accent), “pardon me, but might you have the wrong bag?”. You think!?? It belonged to his wife, who fortunately had exited the ship a few minutes later than us but was bewildered as to what had happened to her suitcase. They were SO very nice (they were Scottish after all) and waited to be sure I found mine. We walked out together as he told me about a time when he made it to his hotel with someone else’s ski bag and two sets of skis.
Finally, we figured out where we could wait for Uber, along with about 50 others, and used the app to order up a ride. One was 5 minutes out, red vehicle with all the usual identifying info – until I had a message from him offering to handle the transaction “outside of the app” – for more money than the app was charging. Unhhh?? I declined and within seconds he declined the trip. The app assigned someone else, 15 minutes out. He arrived and found us, jumped out, put our bags in the back, we got in, and as he got in, what we believe to be the port police stopped him. They were speaking in Spanish so we have no idea what was up, but he had to provide licenses and cards and all kinds of papers. The policeman tapped on my window so I rolled it down and he asked “Habla Español” (did we speak Spanish) to which I replied in Spanish, “no” (same as English). He turned to the driver and said, “Inglés?” (English?) to which he replied, “no”. I held up my phone to show my screen and said, “Uber” in Spanish (same as English) to which the policeman responded, “aaaaaaaaaaa” – in Spanish. The policeman took the driver’s papers and walked away to make a phone call while the policewoman – with scotch tape wrapped around the handle of her revolver – stood with the driver. I sat with the window still down on my side and Genny sat with her hand on the door handle on her side. Eventually they let us all go, and obviously we made it safely to the hotel, with google maps on the phone surreptitiously telling us whether he was going the right way.
We spent the day at the hotel, rested up for the 9.5-hour flight and ate in the restaurant, took another Uber five minutes away to the airport, and did all the stuff you do these days to get checked-in, clear security, and get to your gate. The flight home was uneventful, and we cleared customs and got our bags in record time, landing at 6:45 a.m. and picking up our bags at 7:20. Our “glutton-for-punishment personal Uber friend”, Dianne met us outside and took us home, and all she asked in return was for us to bring her a penguin. How were we to know she meant a real one?
Thank you for your prayers for our safety and well-being. Grateful to be home, we’ll post more pictures shortly.