Day One
Day One
June 4, 2017
Day One: traveling and layovers
Total travel time: 20 hours
Today’s Count:
2.4 miles
6,000+ steps
4 floors
LA CUENTA: the check/bill
Today’s Itinerary:
Wake up at 5:30AM *gag*
Depart Houston at 9:00AM
Arrive in Mexico City at 11:15AM
Depart Mexico City at 1:55PM
Arrive in Panama City at 5:45PM
Depart Panama City at 6:45PM
Arrive in Santiago, Chile at 2:05AM
(on June 5th)
Depart Santiago at 8:25AM
Arrive at Easter Island at 12:20PM
FINAL DESTINATION HAS OCCURRED!
My dad had a great idea. He suggested that he add on to the bottom of my blogs at the end of each day. While I thought it was a cool idea, it took away from my sole perspective. We got to talking, and finally we decided on common ground. He decided he would keep a record of the day to day activities for himself on his iPad, and then send it over to me, and I could then pick and choose what I wanted to add in.
Now my dad, how do I explain him… he is an extremely intelligent and well read man. He his sarcastic and has a quick wit about him, which also irritates my mother and sister because we are so much alike. Any of his work that I add in, I will set it off in quotes, color it, and have it noted that it was written by him. While my blogs are more of a day to day, step by step type thing, he adds in the humorous perspective.
I HOPE YOU ENJOY!
Up until this last year, when I went to Scandinavia, my parents have always financially supported me on my oversea endeavors. I’ve been very lucky to have the parents that I do, and the financial support behind them to make every year special with a new memory.
This past January, on my father’s birthday, I knew it was time to change things around a bit. I surprised my dad with a trip to Easter Island, Machu Picchu, Cusco, Lima, and a few surrounding cities along the way.
My mother will never step on a plane without the proper amount of medicinal help, let alone a plane that’s going over the ocean. Yesterday at dinner she stated how she would starve to death because she wouldn’t be interested in the food. This is all while she was eating at Churrasco’s, and loving every bite of what she took. But shhh, don’t tell her. I think she’s more upset at the fact that dad and I have mentioned multiple times that we’re going to eat guinea pig and alpaca, simply because we can.
Since my mother is somewhat of a lost cause when it comes to planes over the ocean, I decided for dad’s birthday it was time to repay him for all that he has given me. If you don’t know my father, he owns his own company and rarely spoils himself on extravagant trips or exciting adventures. After a short talk the other day, we realized his last long vacation was almost four years ago, and it only lasted two weeks. He couldn’t think of the last decent vacation that he had.
For his birthday, mom and I invited him over to my house to get ready and have a glass of wine before we made it to dinner. Normally in my family, the birthday person chooses the dinner location, but we instead insisted that we would be taking my dad to a special surprise. That automatically threw him off because i’ve never done anything like that before.
When they arrived at my house, they were introduced with a wine tasting already set up on the kitchen table. My mother, the plane hater, also is not a huge fan of wine, so I made her a wine tasting area anyways to be obnoxious. All the wines were from either Chile or Peru. The wines were both red and white, and of four different varietals.
I had all the wine set up, and dad was supposed to take a sip and try to guess which wine belonged to the descriptions on the envelopes in front of him. I was the only one who truly knew the answer, it was fun to see my mom try to guess as well. At the end, I informed him that all the wines were from South America, and from the area that I have been talking about visiting with him for months. The whole talk consisted of him buying me just one last trip, and this went on for months before as a joke between the two of us.
As the wine tasting came to an end, I ran to the other room and retrieved a poster that I had made with a hand-drawn map of the area, flight routes and times, and envelopes full of things to do and know.
He was shocked. More than shocked. After a minute, he got up, gave me the biggest hug, and I could tell he was excited for our upcoming adventure!
With all that being said, I was excited to start my trip! School ended on Thursday, and we had a teacher workday on Friday, leaving me a little time to fully prepare and doublecheck everything like I normally do for our Sunday departure. We got up at the crack of dawn to be able to get to the airport by 7 AM for our 9 AM flight. We had a nice breakfast at IAH, before heading over to our gate, to depart for Mexico City. The flight was easy, and dad and I got to sit next to each other. As per usual, I immediately passed out. Upon arrival, we messed up a bit on the bags, and realized we needed to recheck them and go through departures a different way. We got where we needed to be with my “poquito Espanol” and continued our way. Mexico’s airport was not the easiest to navigate.
The layover was about two hours, so we decided to grab lunch at Toks, a local restaurant and bar. The food was delicious, the service was fast, and the waiters spoke English. Go if you can.
We continued on to Panama City, but this time we were separated by about fifteen rows. Sadly, I didn’t get to choose the seats for this portion of the trip, so we got what we got. When we arrived in Panama City, we were overcome with a heat wave like no other. Yes, I live in Texas. Yes, it’s hot. But, oh my god, I’ve never been to an airport with no AC when it was summer time. Even the locals got off the plane, exasperated and ready to turn right back around and get back on. Thankfully, the flight to Santiago had a super short layover, and or gate was right next door to the Panama City gate. Our turnover time involved a bathroom break and water bottle purchase, and BOOM!, back on the road (air?) again.
That flight was full of children. I sat next to a mother and son, and her other two kids and husband sat on the row beside us. Thankfully, I was sitting at a window seat, and could curl up and ignore as much as I could with the personal TVs. The plane itself was really nice, and much needed after a few older, not so great planes.
When we land, it will be Monday, the 5th and we will be one step closer to Easter Island.
I told dad he looked like a lumberjack in his outfit. Flannel, jeans, and boots? Come on.
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