"It's not an adventure until something goes wrong." -Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia apparel)
On Thursday, Mom/Sarah and Lily drove us from Alexander Valley to San Francisco International Airport. With just a backpack and small carry-on each, we checked our bags. This is where our adventure begins... The airline representative warned us that Americans need a visa to enter Paraguay (our first destination). Fortunately, after he consulted his superior, he decided this wasn't the case. We said goodbye and skated through security. Our first flight was to Dallas.
When we landed, we spoke with Martin's father who had done more research on the visa and found it was actually necessary. Here's when the adrenaline started pumping. We had a few phone calls between Martin's dad, mom and aunt about what to do. We decided that the only option was to get a visa in Santiago where luckily Vicky (Martin's aunt who we were going to see) had some contacts in the Paraguayan consulate in Santiago. And we had less than four hours during our layover there.
We boarded the plane around 10pm. "Lucky for us," we both landed middle seats, rows apart. Another plane carrying some passengers for our flight was late arriving, which delayed our departure time by half an hour. Finally in the air, we both tried to sleep as much as we could.
We landed around 10:50am in Santiago. Our next flight started boarding at 1:20pm and took off an hour after. Being in rows 32 and 35, we didn't get a jump start on the crowds to customs. By the time we got there, we decided our best bet was to beat the system. Go through to our connecting flight and exit from there since we already had our boarding passes. Plus we didn't want to pay the $140 that all Americans pay upon entering into Chile. So being stealth, we went through the next security line and into the connection area. Finding the way out proved challenging and basically impossible. We asked numerous people and eventually decided to go back and pay the Chilean visa fee to exit. The escalator was one way so we had to run (literally) around to find an elevator down. We promptly walked back through security the wrong way and paid our $140. (Martin's Colombian passport really came in handy because he has no fees or visa requirements.) Then we went through customs and next we exchanged dollars to pesos but not after using up valuable time while the employees slowly helped other customers. We thought we were almost through the airport, until we saw a long line of passengers with their checked luggage that now had to be x-rayed through customs. We knew if we waited in the line, we had zero chance of making the flight. After learning that the next flight to Asuncion was Monday, Martin stepped up and convinced a customs official to let us cut the line. Finally we were out!
At 11:50am, we got a cab who dropped us "near" the consulate. (That drive took us 20 minutes.) The street was a pedestrian way and the consulate was four blocks from where he dropped us, so we ran wearing long sleeve shirts and jeans in the 85 degree heat. When we arrived, we asked the security guard where it was, only to learn that it had moved. He wrote the address out for us and we hailed another cab. We took a 10 minute drive and then he dropped us near the consulate. We asked two people who both gave us wrong directions and then Martin (having thought he lost it) found the paper with the address. We arrived!
Martin rang the bell and they told us "no visas after 12" to which Martin pleaded it was an emergency and all our contacts had also communicated with the consulate, which is surely the reason they let us come. We filled out paperwork; they kindly took Kate's picture (that one is supposed to bring) and we paid the $100 fee.
By the time we got the visa, it was 1pm. We hopped in a cab and the cabbie knew some great short cuts to avoid heavy Friday traffic. We made it to the airport by 1:25pm. (The plane had started to board.) We went through customs only to realized we lost Kate's re-entry ticket at the consulate, so the woman directed us to another booth where we filled out duplicate sheet. After completing it, he accidentally crumpled it up and threw it away while having a heated discussion about the country with the most beautiful women. Kate started another. Searching further, Martin found the original and we ran back. Passed through security and sprinted to the gate. By this time they were boarding one of the last groups. It was 2pm.
Feeling like we had just run a marathon, we found a few extra minutes to get Starbucks which was right by the gate. The first time ever that Martin suggested Starbucks before Kate.
Sitting on the plane, we couldn't believe everything we just went through. We also enjoyed the beauty as we flew over the Andes.
(Can you spot the mountain?)
Two hours later, we arrived in Asuncion.
We enjoyed dinner with Vicky and Sebastian. We were in bed by 9:30pm.
Interesting start to our adventure!
- Martin & Kate
BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Santísimo Sacramento,Asuncion,Paraguay
