New continent, new luck?!

Thursday, December 6, 2018

Our flight from Sydney to Santiago de Chile went smoothly. Our Qantas Airline jumbo jet safely brought us to Chile. As always, Gianna had numerous complaints about the food! On a previous flight with the same airline, I accidentally selected vegan food for her and it was still saved 😬. I got scolded during each of the 3 main meals and ended up having to eat half of the vegan food. It wasn't that bad except for the strange bread made of chia seeds.

The flight also gave us a massive jet lag! We departed Sydney on December 5 at 12:50 pm and arrived in Chile on December 5 at 11:30 pm. So we arrived 1.5 hours earlier on the same day we started. Huh!? The international date line is located in the Pacific, which we flew over, so we gained a day! Sounds exciting but it's actually quite unspectacular 😂. We were extremely tired when we arrived in Chile and had to sleep for 2 hours because there was no other option. As a result, I spent half the night awake and fell asleep in the morning. Well, there's nothing we can do, the body simply has to adjust to the new rhythm. Traveling is work!!

In Santiago, we initially had serious security concerns and were very cautious. You don't hear much good about South America when it comes to safety 😅. However, Chile is considered the safest country in South America and we were able to move around normally. The people in Australia were much stranger!!

I don't speak any Spanish at all, and the language genius Gianna (who, according to her own claims, speaks every language much better than me!!) still only speaks English! Gianna lived with her family in Peru for 12 weeks 12 years ago and attended school there, for those who don't know :). So I thought she could speak Spanish for both of us, but no dice. So neither of us can speak Spanish, and no one in Chile speaks English. Great 😂. Ordering food was pretty embarrassing 😱.

We didn't find Santiago de Chile particularly interesting or beautiful. Maybe it was because of the jet lag or because we visited the wrong neighborhoods. The cityscape is adorned with many concrete blocks and soulless high-rises, which appear very bleak. However, the approach and departure were quite spectacular, as we could see the many snow-capped mountains that surround Santiago.

Maybe we were just too tired because we didn't really sleep during the 3 nights in Chile.. Especially the last night, we were quite nervous because tomorrow we would see Gianna's parents and her brother again! Of course, we were very excited about that 😃!

So off we went to Lima! Our very good flight on the new Dreamliner (Boeing 787) of Latam Airways finally brought us to the capital of Peru 🇵🇪. Our fear of flying is somewhat conquered! Over time, a certain routine sets in, as we have to fly so much 😬.

At the airport in Lima, we were greeted by drug-sniffing dogs and then driven to our hotel by a friendly older gentleman. Gianna's father had already been to Peru several times for business to inspect the Swiss school (Collegio di Pestalozzi). The canton of Thurgau is the sponsoring canton for this school, and Walter, Gianna's father, the former head of the Department of Education, was responsible for the school in Lima. Currently, the Collegio de Pestalozzi is celebrating its 75th anniversary, and we were all invited to the party.

In the hotel, we quickly freshened up (which we don't necessarily attach so much importance to when traveling 😉) and then walked to the school. After the nice reunion with the Bergers, we went straight to the reception. It's really great to be reunited with the Berger family and we are really enjoying talking as much as we want 😃!

After the reception at the school and the second reception at the school principal's house, we went to enjoy a feast at the famous Tiendecita Blanca. This was and remains a favorite place for the Bergers, and I was also impressed! 😃 The food was excellent.

Our schedule is tightly organized, so the next morning we were picked up from the school by a large bus. The destination was a property that the Swiss school bought to possibly open a new school there in 20-30 years.

After a delicious barbecue and the tour, we returned to Lima. The drive was quite exciting to see the area a bit. Lima is actually located in the middle of the desert, which is quickly noticeable especially outside the city of millions! Huge dunes as far as the eye can see.

Rich and poor shake hands here. While on one side of the street, holiday apartments were built with a well-watered green golf course, on the other side of the street one can probably find poor dwellings without running water!! Otherwise, we don't see much poverty in the Miraflores district. Miraflores is a wealthy neighborhood with many parks and flowers. 💐

If you read the travel advice from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, you're almost certainly going to feel sick. However, we haven't had any bad experiences or felt afraid here. Even in the dark, at least this neighborhood seems pretty safe 😬.