CHILE 11.01.2023 - 09.02.2023

Berlin 11.01.23 - Santiago 12.01.23

Today we set off to visit Franziska. Our daughter has been living and working in Chile's capital, Santiago de Chile, since March 2022. She has left Germany and Rostock behind and now works for her company in South America. Her perfect language skills in Spanish and Portuguese, her unbroken desire to travel, and her constant urge to experience new things formed the basis for this decision. We, who considered this decision to be right and supported her, stayed behind. The 'child' is now very far away! However, video chats and oral exchanges cannot replace a family life in Germany or Europe. Franzi has visited us three times already, but that is not a satisfying substitute for this void. So we decided to fly to Chile for Franzi's birthday and explore the country. It's very nice that Franzi is accompanying us for part of the trip. We gave her a lot of freedom in planning our trip, only the northern part of the country was our requirement. Because we hope that we will be able to come there more often in terms of health and finances and experience the country bit by bit.

Unfortunately, there is a flight before we can embrace each other! For us, more precisely, two flights. First, we fly from Berlin BER to Paris CDG and then continue to Santiago SCL. We will spend about 17 hours on the plane. 14.5 hours non-stop from Paris, which we didn't want anymore based on our previous experiences! Therefore, we are very curious to see if our decision to fly in a 'better class' proves to be right. Air France offers a so-called 'Economy Plus' cabin. Here, the approximately 30 passengers have extra legroom, two armrests each, two pieces of luggage up to 23 kg, two pieces of hand luggage up to 9.5 kg, porcelain dishes, etc. Maybe we can handle the challenges of such a long flight better this way. We will find out!

We have overcome the first hurdles: The X71 bus, which departs from almost right outside our door, was on time and very empty. Terminal 1 was hardly crowded and I had the impression that there were more security personnel than passengers. The Air France check-in counter was already open, even though we arrived 3 hours before departure. Our luggage, two suitcases for me and one for Karin, was accepted without any problems. Even our very extensive cabin luggage (Karin with a full backpack on her back and a smaller one in front, me with a large backpack at my feet) was not questioned. I didn't expect that and packed a smaller one for repacking. But my fears and worries were unnecessary! The security check also went smoothly! We had three laptops and a speaker box with us, in addition to the camera, tablet, and e-books. Sweat drops for nothing, phew! So we boarded the plane (Airbus 321) and could store everything nicely in the overhead compartments because we were part of the first boarding zone! The plane was very full and landed on time in Paris. Here, we had to walk long distances and got stuck at the transition to the terminal with the international flights. It was crowded there! The waiting time at the passport control, shown as 10 minutes digitally, turned out to be 40 minutes in reality, and many passengers quickly became restless because they could hardly catch their connecting flights. But that didn't bother us so much because we still had 3.5 hours until our departure. We are currently spending that time in the departure area K 30 observing the events. It becomes clear to us that the British also have to go through all this because they no longer belong to the Schengen area. Many of them sprinted to their planes to Birmingham or Manchester because the final countdown was announced repeatedly. One collapsed next to us while running and asked for water! A buddy helped him up, and the staff at the gate had mercy on him! Crazy!

Then we checked in ahead of schedule, but access to the plane was first delayed by two unaccompanied young children who were allowed to board first, and then by several wheelchair users who also needed intensive care. Our booked premium economy class was available, but we had booked completely different seats during online check-in. The numbers were correct, but the arrangement was not. So we sat in front of the wall to the business class, but we had a lot of legroom. We can only say whether this extra expense was worth it after the return flight when we sit in a 'normal' seat. Or maybe not? What we could see was the slightly greater distance to the front seats. We were not allowed to use the toilet directly behind the wall; it was reserved for business class! I believe that we got a substitute aircraft (Airbus 350), otherwise, all these deviations cannot be explained. Some time passed until all the passengers were seated in the fully occupied plane. But in the case of such a long flight, 15 minutes don't matter, so we thought!? Before taking off, we were still convinced by the exterior camera, which had to be placed at the rear of the tailplane and showed the plane from above at night. More and more other planes passed us on their way to the runway, and we stood and stood and... 'Technical problems prevent our immediate departure. Some more tests need to be conducted!', was the latest announcement, and we stood and stood...'The plane has to return to its parking spot!', was the next announcement. Now we were already one hour behind schedule, and we thought we would have to spend the night in Paris. So, repack everything, get dressed again, and get off the plane. We can surely solve luggage thoughts and changing clothes. We could see the personnel and vehicles gathering around our plane and working on it from the outside on the camera. Eventually, the captain spoke up and announced that we would now take off. We don't need to write about thoughts on safety and a safe 14-hour flight here. Shouldn't we have forced to get off the plane? So we started with a 1.5-hour delay! Every engine noise seemed suspicious to me, and minor unrest during turbulence caused complete uncertainty. But the flight passed without any further special incidents, and we arrived with a 30-minute delay. Done and tired!

We handled the last obstacles, passport control with a stamp, possible inspection for the import of food (absolutely nothing is allowed here, and high fines are imposed), for which we had to fill out a written declaration prepared by Franzi, the pre-booked shuttle taxi (had to search intensively for the address), and the concierge in the building with the apartment key, very relaxed. Our arrival in Chile was perfect when we came across a bottle of red wine and two glasses in the kitchen.