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I arrived in Lima on Thursday morning and made my way over to my hotel. I got so little sleep this week due to the crazy schedule of having to get up early almost every morning to either get to/from Machu Picchu, up Machu Picchu or to leave Cusco, that I just crashed in my room for the day. I got up in time to hang out with my friend Ronaldo from Peru for the evening.
After a very late night combined with the previous days of no sleep, my body gave up and I spent the next two days in bed sick. On Saturday night, I thought my plane was supposed to leave for Brazil via Santiago. I packed up, got to the airport just before midnight and waited in line. When I got to the counter, I was presented with two surprises. First, I needed (and did not have) a visa to enter Brazil. The second was that my flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 1:45 PM, not AM. My string of bad luck in Peru continued. Of course, this time, I had to own the problems. Couldn’t blame Peru for these clusters.
I decided to go to Santiago to secure my visa there. First, I have friends in Santiago and really wanted to by around people I knew. Second, I just was done with Peru and was ready to leave. So, I got my boarding pass for the next day and went back to the hotel.
On Sunday night, I made it to Santiago and headed over to my friend Ale’s. Monday was a local holiday and on Tuesday I finally made my way to the Brazilian embassy to get the visa application. I needed the day to get everything together the embassy needed (particularly to arrange for my flight out of Brazil). The final delay in getting to Brazil came with rescheduling my flight to Sao Paolo. The flight on Monday (the day I was due to get my visa) was already sold out so I had to wait another day, until Tuesday, to leave. This little spate of ignorance will delay my entry to Brazil for about 10 days. I guess luckily I have the time to make up for it on the back-end. On Wednesday I turned it in all my papers, paid the fee and waited patiently until Monday to pick it up.
On Saturday night, we went out on the town, to a club Blondie’s where we danced until 5:30AM. It has been quite a while since I’ve done that. I kept the alcohol to a minimum knowing that I wouldn’t get much sleep that night. On Sunday, we got up around noon and headed off to my friend’s sister. Her and her husband made a huge asado (BBQ) and we ate everything in sight. I am loving all types of the buena carne down here.
After all the travel in June, I was just happy to be in one place for a while with no where to be. I thought I would be hanging out relaxing at my friend, Helo’s, in Brazil this week. But, looks like I needed to be in Santiago for a few days. And, knowing Santiago already, I don’t have to learn anything new, I just coasted on my knowledge of this tranquil city and bided my time until my visa was ready. I’ll be back one more time in December and need to get there in time to go back to Blondie’s!
OK, off to Brazil at long last!
Originally Published July 5, 2007
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Tags: career break travel, Chile travel, Jeff's Career Break Blog
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