Easter Island-Santiago Day 1

Day 1 - Friday, November 23, 2007 - Flight from Denver to Los Angeles to Santiago, Chile

Our flight to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) was scheduled to depart at 7:10 on Friday morning so our friend Tim Templeton took us to Denver late on Thursday afternoon. What we did not count on was that all the restaurants were closed for Thanksgiving Day. We did find a Village Inn that was welcoming travelers and had our Thanksgiving dinner there.

We woke up at 3:45 AM and by 4:45 we were on the La Quinta shuttle bus on our way to DIA. There were no lines at the check-in counter or security that early!

Our American Airlines flight left the gate on time but it took 15 minutes to de-ice the aircraft before takeoff. It was 7:30 when we actually took off in dense icy fog with 15 degree temperatures.

Our flight to LAX took just over 2 hours which was the first leg of our Incredible Journey to South America. We deplaned and had to leave the main LAX area and walk to the Tom Brady Terminal to catch our flight to Chile.

Once inside, we went to the LAN Chile counter and Daniel (super nice) gave us a pass to the Business Class lounge. We went through security again – they were not as welcoming as in Denver - and took the elevator to the 5th floor and had a chance to relax a little bit before our 12 hour flight.

We walked down to our boarding area and met our five friends who are making this leg of the trip with us. We were happy to see Duane, who has done all of the organizing of our pre-trip to Easter Island. He introduced us to Verne & Paula and Richard & Michelle, both couples from California.

After chatting for a while we were asked to board the LAN Chile Flight #601 departing at 11:50AM. We made ourselves comfortable and the plane took off just about on time.

We flew south over the Gulf of Cortez, then just inside the coast of Central America before going out over the Pacific on our way to Lima, Peru. We were able to get some sleep after lunch but our internal clock will be a little off for a while.

We had to make a “technical stop” in Lima, Peru at approximately 11 PM. Gennie and I took the opportunity to get off the plane and go into the terminal. Many people ended the trip here and many more boarded the plane for the last portion to Santiago.

We then flew over the northern portion of Chile – the Atacama Desert. At one time no rain fell in the entire desert for 400 years and today it receives just 1 mm of rain per year. At this rate it would take 25 years to get just one inch of rain!!!

This area is famous for its copper mines. Chile is a very rich country in that it produces 36% of the world’s copper. Unfortunately, this area was struck with a severe 7.7 earthquake last week.

Thank you for sharing your trip. Looking forward to next entry.

I'm so glad you are now identifying the pictures. Sometimes it is obvious, but sometimes I wonder what this is.

Day 13: Azores & Madeira: Portugal's Unspoiled Archipelagos

Island Beauties

Island Beauties

Island Beauties

Island Beauties

Island Beauties

Previous Next

Day 13 - Saturday, April 22, 2022 - Depart for U.S.

The hotel prepared a box breakfast for us as we had to be in the lobby way before the breakfast room was open.

Last night we found out that our departure flight back to...

Continue Reading Day 13