Puerto Chacabucco, Chile December 24, 2008

We had a rough night at sea where we basically bounced around the cabin, I thought it was great to rock me to sleep, Pat was trying desperately not to get seasick, and Kayla of course slept soundly through all of it, but of course we all know she sleeps through earthquakes as well.

We were scheduled to kayak on Lake Los Palos in Puerto Chacabucco and were wondering if we would actually even get to go because it was windy and rainy when we arrived. Luckily by the time we went inland and reached the lake it wasn't raining too much and was pretty calm. We had an interpreter who was down in Chile teaching English but our guide didn't speak much English. As soon as he figured out that Kayla spoke a little Spanish he kept trying to communicate with her - I think she picked up on some of his directions or just made things up and told us what to do - who knows, we all know she likes being in charge.

We kayaked across the lake and then started up one of the rivers. At one point we had to paddle pretty hard to go against the current, but I wouldn't really know because Pat and I were in a double kayak and I was busy taking pictures and trying to rock the boat while he was trying to paddle.

We pulled the kayaks onto the shore and stopped for lunch - the juice was AWESOME! Amazing how you really appreciate good juice when the stuff they were serving on the cruise was horrible.

Note the uncanny resemblance between Kayla and her kayak - the two meat eaters - we'll be talking abou that later.

The setting was just incredible - even in the fog!

Puerto Montt, Chile - December 23rd, 2008

Hey - maybe I can just add one day to my blog per day! What a plan - let's see if it works.

The good news is that when we woke up on Tuesday morning we saw our cruise ship out in the harbor - now all we had to do was get on it!

Our port agent from the cruise line had 'made arrangements' to get us from the airport to our hotel and then from the hotel to the cruise terminal - and it only cost us a mere $105. What a ripoff. Live and learn - anyway - when we got to the terminal there was one other family from Minneapolis that had missed the boat and were getting on with us.

Unfortunately we didn't get checked in and through the all important breakfast buffet in time to go on our shore excurison so we spent the day organizing our five suitcases (yes, Kayla and I each brought one and Pat brought 3 - he can never decide which clothes to wear - let see, brown? or brown?) into our very small cabin. This however, did leave time to go back into town and walk up and down the street (where Kayla was a huge hit - seems like they hadn't seen tall, slender, beautiful young ladies in these ports very often) and we found time to hit the craft market.

Later that night we put up a Christmas tree - yes, we packed a Christmas tree, ornaments and lights in one of those suitcases and when it came time to go to bed, we found out that Kayla doesn't really fit on a small hideabed - I think her little frame was about one foot longer than the bed frame!

Christmas Cruise around South America

Okay, Okay - so yes, I really don't know how to blog - BUT - thanks to Emily I have a really cool looking page now - Thanks Emily.
So - you may have heard already that we MISSED the BOAT!
Plan A was to leave on Saturday, December 20th from Portland and meet Kayla in Dallas (she was flying in from Salt Lake City) and then continue on to Santiago Chile - arriving Sunday morning and the getting on the boat on Sunday afternoon.
We were worried that Kayla wouldn't be able to get out of SLC because of snow, but no, it was snowy weather in Portland. When we arrived at the Portland airport we noticed that ALL the Southwest flights in and out of Portland had been cancelled and there were LINES of unhappy people everywhere. We checked in and got to our gate and noticed that the evening flight coming from Dallas to Portland had already been cancelled. We ended up getting on the plane about an hour late and then sitting on the plane waiting to be de-iced. We made it to the runway only to find out that we couldn't take off because we were 7000 pounds to heavy for the 1/8th inch of snow on the runway so the pilot brought us back to the gate. By this time, Kayla is already on her way to Dallas and I'm madly trying to find out what we need to do since we aren't going to be able to make it to Santiago on time. The first Norwegian agent tells me that Kayla's flight schedule isn't impacted so she needs to continue on to Santiago and get on the boat or she will lose her cruise and if she stays in Dallas we will have to pay for all the flight changes. I definitely didn't feel okay with that option so I called back and got another agent and this time they tell me that because she is only 19 and not 21 that they won't even LET her get on the boat without an 'adult'. Yes, yes, she can gamble and drink once she is on the boat, but she can't get on the boat Anyway, I liked this answer much better because who knew if we were even going to be able to get out of Portland to go on the cruise at this point. Anyway, we sat on the plane for about six hours and they got us de-iced once again and we headed out to the runway and this time we got to take off - what a relief.

Meanwhile - Kayla is in Dallas wondering if she gets to spend Christmas alone in Dallas or if her parents are going to be able to get out of Portland. Assuming we are going to make it - she trys to change our flights to Santiago - in fact, we needed them to get us all the way to the next port of call in Chile. After interacting with two gate agents that basically told her to get lost because they couldn't help her, we found a really nice gate agent that rebooked all of us all the way to Puerto Montt, Chile - however, instead of just leaving from Dallas and going on to Puerto Montt we got to go to Miami first and then on to Puerto Montt.

I had booked a hotel for Kayla in Dallas so we met her sleepy hide there once our plane got into Dallas. Of course, the plane arrived so late in Dallas that the ground crew was gone and couldn't unload our luggage - even though our flight didn't leave for Miami until the afternoon. So the next morning we start day two in the same clothes - we even decided to find a church and went to church in our jeans and boots and didn't even get too many funny looks -

Our flight ended up leaving Dallas on time and arrived in Miami on time - HOWEVER - we wouldn't want things to go too smoothly so the cleaning crew decided NOT to show up to clean the plane, which of course meant we couldn't board and couldn't leave - which of course meant that we were going to miss our connection to Puerto Montt the next morning!

Well - we spent all night on the plane and arrived in Santiago Chile, went through customs and yes, yes, missed our flight to Puerto Montt - we were on standby for the next flight, but didn't make that one either so got to wait another seven hours in the airport until the flight that left and 7:00 at night. We finally arrived in Puerto Montt that evening and I put everything back into perspective when we were waiting for our luggage, a poor guy in a wheelchair collasped and slid onto the ground - and a young lady was giving him CPR - so I realized it was time to stop complaining and just be grateful to be alive - and - finally about ready to get on the ship!