All's well that ends well

I guess that is a true statement, but until you have been penniless or should I say peso-less in a country where you know no one, do not speak the language, and can't find an ATM that works and on top of that with many places refusing credit cards, it can leave one a bit paralyzed. Making calls to Wamu and Capitol One only exacerbated the problem when they told us you must find an ATM that accomodates Star or Maestro ATM's ...One big problem...Star does not have any ATM's in Chile, AND the ATM's we tried with Maestro did not work!! Wamu was very cordial but in the final analysis their suggestion was to keep looking for an ATM that worked. Great!!... we are only about 50 Km between villages here in Central Chile. Our great hotel manager Barbara suggested we drive to Santa Cruz and try the local bank ATM's. Santender Bank did not work and I could hear Deanne stomach crunching even tighter..and then at long last we went to a farmicia and found the Bank of Chile ATM. It worked!!! As we gave each other high 5's some of the Chileans must have thought we hit the Peso jackpot! What a relief.

We are now back at our amazing digs at a place you would probably never want to leave. Our waiter Jaime, manager Barbara and the other guests have been great! Now we can start leaving them tips like eveyone else...we had to explain we would take care of them at the end of our stay and you could not help but feel they had heard that story before...@#$% Gringos !! However they are far too gentle for language like that. It seems everywhere we go the people are kind and considerate and well mannered and very good in sign language because our Spanglish would never get the job done. Because there are only 7 rooms and a few suites here we got to know some of the couples pretty well. They are all having a great time on their two week vacation until they hear we have been at this for 6 months:) and have another few to go. We have heard some great stories from a lot of different people as we travel and everyone seems to have a similar ATM or Visa situation.

I heartily reccomend that when traveling you adhere to the old adage of "measure twice, cut once" or you end up in a never ending tunnel of bureaucracy. We weren't sure if this is an initiation to have you return to the office on the wrong day to see which one of the spouses will go postal and the other meltdown. We thought it is what bored civil servants do for laughs, tricking you with a wrong date:) Well we didn't go postal or meltdown but Deanne gave her best Shirley Temple routine as the Seniorita had mercy on us after looking at the originating date and finding the passports in the back room. I always look for the bright side. I got to drive for 3 hours each way avoiding chikens, bicyclists , kids, workers crossing freeways, people running out onto the freeway to hail a bus, and be passed while driving 130 km an hour like I was standfing still!! I felt at times like we were in a video game...who will come onto the highway next, the man with the donkey or the cowboy riding along the side road. Driving in Santiago was fun...just like New York with one difference, most of the intersections have stop signs (PARE ) but no one pare's they just keep on rolling. this wouldn't be bad except that the millions of people walking across both streets do the same thing, they just keep walking. I learned a long time ago as an outside adjuster in the South Bronx the best way to dispearse a crowd infront of you is to reve the motor to the highest RPM possible!! people automatically think your either a beginner driver or a nut case and they quickly get out of the way. With total insurance coverage and no deductibles I was feeling very confident as we blasted our way through crowds and taxi's making it back out of Santiago once again. Back to the peace and calm of our hacienda knee deep in pesos, passports and visas. ps for you non New Yorkers I don't advise The massive RPM thing but if you are tempted, make sure you keep the vehicle in neutral with the hand brake on!!!!

For what its worth Chile is one of the best places we have been, restaurants are great as are the people. There is an obvious lack of graffiti, no gangbangers slouching down the steets and the teens respectful and obviously well brought up. Although the towns and cities are old they are also very clean.
We would DEFINATELY come back here!!!!
Mike