UPDATE 9 - ANTIGUA - 17 JUN 06

09 – 17 Jun 06
Santiago – The Caribbean - Santiago

09 Jun 06 (Fri). We had most of the day to kill until we started the 16 hour, three plane change trip to the Caribbean and this was the first opportunity for us to see what Santiago had to offer. Checking with the Rough Guide, it suggested that the only area of real interest was the main square which was only a few blocks walk away. The day was a little damp and cool but yet again it didn’t rain on us. We have remained incredibly lucky with the weather since leaving the southern extremes of Patagonia where we did get a bit wet. Nature may have thrown us some extreme conditions on occasions, high wind, the snow and the cold, but to date, and I know its tempting providence, we still have not ridden in the rain; just how we like it!

The Plaza De Armas was the first major Plaza to be built in Chile and is the point from where all distances within Chile are measured. It has the Cathedral, main Post Office and other historical buildings. It also has it fair share of Night clubs and coffee shops, but a night club here is a den of ill repute and although there are many genuine coffee shops there were a good number that had blacked out windows and very low lighting; I think you could get a hot and very steamy brew in these ones! Good photo opportunities were not as obvious here as they have been in other places that we’ve visited, but like all major cities there is always something that you should capture. The Mounted Police were very obliging, not quite to Italian standards of “make sure you get my best side”. But they did sit-up straight and ensured that the pose was complimentary to them. As we were walking to the Plaza we passed an old man begging; he had a BMW baseball cap on and it was another photo opportunity not to be missed; the last adventure rider at the end of the trail! Unfortunately he did not quite get the gist of what we were trying to achieve. I put some coins in his pot and asked if it was alright to take a photo while Mick S prepare the camera hoping for a quick shot of his face and the BMW cap: not to be. He fully understood that it was a photo we wanted and got to his feet to prepare himself; out came the colostomy bag, held proudly and displayed for the event. No, no, it was just a headshot wanted; yes of course; so off came the cap; proud a punch that a tourist wanted a photo of him, stood up straight smiling for the camera. We just about got a photo of the gent with his hat and we think he was happy that we’d given him some coins and taken an interest!

Leaving the Plaza we could see that the mountains surrounding Santiago were snow capped, so we made our way in search of a photo when we saw the Funicular running up the side of the hills to a very large statute of the Madonna, but more importantly a good viewing platform of the city. The Funicular is a system of two rail cars counter balancing each other that transports you up and down the hillside. We did have a little difficulty working out the engineering of it, but I think eventually the penny dropped and we could see that it was a single steel hawser attached to each car that went around a drive pulley so that as one car descended the other ascended. More fantastic views of mountains!

Mick S had a go at booking a taxi over the phone in his best Spanish to collect us at 1700 hrs and take us to the airport. Not 100% confident that what he had said was what we’d get he asked the hotel receptionist to do a double check. To his delight, he’d booked a taxi to arrive at the right hotel at the right time and take us to the right destination!

The thought of a 16 hour flight was not a welcome one; restricted space in cattle class seats with a broken shoulder and a banged-up ankle as well as having the anticipated pleasure of the officious, unfriendly and incredibly painfully slow immigration process as we transit through Miami! Santiago airport procedures were no problem; but why is it that Immigration officers’ have this air of superiority about them? There was a long queue and one of the immigration officers would, at his leisure bless us with his attention and let someone through in between playing on his personal laptop! We were about three hours early for our flight so to kill time and deaden the pain a couple of large glasses of red wine was the order of the day, while we exchange text messages with the two Jane’s who were now in a hotel at Gatwick preparing for their flight too.

10 Jun 06 (Sat). The 8 hour flight with Lan Chile was straightforward but as predicted painfully cramped, but thankfully, the look forward was a 2 hour gap between flights and a chance to let the body reset its self before the next two shorter flights! We were not disappointed when we arrived at Miami; only 50 % of the immigration desks were manned, and by lethargic, disinterested jobs worth officers who gave the impression that they really did not care if you got through or not. The finger printing and photographing is a slow and tedious process, which is what actually brings the whole immigration process to a slow grind and why immigration officers look as if they are being slow. While we waited in line there was a large noisy black senior immigration officer patrolling up and down behind us and every now and again he would pick on someone and hook them out of the line and take them away; no explanation or justification, just officious orders; “you, come with me”! Thoughts of random selection, special rendition and a free trip to Eastern Europe in the back of a blacked out C5 sprang to mind! But what he was actually doing was moving people, mothers with babies, the old and infirmed from the “aliens” line into the US citizens line as it became free; just something about manner and attitude. Fortunately he did pick on us when we had about 40 minute before our next flight was due to depart and we still had not cleared immigrations! Through the US Citizen line and out to collect bags, clear customs and straight into the transit line to book onto the next flight and only made it by the skin of our teeth. We had dreaded the thought of having to transit through the US to get to the Caribbean and our concerns were well founded; we had considering flying back to Gatwick and out to the Caribbean to avoid getting ragged, bagged, and ***gged by the US system!

Miami to San Juan, Puerto Rico was a two hour hop arriving with plenty of time for us to get the next flight to Antigua and as it’s a State of the USA we did not have any immigration formalities to deal with – great. Find the Gate, confirm the departure time and get a bite to eat, this was easy. We were called to board; we presented our documents with the US entry certificate to be told that we had to conduct a formal exit from the USA by getting and electronic certificate from the self service electronic exit machine, that was not quite self service as there was a women there who processed everyone’s passports to ensure a quick and efficient exit! Back to check with minutes to spare; should have gone via Gatwick! Then the Gate staff did not want the certificate but said keep it so that you have a record of leaving the USA! We are certain there is some logic to the whole immigration process, considering we did not want to enter the US just transit through, but it was lost on us and a few other travellers too!

Only a 45 minute flight to Antigua and we were ahead of the girls Virgin Atlantic ETA, but on landing we saw that their 747 was already on the pan and had arrived an hour early and there they were, on the other side of immigrations collecting their bags,

organising transport to the resort.

Reunited and on our way; great; we were just glad that we were not carrying their bags – I’m sure we were only staying a week!

11 Jun 06 (Sun). Soak up the sun and enjoy the warm sea air for a week at Sandals Resort; we were like a load of reptiles warming our bones. The one thing that everyone says that you must do is visit Shirley’s Heights on a Sunday to see the sunset with the steel band playing and amplify the atmosphere with a few rum punches. Shirley’s Heights has a commanding view of the main harbour English bay, with Nelson’s harbour,
where the British fleet of year’s gone by
had their Caribbean naval headquarters and brought in the Ships, Man of War and the like to be de-barnacled and serviced etc. The steel band was very good, playing continuously for a few hours while the tourists soaked up the atmosphere and the rum punch, interspersed with a little ethnic shopping; a reed basked, a coloured bracelet and any other bit of tourist tack that could be offloaded; yup, we got the lot! Unfortunately we were not paying close enough attention to the sun, when all of a sudden it was sitting perfectly, nestling between two large hills on the far side of the bay; missed it, but did get a couple of shots of the glow.

12 Jun 06 (Mon). We’d heard that the tropical storm that had hit Cancun where Barry and Silvia, friends of the Simpson’s were holding Silvia’s sons wedding; and where we would have been had we been riding from Alaska to Ushuaia! CNN were then hyping up the storm to a hurricane that would hit Miami and the state of Florida, but being so far south of it was not going to affect us. Fortunately for us another day of sear bliss.

13 Jun 06 (Tue). We could hear the weather deteriorating overnight; heavy rains and strong winds were lashing Antigua and by the morning it had settled down to steady rain with a few bouts of tropical downpours. This is probably the sort of day the bar and restaurant staff work hardest; no beach activities, excursions cancelled, just self help with the entertainments, the pleasure all enhanced by copious amounts of good Caribbean alcohol! All in all a very pleasant day.

14 Jun 06 (Wed). Today’s highlight was the sunset cruise on the Catamaran Falcon under command of Captain Mango and his crew Curt and Victor with Francine taking videos. Capt Mango’s safety brief was superb; it was a micky take of an airline brief but with his own twist; like “if you get the command to abandon ship make sure you take a big jump, because if you land on something hard you’re still on the boat”! It was a gentle cruise down the coast to the capital St John’s, see one huge cruise liner leaving and a turn around the harbour; another highly alcoholic event, but how relaxing. Although advertised as the sunset cruise Capt Mango had no control or contract with the sun to give a good performance on our behalf and the low cloud obscured the main event of the sun touching the sea, giving off a light show not generally seem on land.

15 – 16 Jun 06 (Thu). Mick S has been saying all week the he wanted to take out one of the Hobie Cats for a sail and today he did but unfortunately we did not get any photos of the event. Jane D also got round to taking out a canoe and was threatening to paddle around the far island that is about 3 kms off shore; but as there is no visible water safety cover and a stiff breeze she was persuaded to stay within a reasonable distance of the shore! A justified decision as when she returned she did comment that the offshore wind had quite an affect on the high sided canoe! Same routine for the 16th Jun to, a bit of sun, some sailing and canoeing, and yes the occasional rum punch.

17 Jun 06 (Sat). The parting of the ways. A very enjoyable week and if you have to arrive on holiday injured this is a very good place to do it. Although a bit frustrating that neither Mick or I could take advantage of all the facilities and explore the Island the tonic of the girls and just being able to relax was just what was required. A couple of trips in a controlled environment was just about all the shoulder could tolerate too. We are now in the process of packing suitcases and booking out; the Jane’s heading back to the UK and us back to find our bikes. Hope there are not too many tears!

We have just run the US Immigration gauntlet again! We are now in San Juan airport; we had 2 hours to catch our connecting flight to Miami and as with the outward flight last Saturday it was nowhere near sufficient time. Immigrations was the same as Miami but without the Immigration Officer behind the line selecting people; but Customs was in on the act this time, it had a queue that sapped the last spare time we had; and as we cleared the customs doors an official was sending all Americana Airways (AA) passengers to a customer service desk to be told that we were being put on an earlier flight? As our flight was about to leave we found that hard to believe until one of the staff eventually explained that our flight had been delayed by about 4 hours and we were being rescheduled to the next available flight, with our leg from Miami to Santiago being transferred from Lan Chile to AA too.

Even if everything had been smooth through immigration and customs we would have still failed to make the original flight as we were both singled out for that special treatment that we seem to attract. It would appear that since the day that Richard Ried, the British Shoe bomber did his stuff, every Brit is the target of the US system or is it that I have been unlucky that every Brit I’ve travelled with and I have been targeted? We should have gone via Gatwick.

Our intention for the next week.

Did we reach our goals of last week; Oh yes.

A correction of terminology from last week when we stated; we’re off for a suntan and table dancing! Of cause it should have been dancing on tables; no table dancing here!

Intentions for next week is to give the bikes a bit of a service, wash down and change the tyres ready to set off in two weeks time; all being well?