The Cactus Trip Diaries

Well, we had not been washed away overnight by any Tsunami, so all’s well that ends well. Officially we could check into the Holiday Inn Express at Santiago Airport at 16:00 but I was happy to try at 15:00 hrs, which meant time for a relaxed breakfast – Angie watched as the Marisco Empanada from yesterday afternoon did not agree with her. We drove very calmly at around 80 km.p.hr. along R5, which was full of holiday traffic with lots of police speed traps monitoring things alongside the road. We went wrong again at the airport, putting more faith in SatNav that insisted that we’d take Exit 16, rather than instinct and signs suggesting Exit 18 was for the Airport. In any event, we passed the Hilton Hotel again so knew we were on a familiar circuit to where we wanted to be.

I went to have a chat at the Alamo desk while Angie was going to have a try at ringing Florencia to announce that we were in town.

After a bit of gentle persuasion, Alamo would change the tyres on the car and I could pick up the car at 10:00 a.m. the next morning. Excellent.

Back in the hotel, Angie was making sense of local codes that may or may not required to ring Florencia. Let’s try it without. Bingo, the housekeeper answered the phone and seemed to be expecting our call as she ran off calling for Flo.

We had also enquired at reception if Jonathan Clark had arrived safely in the hotel and he joined us in reception where after chats about his flight experiences we agreed to all meet up and have dinner as soon after 7 as Flo arrived.

We enjoyed excellent chat over excellent food and wine. Then back to our room where Flo gave a preview of the draft PDF that Flo had brought along of the book that she and Juan had written, a field guide to the cacti of Chile. The book would be ready next week for an official presentation to an invited audience. We agreed to meet up at Flo’s parents place at Lonquen on Jonathan’s last day in Chile when hopefully we might receive a printed copy of the book of which 3,000 copies will be printed.

Angie was dropping off while we finished up, getting ready for her flight early tomorrow morning. Although it was still early, she had set the alarm for 5.