We are at the Santiago Grand Hyatt for a few hours before our flight up to Calama and Awasi for three nights. The keyboard is Spanish so there may be punctuation screw-ups you can all ignore.

We booked the stay using Fine Hotels & Resorts platinum AMEX program. They upgraded us to the club floor and are throwing in a 50 minute massage. Perfect after a long flight. The breakfast has been spectacular - ham, fresh breads, cherries, artichoke hearts along with the usual pastries, cereal, etc. It has the most amazing pool table I´ve seen in some time. Baroque gilt cherubs cover the burnished wood legs. Ivory insets on the edge. Wow!

Fast facts (not in sequential order)for those of you coming down over the next couple of days:

-Santiago is 2 hours ahead of East Coast Time

-The reciprocity fee is US 131, payable with cash or major credit cards. The line to get the receipts are clearly marked and the first area you see when you leave the plane. Unless you´ve already got a receipt in your passport, just line up, with immigration form in passport, and pay it. They staple it to the back page of your passport. If you don´t get the receipt, they will send you back there when you get to the immigration line.

-Instructions on the plane were one customs form per family. They insisted we each submit a customs form at the point of getting the luggage Xrayed in the customs area. Since we use different last names, we had filled one out for each of us ahead of time.

-Airport exchange rate today was 459 Chilean pesos per US$1. You can exchange US$ currency at a booth after you walk through duty free and before you get to baggage claim. The ATM is outside of the customs hall about 150 yards from the exit. There are three blond wood cabinets. There is a large sign over all of the terminals which reads Santander on a red background. The actual bank is Redbank, a subsidiary of Santander Bank. They take cards with Cirrus or Plus network access, in addition to credit cards.

-Agriculture rules say no fresh foods come into the country. Eat it on the plane or leave it behind. They make a reasonable effort to enforce it. There were three golden or yellow lab retrievers sniffing the checked bags at the carousels. They also Xray all luggage after you leave baggage claim, run by the agricultural regulators. Quick aside: the dogs also roam around baggage claim and sniff the carry on luggage at random. One dog in training sniffed a 3 year old´s Dora backpack. She started yelling at him that he was a bad dog in Spanish and then hugged her backpack very protectively.

-Bring your travel or high school spanish. Basic english is about it.

-To get a cup of coffee: regular coffee = cafe; decaf coffee = Nescafe nada

-Baggage was slow to come off the plane and priority tags didn´t matter.

-Start to finish, it took one hour from landing til we were in the taxi on the way to the hotel. We were on Delta 147 and there were no other international flights coming through at the same time we arrived.

-The car rental booths are inside the area near baggage claim

-It´s standard operating procedure to put your passport number on anything you sign (like a credit card).

-Be sure to keep the yellow stamped immigration slip in your passport. They will want to see it at the hotel and you´ll need it for exiting Chile.

-The swimming pool area at the hotel is to die for. They even have three or four pool floats! A very small bar is in the same booth where you get the pool towels. From your room, you go to floor M2, follow the signs for the spa, take a second elevator to the ground floor and turn left.

-For taxis, there are plenty of signs telling you to use official transportation between where you deplane and when you leave customs. As you leave customs, there are a couple of transport booths (either taxis or hotel shuttle van service). You can pay at the booth either in Chilean pesos or in US$ (about a 10% surcharge on the exchange rate) in cash or with a credit-debit card. I paid cash so don´t know how the credit card process works. They give you a receipt. As you walk out of customs, there is a mob scene of drivers. A porter quickly grabbed our attention, took charge of the trolley, walked us out to the car, loaded the luggage. I spied the ATMS so had Gary get the car arranged while I got the cash. Again, Spanish was the order of the day.

-Chile has left-hand steering wheels, just like the US

-Taxis are small. We had 1 26" suitcase, 2 21" suitcases and a backpack. That filled the trunk. Theoretically, the taxi could take 3 people. I don´t know what they do if there´s excess luggage for 3 people.

-Taxi cost is 16,000 CLP (US$36) to get from airport to hotel. Tip is included but of course you can add to that if you like. The hyatt website wanted 33,000 CLP for airport transit in a Mercedes van. I did not find out if that was per ride or per person. If you are not getting the Regent transfer and there are 4 of you with more luggage, that may be the way to go. I believe the driver would meet you just outside of customs, but confirm that information directly if that´s what you choose to do.

- There was absolutely no traffic from the airport to the hotel. It took 20 minutes to get here.

-There is an ATM downstairs at the Grand Hyatt if you miss the one in the airport (as reported by a fellow guest who just rolled by the computer)

- Weather for the next few days is sunny-partly cloud. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the upper 50s. Next rain is forecast for Feb. 2


Hope that is helpful.

The shopping center is in between the Marriott and Hyatt. I hope to have time to scout it before we leave this afternoon.

Cheers, Anne