Monday, February 17 - Home Again

 I'm a bit late posting this, but we've had a busy few days.

We were called off the ship at around 8:45 am and made our way through Customs to find our bus.  We had a "full day" tour of Santiago and then drop off at the airport.  The bus was comfortable for the 90 minute drive to Santiago.  We passed through a wine valley on the way there where they grow the carmenere grape.  Then a stop at the Catholic cathedral on the main square.

A map of Santiago from the very early days.

No more photos as there was a service going on and it didn't seem appropriate, but it is a lovely cathedral.  Interestingly, we watched 2 men being brought out of the church in handcuffs by the local police.  A woman who was inside said they were arrested after coming back from communion.  

Then we made a stop at the government square before going for lunch on our own.  A little more driving around before heading off to the airport where we were dropped off around 4 pm.  Since American Airlines only opens their desks 4 hours before a flight, and their first flight wasn't until 10:30 pm we had to wait until 6:30 pm.  But once we were checked in we were able to go to the Lounge which was a bit more comfortable and we could get one last Pisco Sour before leaving.

The flight to Miami was fine.  We were in Business (a Regent inclusive) with lay flat seats so as soon as we hit 10,000 feet I stretched out and stayed that way until an hour out of Miami when they served breakfast.

Breezed through Customs again in Miami and then waited in that Business Lounge another 2.5 hrs for our flight.  No problems with that except a bumpy landing as it was very windy in the area.  We were landing at DCA (Reagan) which was a bit nerve-wracking after the horrific accident a few weeks ago.

Then we caught a Lyft back home with very light traffic at mid-day on a holiday.  All was well with the house and we spent the day doing laundry and going through mail.

It was a wonderful trip, but it's also great to be back home.  We'll miss the new (and old) friends we made on the cruise and wish them well as they go on for another 3.5 months.   We'll look forward to our cruise in July/August around Norway and the British Isles with Jan and Tom.