May 2nd, 2007
GPS:
S17 24.655
W075 38.557
Off the coast of Peru
Air Canada Flight 092, Boeing 767-300

Eight hours so far on this plane. Thanks to gravol and ear plugs, though, I'm actually feeling pretty good.

The last few days have been a rush of last-minute preparations and contstant 'did I forget something?' and 'i should get X'. However, now that we're on our way (and, now, mostly there) we've all breathed a collective sigh of relief as we settled into our tiny airplane chairs.

I posted a short update yesterday from the airport in Toronto, but i'll rehash what we've got so far.

Upon attempting to check baggage yesterday at the airport in Calgary, we found out that one of our bags was forty pounds in excess of the maximum allowed weight. If we decided to keep it overweight, it would have to be shipped 'air cargo'. On a different plane. No thanks. Mad panic ensues as items from all bags are redistributed and repackaged. Rob and Justin, most likely because they are engineers, managed to get everything packed properly, but now we've got no idea where anything is.

Carry-on luggage was repacked at this time, as well, which caused some problems getting through security. Apparently we had some glue and a tent, both common terrorist apparatus. Sean rushed back to the check-in counter with the dangerous bag outstretched in his arms. Speaking of security, i've never had such a hard time getting through the metal detector. Justin turned out to be the smartest of us four – he was the only one to wear sandals instead of heavy, metal-reinforced motorcycle boots. We were all forced to remove them, and were all patted down and repeatedly had metal-detecting wands run over us. Rob, with the metal plate in his leg, seemed to fascinate the security guard, who insisted upon seeing the surgery scar repeatedly.

A very pleasant surprise was waiting for us when the drink cart came around (with the first of our two meals) – on intercontinental flights, booze is free. With a couple shots of rum warming my belly, and generic gravol kicking in, i managed to sleep for six or seven hours.

The plane we took on the jaunt from Calgary to Toronto was pretty swank – each seat had its' own plug-in for both standard AC and USB. I was really hoping to find something like that on the thirteen-hour marathon from Toronto to Santiago, Chile, but – alas, I have only battery power.

9AM MOUNTAIN TIME, SANTIAGO, CHILE

That was a brutally long flight. Ten and a half hours with no real activity. Once we landed here in Santiago, we had to get off the plane, walk around the terminal and go through security once again, in order to get back onto the same plane.

So far, nothing much seems too different from, say, the airport at Calgary, or Toronto. Walking up to the gate to get back onto the same plane, we passed a Ruby Tuesday's, and i'm currently sitting next to a Hugo Boss store, with a Starbucks immediately behind me.

I guess we have left the land of the free wi-fi behind. Either that, or this BIENVENIDO page is hating on me because I don't have flash installed. Hmm... looks to be just a web proxy – looks like other traffic can get through without any filtering going on.

2PM MOUNTAIN TIME, BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
GPS:
S34 36.435
W058 23.072

I had to leave that last part un-posted, 'cause Rob decided to wander off about ten minutes before the plane took off. Nothing makes you feel grown up like wandering around an airport terminal looking for your twenty-five-year-old brother.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get onto the interweb and update our journals as often as I've been writing in them. Turns out to be harder than anticipated to find a proper outlet (there are four different plug styles in my hotel room alone) but I was able to find a standard 220-outlet, and finally have a full charge on the laptop again.

Good news, everyone! Every single piece of our luggage arrived and was waiting for us on the baggage carousel. Customs was also a breeze – guess the language barrier is working in our favour, here, 'cause he didn't seem to want to ask us any questions.

Traffic lanes here are more of a suggestion than anything else. Several times during our taxi ride from the airport to the hotel here I was forced to close my eyes as, say, a bus wandered into our lane with no warning, or the several kilometres our taxi drove along straddling two lanes, seemingly unaware of the traffic closing in on all sides.

We made a promise, today, to stay the heck out of cities whenever possible. Speaking of traffic, though – what a difference from Alberta/NA vehicles. Puegeots, BMW trucks, Mercedes busses, other symbols on cars that I can't place – a lion rampant? Hardly any trucks, too – and what trucks exist are very small. Only once did Justin manage to spot a full-size dodge pickup, but none of the rest of us were able to confirm the sighting.

The hotel dad managed to get for us is actually pretty nice, considering how scary the streets and traffic is. After hooking up the interwebs, our #1 priority was to grab a shower. Everyone's feeling much better, now.  One thing that I found a little bit weird.  I have heard about, but never quite believed the stories of The Bidet.  There's a funny one involving my grandfather thinking it was a water fountain.  I tried it out.  I mean, i turned it on.  I didn't actually _use_ it.  I can see using it if you didn't have time for a full-on shower, but other than that, I think I'll pass on those bits.

We fly out to Ushuaia tomorrow (early) morning, taking off about 4am. Apparently Ushuaia is, contrary to my own personal belief, fairly large – a tiny bit smaller than Red Deer. There are four flights every day, but when the tickets were booked, we'd planned on having our bikes there. Waiting for us. Instead, we get two days to kill – perhaps to grease the skids of customs – before our bikes even get there and we can start putting them all together.