The Final Farewell

I think after reaching home safely, I can finally say that all worked out for the best (not worried about jinxing myself anymore). We made all our flights (just barely… story about this below), reached our final destinations safely, and miraculously did not get too sick during our ~2 month travel time.

After the moon valley day, we enjoyed our “Last Supper” at the bar next door with, you guessed it, our last authentic pisco sours. The next morning, we took the shuttle from San Pedro to Calama, and boarded the plane to Santiago. Thankfully, this flight was 30 minutes early so we were able to board, land, and get off the plane earlier than expected (giving us nearly 2 hrs to make the connection instead of just 90 min).

We hustled off the plane, walked nearly a mile to baggage claim, then speed-walked another half mile with our large bags in arms to the international terminal. It was quite a haul and we were a sight to see. We finally found the Avianca check in counter with no line (thank god) and I checked my bag in first, without issue, with a not-so-nice counter attendant. Then Hunter went to check his bag, and this is where the largest problem arose. We forgot that he needed proof of ongoing travel from Ecuador, otherwise they couldn’t check his bag in. This rule doesn’t make sense to me because not all airlines enforce it and if you didn’t need to check a bag, there would be no way to enforce it either. Regardless, the lady told Hunter that he couldn’t board this plane to Quito because he hadn’t purchased his flight to Denver yet.

Panic set in. Thankfully, we had sort of prepared for these types of issues before. We found a website that charges $20 to create a boarding pass with reservation number for you, but then cancels the reservation in 48 hrs. This solution worked perfectly. The lady’s face when Hunter produced a “new” boarding pass after 2 minutes on his phone was pretty funny, but it worked nonetheless. From then on, it was all jogging till we sat on the plane. I forgot that in Chile, there is a customs EXIT line that you need to clear when leaving the country, which is kind of bizarre. That line was so long, but thankfully only took 15 minutes. Security another 10 minutes, and we finally made it across. But wait, our gate was a 15min walk away from the security checkpoint. All out sprint to the gate. And finally we made it. No line at the gate and they were just about to do final call. Whew. BUT WAIT. My boarding pass scans fine and I enter the jetway. Hunter’s does not scan. The gate agent had to check his fake boarding pass again before allowing him to pass. We’re free! BUT WAIT, the gate agent yells at us to put masks on before entering, which doesn’t make sense because no other airline uses masks and unless everyone enforces it, it’s kinda pointless.

And finally, we are in our seats, the boarding door is shut, and we are in the air. Great success. This is the longest flight of the journey and we didn’t have time to get snacks, water, use the bathroom or anything. And we are sweating like crazy. But we made it. Don’t know if we would have if our other flight hadn’t been early.

We landed in Bogota around 8pm local time and found a place to get a huge dinner. The Bogota airport is massive as it’s probably a central hub for Latin American travel. We had our last meal together before heading to each of our gates. The end of the trip, but what a trip to remember.

My parents asked me which trip I would rather do, the first in Colombia and Peru or the second in Chile and Argentina. After a while of thought, I really couldn’t decide, which I think goes to show the value of the experiences of both. With trip 1, meeting local people, eating local food, and immersing myself in the culture showed me what I am lacking in my life and what I am grateful for. With trip 2, completing many bucket-list items all in one go was incredible.

I would highly highly recommend anyone at any age to save some money, and take the leap into a new area of the world. Make yourself uncomfortable, put yourself out there, and explore the different sides of yourself that you didn’t know existed. You may find the experiences challenging, but the new self that you create along the way will be worth it, in my opinion. It makes me so happy to hear other peers of mine planning global trips. When else in life will you want to be this spontaneous, unsettled, open to new ideas, and free. Not saying that the rest of life will be unfulfilling at all, but the responsibilities only grow from here, and as we all know, trips like these are not easy to come by.

Thank you to all the readers for sticking with me through the last few months. They have been some of the most amazing, challenging, fun, sad, crazy times of my life. Salud. And Hasta Luego.