The South American Odyssey

We woke up early and were ready to leave by 8:30 am. The owner of the hotel (Saint Tropez, Viña del Mar) was there and we showed her our booking price. She tried to convince us about the extra taxes etc but we stuck to our agreed price. Eventually, she relented and we paid 48500 CLP for the 2 rooms as had been agreed.
After that, we drove back to Santiago and managed to reach the Chilean Car Rental office just as it turned 11 am. On the way, we booked a place in Hotel Tremo Botique just next to the car rental place so we don't have to walk far with our big bags.
We left the car at the rental office and walked over to the hotel. While we were waiting to be checked in, I realized that it was 11:30 am and if I could reach the police station before 12, I might be able to get the report. The person at the reception checked and told that I could make it there in 20 min in a taxi. I ran out and caught one in a few min. After driving for a few minutes the driver told he needed to refuel. I told him that I needed to reach the police station before 12 but he showed me the light for the empty tank and promised he won't take more than 2 min. True to his promise, he managed to jump the line and we were off in less than 2 min. We reached the police station at 12:03 pm. I jumped out and ran and told him to wait for 5 min for me to come back as I didn't have time to make the payment.
I reached the main gate but it was locked. I rang the bell. By this time the taxi driver had also parked and came over. After I had rang the bell thrice, a person came out from inside. I explained to him why I was there. He told me that the office was closed and that it would open on Tues (26th Dec) after Christmas.
I told the taxi driver to drive me back to the hotel. Here I found the rest of the gang sitting outside the hotel busy on their phones. They too have had their share of issues with the checkin. The hotel had wanted to charge in USD at the agreed price but their card machine was not able to charge in USD so they wanted money in the local currency but the conversion rate they wanted was quite high. On pointing that out to them, they just shrugged and said that was the rate they will apply. Luckily, Hristo had the money needed in USD so he paid them the agreed sum but then they didn't have USD for the return change. They made a note and told him to collect the change when checking out.
After all this, they said that the checkin time was 2 pm and the rooms were not ready. 😲😲 That's why they were all sitting outside when I returned. We all went in amd sat in their inner courtyard waiting for the rooms. In the meanwhile, we decided to do our flight bookings for the next phase of the trip since there was nothing else to do in Santiago. We decided to risk my flying without a passport and with just a paper copy of it and the police report number since the flights to Puerto Montt (our next destination) were quite cheap at 250 SEK per person while the distance was almost about 1000 kms.Read more