MINI DRAMAS OF THE DAY (BEFORE WE GET ON OUR BIKES)

Yesterday was quite uneventful. We visited the most upmarket mall in Santiago and experienced the absolute wealth that exists in the upmarket part of the city. Really first world. Brand shops are plentiful and brand names (they are ALL there) seem to be quite big.
We had some pizza and a glass of wine in the vicinty of our hotel when a pigeon landed on our table to knibble on the bread and toast. In the process of moving the plate away to discourage him, disaster struck. I knocked over Dawid's glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, soaked his pants with red wine and splashed red wine on at least two other tables. I don't think the waiter has ever experienced anything like it. I doubled the tip but am not sure if it made that much difference.
In the afternoon we visited a wine estate on the outskirts of Santiago. Nothing spectacular but the journey turned out to be very interesting with our very talkative tour guide George (he spent a lot of time in Mpumalanga and Mozambique) giving us a lot of information on the social structure of the city, the areas where our tour will take us and a lot in between.

13 December 2010.
We left our hotel early to the airport. We travelled without any hold-ups, reinforcing our opinion of the Santiago transportation - and road systems.
The first mini-drama of the day happened when Dawid forgot his credit card in the ATM in the airport terminal. He had to have it cancelled and we will have to make alternative plans to get cash from his account on the rest of tour.

Mini drama no. 2 happened when we checked into our hotel in Osorno and I could not find my immigration documents. We visualised a few days delay in getting it sorted out (we cross the Argentinian border tomorrow!) and I saw Dawid getting VERY concerned. Luckily my documents surfaced during re-packing and both of us were very relieved.
Mini drama no. 3 was Dawid's spectacles disappearing. We alerted the Bike rental company to look at their premises but with no success. Fortunately this also turned out to be a false alarm.

On our way to Osorno. No optical illusion; The floors are that clean!!

In any event, we sorted out all the business, admin and paperwork with regard to the bike rental and we are ready to go!!!. Sonia, who picked us up at the airport was very helpful and efficient and gave us a lot of information and tips, which we are sure will come in very handy. We took a ride through Osorno late afternoon, to get accustomed to the bikes and are ready to go early tomorrow. Late afternoon temperature was low (I guess below 10 C) and we decided to dress accordingly from the outset as we will travel through snow tomorrow. Approaching Osorno, we noted the Andes mountains are covered with snow throughout and it will obviouly only get cooler as we go south.