And The Adventure Continues...

Tuesday May 3th - 9:00 p.m. departure time to head back to the US. Still had a ton to do - cleaning and packing. The kids still went to school that day (I won't do that again - messed up packing and I think was the main contributor as to why I didn't finish) I still had a lot to do, but at 5:00 we took a break for an interview with Start Up Chile, for their records, of our experience.


Corey played Illapu on his saxophone, I tried to clean and pack more, it was almost 6:00, and the owner was coming to get the keys and we still weren't cleared out. Corey said "Well, we gotta go, I'll come back and finish it tonight" - I hated leaving things in an un-finished state, I felt unfinished myself, the kids had gone straight from school to a friends house, Lily didn't have shoes, Abi's hair was in her face, but we were off, and I felt like "Well that sucked" - bad way to end the whole experience, in chaos and stress and feeling unsatisfied with the state of things. But what to do, the plane was leaving so we had to go.

In Rodrigo's car on the way to the airport.

Rodrigo helped us carry and check in our luggage. Suckers for the kids from their Sunday Loot - sticky mess - Abi's hair in her face, Lily's got no shoes on and two suckers in hand to keep her quiet - I couldn't find them in the packing mess.


Baggage all got checked in okay, but we didn't have a boarding pass for Lily to be an Infant in Arms, so Corey went to take care of that at the Delta Help office while the kids and I sat and they sucked their suckers.

Got the ticket for Lily, we're good to go! 8:00, plane leaves in an hour, we're good on time, we're gonna make it!

Or so we thought... one last and major glitch at the Chilean Police Department of Investigation Stations: I hand over our passports and Chilean ID cards, they look it over and we're ready to officially part ways with Corey and the boys until we meet again in Utah, but no, "You need to go talk to the PDI Office." The kids and I waited at the gate while Corey talked at the office.

Waiting and waiting for an hour, ...isn't it fun to wait, Lily?

Corey talked in the office with the head honcho who did not look up at Corey, talked to Corey while he looked at his desk papers, did not listen with any empathy, compassion, or understanding or rational thinking, he just kept repeating, "Nope, nope, she can't go..."


Corey calling people at Start Up Chile to see if they can help us out. 8:45 - a guy from Delta comes looking for us, he walkie-talkies the plane to tell them we're stuck with the PDI and aren't going to make it... Oh dear, how is this all going to end? Are we going to loose our tickets and have to buy new ones? Um, that's gonna be around $4000 bucks which we'd rather not spend... come on, guys, give us a break!

In he end, common sense did not prevail. they would not give me and my 4 kids permission to pass because I was attempting to travel with Corey´s children without him without written permission, and I can´t do that under Chilean law, which, we found out, applies to us since we have temporary visas and Chile National Identification cards. Who knew!

Said the head of the police there "You´re practically Chileans..." Well, we´re flattered. But we think he had a chip on his shoulder or some bone to pick, so we were the lucky ones last night. ¨She can´t go without permission...¨ Corey ¨Here I am! I give my permission!¨ Nope, nope, no good. Funny how being there in person giving permission doesn´t hold any weight, you gotta get a typed document that´s notarized and signed.

I told the kids to show me their sad faces... I think Joe wins.

Chile´s National motto has taken on a new meaning for us "Por la razón o la fuerza" Last night that Police chief chose strength, to show the strenght of his word, over reason. Come on buddy, a little common sense! You can look at us, hear us speak, look at our US passports and know we are not Chileans, give us a break. Pretty funny. ¨I´m sure it will become more funny the further we get away from it¨ (-name that movie!)


Luckily, Gabriel was there to save the day by providing the children with food and shelter for the night while Corey called Delta who I will always love as an airline, they switched us to the same time and flight for today with no fees, and then Corey & I went back to our apartment to finish up packing and then this morning we went to a Notario to get a notarized paper for each of us so that we could each travel legally with permission of the other, on flights without each other with our children. Such drama! It makes a good story. I'll give the details of our Wednesday soon.