600m
Once again a fairly boring day of travel from Rapa Nui back to Santiago. Breakfast, for once, was packed, with a group of Germans descending on the breakfast buffet like one of the plagues of Egypt. The one day that I turn up 30 mins late to try to drag the morning out is the one day I should have turned up on time. Not that there was a lot of choice to start with, but after the locusts, you grabbed what you could. I was not really hopeful for anything else today as my flight left at 3pm but we had to be ready for the pickup at 12. They certainly were prompt, as usual, and it took a whole 10 minutes to get to the airport. “Here you check bags, here you get ticket” and off she went. Mind you, there really isn’t much to the airport so check in was extremely easy. And of course that meant that I was able to wait in the terminal for the next 2 3/4 hours. With not a lot to do. No shops, just a couple of souvenir stalls. Luckily several other people from the previous 2 day’s tours were there as well so we got to talk travel for the time.
The flight back was as expected. This time we were fed some kind of penne pasta with a tomato pesto sauce. Normally one or the other, but this was both. Once again the flight was packed, and being at the back of the plane, this means that when you land, everyone in front gets off before you. No rushing forward to get out of the pack, they stand and let the people in front get off first, with all of the luggage that they have shoved into the overhead lockers and under their seats. It truly is amazing how much they are allowed to get on with. Then it’s back to the massive domestic terminal with around 600m to walk before you get to the ONE baggage conveyor for every flight. As such, I managed to emerge from the airport at around 9:45pm and arrived at the hotel at 10:20pm, too late to grab a meal.