El Presidente
What can I say....what seems like 4 years ago we got up at the crack of dawn on Wednesday in Lake Taupo to drive all the way to Auckland to sit in the airport for 4 hours to then sit on the tarmac for another hour and a half to sitting on a plane for 11 hours to sitting in Santiago Chile for another 4 hours to getting on the plane looking forward to another 5 hours flying to Quito in Ecuador when just after the safety video we are taxied back to the terminal because the entire country of Ecuador has been closed down thanks to the massive street protests wanting the president out. The people won and El presidente escaped in helicopter from the roof of his palace.
For us Latin American chaos then ensued - three more hours of waiting to see what happens, then another two hours where the chileans took our passports and finally put us on a bus to a hotel. By now my eyes are hanging out of my head and thaks to the dateline it is still WEDNESDAY. We arrive at the hotel by now having bonded with all our fellow passengers, drink beer and watch CNN - here this whole thing is very big news.
We are offered dinner and after about a 2 hour wait from the time we ordered(during which I actually realised I had mimed chewing my arm off to the waiter - oops must have been overtired) my omlette arrived. Finally bed for 6 hours before being dragged back to the airport to wait for a few more hours yet again.
We are here now though, the new presidente has been sworn in and everyone is happy. the old one has been hiding in the brazilian embassy and I believe they are going to give him asylum. How wonderful that a country can get pissed off with their president, take to the streets banging pots and pans and with a bit of minimal violence have him leave. I would love to see John Howard fleeing from the roof of kirribilli house and the angry hordes!
We are staying in a beautiful place in quito called the secret garden. It has an internal courtyard, mosaic work on the floor, a roof garden with a view of the mountains, organic food and a very silly sausage dog called Gino. (ginos legs are so short he can barely get up the stairs - maybe thats why he has so much attitude).
Looking forward to some sleep and a lot less aeropuerto action.
PS: felt strangely at home in Chile - i think because just about everyone there looked just like me. Have I found my home at last?
For us Latin American chaos then ensued - three more hours of waiting to see what happens, then another two hours where the chileans took our passports and finally put us on a bus to a hotel. By now my eyes are hanging out of my head and thaks to the dateline it is still WEDNESDAY. We arrive at the hotel by now having bonded with all our fellow passengers, drink beer and watch CNN - here this whole thing is very big news.
We are offered dinner and after about a 2 hour wait from the time we ordered(during which I actually realised I had mimed chewing my arm off to the waiter - oops must have been overtired) my omlette arrived. Finally bed for 6 hours before being dragged back to the airport to wait for a few more hours yet again.
We are here now though, the new presidente has been sworn in and everyone is happy. the old one has been hiding in the brazilian embassy and I believe they are going to give him asylum. How wonderful that a country can get pissed off with their president, take to the streets banging pots and pans and with a bit of minimal violence have him leave. I would love to see John Howard fleeing from the roof of kirribilli house and the angry hordes!
We are staying in a beautiful place in quito called the secret garden. It has an internal courtyard, mosaic work on the floor, a roof garden with a view of the mountains, organic food and a very silly sausage dog called Gino. (ginos legs are so short he can barely get up the stairs - maybe thats why he has so much attitude).
Looking forward to some sleep and a lot less aeropuerto action.
PS: felt strangely at home in Chile - i think because just about everyone there looked just like me. Have I found my home at last?
posted by Kate Browne at 3:28 PM
1 Comments:
Love your writing style. It does seem that you have found home. Good luck to you.
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