When I last wrote a blog post we were at Marina Quinched, just south of Castro on Isla Chiloe. Well, Windarra is still there but we are not. Sunday morning we received an email from Rich's brother that his mother had passed away on Saturday night, 2/8. She was 93 and it was not an unexpected event. We were lucky that we had just arrived at the marina and it is a safe place to leave Windarra.
We quickly arranged for flights back to Philadelphia to arrive early Thursday morning for the funeral planned for Friday morning. As we would arrive just after midnight we booked a room at an airport by the Philadelphia airport for Wednesday night/Thursday morning. We knew about the bad weather heading for the east coast, so we were prepared with our ski jackets, hiking shoes, gloves, hats, scarves, etc.
On Tuesday we got a ride with William, who owns the marina, to Castro. Here we met Don and Rita of SV Limbo for lunch before catching the Cruz Del Sur bus to Puerto Montt at 2:10 pm, for 12,000 pesos for 2 one way tickets (- $22). We saw the main church of Castro, a wooden church has a metal covering on the outside and it is colorful, a bright yellow affair with purple trim. Inside the woodwork it extensive and includes a large dome over the alter which was made without any nails.
Our bus ride took almost 4 hours and included a ferry ride across the Chacao canal that we had used when first arriving in this area. From the bus terminal on the waterfront, it was a taxi ride to the airport for 12,000 pesos. We waited for 3 hours at the airport for our Sky Airlines flight to Santiago.
From Santiago we flew to Lima, Peru. After 5 gate changes we boarded our original aircraft and flew on to San Jose, Costa Rica.
On arriving at San Jose, we went to our gate to check in for a flight to Miami and then on to Philadelphia. The very nice American Airline representative told us that our flight to Philadelphia had been cancelled and we had been rescheduled to flight out on Thursday from Costa Rica. This was news to us as we did not have any wifi connection since leaving Chile. Could we get to Miami? She called her supervisor and there was some discussion in rapid Spanish but yes, we could get back on our originally scheduled flight to Miami but we could not leave for Philadelphia until Thursday morning. Okay, that at least gets us in to the US and closer to our destination.
Our flight to Miami was fine. We passed through customs and they were a little confused that we had been traveling out of the US since October, visiting Ecuador, Peru and Chile with only our small backpacks. Once we explained that we lived on a sailboat that was currently in Chile, they just nodded and let us in.
We looked to see if there were any flights to Philadelphia but nothing until our scheduled flight for Thursday. Having spent already one night on an airport floor we wanted to find a room for our night in Miami. This was not easy. We went to Starbucks for a snack and some wifi and started checking the web. No joy. We went to the hotel phone kiosk to find a hotel. After several calls we got a room at the Airport Parkway Inn, a small motel a short distance from the airport. It was the same price as our previous booked, no refund room at the hotel at the Philadelphia airport but the quality as not quite the same, but the sheets were clean and it had a shower, so we got some much needed sleep.
Thursday morning we were up early for our flight to Philadelphia. While Rich took his shower, I checked the flight status, on time and leaving at 7:45 am. At the airport we zipped through security, grabbed a coffee and checked status again. Everything was okay. We boarded our half empty airplane and even had an early departure, and expected to arrive early in fact.
So far so good.
At 9:44am, they announced that we have been diverted to Pittsburgh. The first runway at Philadelphia was closed, the second runway was plowed but poor braking conditions and 35 mph crosswind. Not sure what will happen next.
At 12:53 pm, we got back on the plane and went through de-icing. We arrived safely in Philly. The landing was a little tricky but no problem. The roads were clear and we made it to our hotel with no problems.
It was a long trip but we made it with some time to spare as the funeral was scheduled for Saturday and the snow did not start again until afterwards.
We look forward to returning to Chile, the canals, Windarra and warmer weather! Hopefully the trip back will be easier.
Sent from SV Windarra iPad
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