Days 16 & 17 – Lady bug, lady bug, fly away home.

When Ben rang my room, I failed to see why there was a slight note of panic in his voice.  All was packed the night before, my phone alarm was set adequately in advance of the taxi arrival at 9am and …oh crap, we were too close to the border for my phone to reset to Chilean time.  It was still on Peruvian time and I now had 11 minutes to grab and go.

That being done and after a few hasty hugs, I was off to the airport.  Jim and Janice joined me on our connector flight south to Santiago with a stop in Iquique Chile.  Seated next to a young Chilean attorney, the cross examination regarding my visit, began.  The more I answered, the more he asked and it became apparent that although he was quite successful he was also noticing that there was more to be had in life.  Adventure travel is very fulfilling and heartbeats are a finite commodity.  Sometimes it’s nice to not know exactly where the next turn in the road leads or perhaps recognize all the ingredients in that soup.

Jim and Janice hung out with me during the Santiago layover. An overnight flight with a quick stop in DFW returned me home again, home again, to a Sunday morning arrival laden with fresh memories and blessed with new friends.  I think that it won’t be very long before new maps get unfolded and the whole process reignites.  Tick-tock, tick-tock.