Day 3 - Officiated Tourism

This day was a day of reckoning, the day that men in shadowed garb would decide whether I would be given safe passage through their land, or whether I would be forever exiled…



All right, so the situation wasn’t nearly as epic as that. I think I’ve just been watching too much LOTR these days.



Still, that day was the day Elizabeth, Lisa, and I went to the Chilean Department of Immigration in downtown Santiago in order to get my paperwork officiated. Apparently it wasn’t enough to make it through immigration and customs at the airport! While the rest of the team wandered through plazas and looked at statues and fountains, the three of us stood in a windy line in what looked like the lobby of a nice hotel, or an upscale bank, and stared at our shoes for fear of standing out.



Not that we could avoid standing out. I had to be the tallest, whitest girl in the room.



But Lisa didn't seem to notice as we crept to the front of the line and she cheerfully bounded to the graying man sitting at the front desk. The desk itself seemed rather plain, but it was covered in tiny black and white origami animals. I looked them over while Lisa worked her magic.



She said a few things to him in Spanish I could not understand, and he laughed and reached for my passport and customs paperwork. I had to remind myself to relinquish my iron grip; Elizabeth had told me before we left just how many problems we would have if, for some reason, the paperwork was lost. This man, like the others, never bothered to look it over. He stamped my papers with a red seal and handed them back to me with a wink in Lisa's direction. Before we walked away he handed her one of the tiny paper animals.



Lisa handed me the paper figure once we were outside. "Here, take this as a souvenir," she said.



"Why'd he give that to you?" I asked, turning it over in my hands. It was a tiny, tiny dog, and it was made of what looked suspiciously like a rejected customs form.



She smiled. "It was a gift. They like to flirt here."

Of course they do. How else would I be allowed into the country?



TO BE CONTINUED...