Santa Cruz to Santiago, via Miami

Up at 3:30am, shuttle ride to SF Airport with a driver who is eerily reminiscent of the professor from Back to the Future - got his life story. Peter, Jeff and Andrew showed the approprtiate level of interest while I counted the minutes to caffeine. Flew to Miami, poked around there for 5 hours, flew overnight to Santiago, got here as the sun was coming up. Peter was sternly questioned at customs about the 30 lbs of automotive parts in his luggage but paying an agreed upon tax allowed us to stumble to the hotel and crash for a few hours. (oh and thank the lord! Jeff brushed up on his Spanish)  Guess we were going to rely on pantomime otherwise.  Met up with Sheila and Deany, then Michael and Jane (the Brits) and then dinner at a fabulous restaurant serving Peruvian food. The plan is that we all fly down to Puerto Natales tomorrow (sunday) and then start into Torres del Paine on Monday. We will stay at a hostel before and after the week of hiking so internet access there. I may bring the little iToy if the backpack isn't too crazy heavy. It does have a camera..... and word games!  :-)  The weather in Santiago is summer. I'm very happy about that!