Should have stuck to the plan.
We had planned to take a bus and subway directly to hotel upon arrival to Santiago Airport and that was the plan right up to the point when Sarah lost and retrieved her reading glasses at the airport. We left the plane retrieved our luggage and Sarah upon retrieving our luggage realized she forgotten her reading glasses on plane. We spoke to United rep at the baggage carousel and they radioed the gate rep that retrieved the glasses from the plane and all we had to do was pick them up at United office on third floor after we cleared customs.
Immediately upon exiting International arrivals there was a food court and I said I would wait with our luggage while Sarah went upstairs to 3rd floor get her prescription reading glasses. Then the plan was to get bus to subway, and subway to hotel, that was our plan in Vancouver and we had already researched from Santiago tourist information inside arrivals area and that had still been the plan.
Sarah however met a man upstairs in airport arrivals area who spoke great english and said we can get group tourist shuttle bus for almost same money directly to hotel and he would show us where to be picked up. Alarm bells should have been ringing but he seemed trust worthy to Sarah and by the time she returned to me at the food court with Mike, he was helping us by getting us directly to shuttle upstairs at arrivals area. After 28 hours of travel with very little sleep and 15 hours flying catching a group shuttle bus directly to hotel with possibly a couple of stops at other downtown hotels at almost same price as bus/subway was a ‘no brainer’. Ya it was a no brainer and neither Sarah or I were using our brains.
Probably the next clue should have been when shuttle driver asked if we had Chilean money for the ticket and then escorted me to the ticket machine to get tickets and ticket machine turned out to be Scotiabank ATM. We already had US$40 of Chilean money that we had exchanged in Vancouver (that was all Vancouver airport exchange had), so I took out $200 US more of Chilean money from machine for next few days.
We then hopped in a unmarked shuttle van as directed by Sarah’s english speaking helper expecting to pay US$7 each to hotel. Upon immediately leaving airport the driver asked for 4 of the pink bills for toll road and fare to hotel at the airport toll booth. Wasn’t a problem until immediately upon handing over the money I figured out in my tired state that I had just given our non english speaking Spanish driver the equivalent of US$130 but he paid toll and asked toll booth operator for smaller change for whole amount. Now we are literally speeding down a hi-way in a van with a non english speaking driver trying to determine what the fare is going to be to hotel and the driver has our US$130 equivalent of Chilean money! Driver now gets lost on way to hotel has to call dispatcher to get ‘Spanish’ address of hotel, meanwhile Sarah is using her very best Spanish to try and determine what fare will be. Best we can figure is driver says its 4 pink bills and I am working my calculator on my phone with Vancouver and Chilean local exchange rates and after several tries it ranges from US$130-140!
Sarah says that we will get hotel staff to help us with Spanish driver with fare upon arrival but the driver is now ‘lost’ on way to hotel. He stops and calls dispatch who apparently gives him directions to our boutique hotel. We drive around in circles, down several small one way streets then the driver parks in open parking spot and motions that hotel is down street and best we can make out in Spanish is there is no parking available in front of hotel. The street is narrow, one way and with cars parked on both sides of street, so Sarah has driver escort us to hotel bringing her bag to the hotels locked gate that we buzz to get in, then the driver has the nerve to ask for tip but when we decline further money or tip at gate before we can get to hotel reception the driver is gone. Our $14 fare was US$130! Ouch! Welcome to Chile 🇨🇱 We had just been scammed with a smile.
We had read about using non licenced vehicles from airport and our hotel receptionist politely said that often unsuspecting tourists are taken advantage of by unlicenced taxi drivers and that the official direct taxi fare should have been between US$50-60 from airport. Sarah said she thought Mike to be trustworthy but his good english scammed us. What can we say, robbed by what turned out to be non official taxi that seemed legit until road toll booth – but by then it was too late.
The pink 20,000 peso bills are worth roughly US$32 each at yesterday’s exchange rate. The bus/subway fare was 800 peso each or US$1.30 each. I sure hope we have learned our lesson.
Next Posts – Broken Tooth in Houston TX and Visiting Dentist in Santiago; Picking Up Van San Antonio Chile
Ken and Sarah ~ Overland 