Sunday January 11

Left our little gem of a hotel and drove the remaining few hundred kilometers to Santiago.  Traffic was light due to it being Sunday, which was nice, i didnt have to deal with too many crazies on the road.   We dropped of the rental car and took a taxi to our hotel.

  When we had been in Santiago a little over a week ago, we stayed at the RQ Providencia Suites.  A wonderful location and a really neat room.  Small layout, but quite brilliant with its design.  Unfortunately, the RQ was fully booked, so I reserved at the Los Andes Suites, which is in the same building. I guess people buy the rooms and then hire the building to manage them or perhaps, if they are too cheap to pay for the management, they do it themselves.   This is one of those instances.   The room loooks almost exactly the same, but checking in was on the outrageously bizzare side of things.  The door man had us wait for about 15 minutes, then he just handed me a phone and I talked to a lady who informed me that the room was being made up and that we would pay the maid for it.   A few more minutes goes by and we get sent up to the room.  At the room, we meet the maid, who gives us a key and a business card to call if we need anything.  Then she leaves and doesnt charge us yet.  A moment or two after she has left, we realize that the wi-fi information sloppily posted to the fridge doesnt work.  From what we can tell, it is just a list of other signals in the building they somehow stole a code for at some point, with some scribbled out and others revised.  I go to the phone to call the number, but the phone doesnt have any buttons on it, it isnt really a phone but an intercom to the front desk, who doesnt really have anything to do with the suite and cant do anything to help.  The front desk themselves seem to almost refuse to help, which probably means that these rental units somehow dont pay towards them.  More frustrating yet is the 40 or so locked wifi signals that show up during a search.  No way to call, i walk to the nearest starbucks and email about the wifi.  6 hours has now gone by and no response.  I really dont want to spend the next 3 days without wifi unless I walk to Starbucks. I paid for a room that advertised wifi, wouldnt have booked it otherwise. Gonna say, i can deal with how slow things are here and just chalk it up to "Chilean Time", I can deal with pretty much anything while travelling and stay in a decent mood (because hey.... I'm travelling, be happy!), but this has to be the worst experience this country has thrown at me.  More so, shame on booking.com for even allowing a place like this to book through them.   There is no way at all to get help with anything whatsoever in this hotel.  You will seldom read me bitching or being negative, when visiting other countries you need tomrealize things are different. That being said, sometimes things are so ridiculous the bitching is warranted.  I have no idea when this post will go live, perhaps when i pass a Starbucks.

Looks like am at a starbucks,  on a more positive note, I had a guest join me more coffee.   Picture below.