Tomas from Point 65 gave me the tracking link 145-41598115 for the air freight of the kayaks which I was supposed to put in the LAN Cargo website. There I should be able to follow the air freight progress…

All good, the tracking progress was nicely visible, and the kayaks were supposed to arrive in Santiago airport last Sunday night! We were calling LAN cargo yesterday Monday morning when we should show up then to collect the boats – the lady at the office said “they are there – pick them up the sooner the better”! Yahoo!

We were jumping in Cristian’s car, drove 1,5 hrs from Vina del Mar back to Santiago, just to learn eventually that it was a “mistake in the system” and that the kayaks were not in Santiago at all yet but still in Miami…FUCK!

Some cargo guys were obviously sleeping in Miami and left the tracking in the system with no cargo really loaded – they obviously decided our boats are too big for that plane…hahaha…but if you see the picture above Tomas took from the wrapped, packed and crated kayaks in Shanghai you will understand…200 kg is the whole load!

But I had NO understanding at all for LAN cargo that they left the tracking in the system and showed a ghost cargo arriving in the planned plane and making us driving in vain to Santiago, spending eventually 6-7 hrs on the road for nothing but just anger!

The new tracking now shows the ETA on Thursday late night – hope they REALLY load them this time!!! And I’m hoping we’ll find help by my local Chilean THULE importer in Santiago to be able to move the monster load off the cargo area at the airport to a safe place in Vina del Mar where we can unwrap the kayaks and dump the packing material! Thanks, THULE…

We would not have been able to unwrap them on the spot at the airport anyway, as they told us, and Cristian’s car would not have been suitable to carry that monster parcel, but rather two naked kayaks only…

Another “advantage” is (THINK POSITIVE!) that we’ll launch then probably on Sunday, where windguru says the almost 4-m swell is going down again – this may be better for the first days anyway, and not to jump right into possible sea sickness already!  Slowly getting used to the new kayaks – and Peter to paddle on BIG swell.

Plus Mark Peloquin from Blue Water Kayak Works, who again took the effort to see me on the spot here in Vina del Mar to finalize the installation of the electrical pumps in our kayaks, will be able to work then on Friday and Saturday on the boats. Thanks, Mark!

Plus we’ll have probably two days (Wed/ Thu) of REAL sight seeing here in Vina del Mar/ Valparaiso prior to the trip, which I consider a luxury!

We already went food shopping for the non-fresh stuff yesterday, and I started packing everything as usually mostly nicely in one-portion-ziplock bags. I love that job, but now it’s double the amount for the two of us!

Today on Tuesday we are supposed to see the Chilean Navy for the permit. I’ll write about it tonight how that worked out!

Last night was the first reasonable night after two nights with six-hours of jet lag…Peter dealt with it amazingly much easier as he is a sleepy person in the mornings anyway and he just kept on sleeping and sleeping in the morning opposite to me being already awake at 3 am… 🙂