Departure

December 18th, 2006
Just before the actual trip had started some issues startaring to pop out. On the day before my departure (Sunday) I got a call from Orbitz requesting to get in touch with LAN Chile,who was providing my flight. So I called them to find out that the flight schedule from Mexico City to Santiago had changed. They antecipated from 11pm to 9pm. BUT my flight from Tijuana to Mexico City had arrival time scheduled to 9:30pm. At that point I was still at ease. I have always thought that the airlines were supposed to do everything in order to come clear with those types of mistakes. Their best solution was that I should stay in hotel until 9pm the next day. At that pmoment I started to get aprehensive since I never worried to get a VISA to get in Mexico. I just thought I would stay inside the airport in transfer status and to get to Tijuana from USA, well, let me just tell you they don´rt really care about people moving on that direction.

Before I reject that option I decided to check the Mexican Consulate homepage and find out what kind of VISA they require on a situation like mine. GREAT SURPRISE! According to their law, if you are in transit and staying in the country for less than 24 hours you can actually just leave yuour passport at the airport and then get it back the day after, not really needing toa pply for a VISA.
COOL!
At this point after 6 years away from my family and friends all I wanted was to get to Rio asap., but a little stop on a city that I have never been to could actually make my trip more interesting.

LAM provided me with the hotel expenses. I was to stay at the `Fiesta Inn` very close from the airport.
I am getting in Rio on Wednesday at 6:30pm instead of Tuesday. I can´t wait!