Woohoo!! It’s great to be back in the US for the next two weeks. I touched down on Chicago soil yesterday morn on time even after an insanely rerouted and well-timed flight from Santiago, despite some mechanical snafus with American Airlines.
Anyway, for the next two weeks, I will be blogging from the US where I am on a business trip for speaking engagements. I have to say that being back “home” now feels very foreign to me. The cars are huge, the highways unfathomable, and the variety of products everywhere staggering. Geez, it took me 15 minutes to pick a nutrition bar yesterday?!! I can definitely report that going to Whole Foods hungry was a very fun but expensive idea…
In the interim though, I want to share a little travel alert for travelers headed to the US from Santiago’s airport, on the LIQUIDS front. While in the States, once you clear security you can buy water to take on the plane. This is NOT the case in Santiago. Security in the airport is for all flights abroad, including the South American continent. Since you can take liquids as a carry-on to other neighboring countries like Argentina, they don’t revise the liquids until you actually BOARD your plane to the US at the gate. Hence, if you spend several bucks on a liter of Evian bottled water, they are going to take it from you. I saw this happen twice to two guys actually–once while boarding the 9pm flight to Miami (grounded shortly after by a gas leak, yikes); and then about 30 minutes later when I was able to successfully reroute and fly via Dallas (note: AA can do this if there’s a seat and you have no checked luggage! Awesome and thank you AA!!).
On the flight, water provisions were running low and I arrived 10 hours later in Dallas seriously dehydrated. So my recommendation? Forego the water and save the money in the airport and start drinking a lot of water earlier in the day to get hydrated before your flight. I would also suggest not drinking a lot of soda, juice, and booze that are diuretics (unless you are in first class, then by all means…).
Just a little trip to save you all some headaches–literally! Buen viaje and more soon from Chi-town.
