Out of key
We were shown to our room at (Old) El Paso which was pretty basic and felt slightly unclean, which we were surprised about considering the hotel is supposed to be a four star. But it’s holiday season here so we should feel lucky that we’ve got a room at all. We peeled off our sweat-laden clothes and finally got the shorts out for an airing!
The slight problem that we now faced was that we had no room key. The door was open when we were brought to our room and the bell boy did not give us a key (and in the ‘heat of the moment’ weŽd failed to remember to ask him for it). We searched the room frantically thinking that maybe the heat had gone to our heads and the key was in here somewhere!
We told reception, but got the feeling that they thought weŽd lost the key – not sure how when we hadn’t left the hotel in the past 20 minutes of arriving there!
The gardens and pool area at (Old) El Paso are very nice and we went to recover here for an hour. Right, time to head out for a late lunch.
As we munched through our burger, Eug asked me what time it was in a sort of worried way. We had read in one of the guide books that Chile was one or two hours behind Peru so I guessed it was maybe 5pm. It was still so hot and the sun still appeared to be quite high in the sky. Eug said that he’d read 8pm on a couple of people’s watches. Surely not? Then we checked our burger receipt. The guidebook was wrong and we felt quite confused – Chile is two hours AHEAD of Peru. We’d just had dinner!
On checking our email, we found that the Hotel Americano in Arica had emailed us and had room! We went to have a look and found a clean, modern and friendly establishment -and they had room for the next few nights so we booked ourselves in.
Back at (Old) El Paso, they’d cut another key to our room but it didn’t work. And it felt like our fault – why? So they let us in with a master key. The room itself was like a sauna, with an air-con unit that seemed to have a mind of its own!
The next morning, we had to wait half an hour to be let back into our room after breakfast. Who knows why? And when we checked out, no-one questioned our terminated stay.
On arriving at the Hotel Americano, we headed straight for the tranquil terrace there – sunny and peaceful. This is more like it, and we plan to do this relaxing thing for a few days now!
Tags: Chilean moments
mihai