Jack and Madie on the airplane to Santiago.

We flew through New York to Santiago, Chile. We had 16 pieces of luggage. I’m not sure how we felt this was a manageable number. We were focused on how many bags we could possibly take on the airplane, not on how easy it would be to manage those bags. We had to get 16 pieces of luggage from one terminal to another in Kennedy Airport. We had three trolleys, all overloaded and just two adults to steer them. We finally made it by taking turns pushing them forward and running back for the last one, slowly making it to the check-in spot.

After our New York experience, we dreaded our arrival in Chile. Contemplating how we would manage all of this luggage yet again. Turns out, these kind men immediately saw us struggle, each grabbed a cart and helped take it out to our car. The experience is so emblematic of people in Chile. Our experience so far is that people are very kind and generous.