2014/02 Falklands trip - Santiago |
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Saturday February 15th
Some of these paragraphs and pictures are only available via the family's userids and passwords. Family references on this public page have been de-personalized. |
The good news was that our American cheque that we had mailed to the UK back on January 6th had finally cleared. All those large UK cheques we’d written at those island lodges would not bounce!
It was an even warmer day and we took one last walk on Darwin’s beach. We met a guest from Darwin House, a polite Spanish speaker.
F filled us up with a large brunch and M delivered us to Mount Pleasant. We had to be there long before the plane came in, because we all had to check in, pay our exit fees, and go through security before the limited staff switched to processing the incoming passengers. The quick turnaround enables LAN to use one crew for the entire return flight. There are only a few flights per week, one to Chile and two to Brize Norton in the UK, so the economics make sense. I guess we should be grateful that there are two huts!
We were chided for having a loose battery in our luggage, as were many others. We met Dennis and Jean in the holding area; they’d had a calm crossing to West Point and had boated around the whole island.
We flew over Port Stephens yet again. This time we landed at Rio Gallegos on the Argentinian mainland just north of Tierra del Fuego. Part of the deal for allowing LAN Chile’s Falklands flights to cross their airspace is that their flights land once a month at Rio Gallegos. So the Argentinian passengers got off and we continued to Punta Arenas. There, although we were continuing to Santiago on the same plane, we had to go out through customs X-ray machines to the street and back in through security’s X-ray machines. Sandie lost her knitting needles there as although wooden ones are allowed by most airlines, LAN isn’t one of them.
We had another spectacular view of Torres del Paine and the Andes, a little cloudy but lit by the setting sun this time. What looks like a jagged line is the shadow of the spiky peaks in the foreground. The pilot announced the name of the high peak to the rear but I missed it.
We landed in Santiago and rolled our luggage trolley across the road into the Holiday Inn just before midnight. It reminded me of a mausoleum; not my kind of hotel but its desk and kitchen are open all night. Most flights to Chile from the USA arrive in the early hours.
LAN only provides snacks so, after twelve hours of starvation, we were happy to be eating cheeseburger and fries and drinking pisco sours at 1am. Across from us was the gentleman we’d met on the beach at Darwin; he looked as surprised as I did.
Sunday February 16th
The hotel has a scandalously early 10 am checkout, their way of gouging the weak-willed for a two-night stay I think. Our flight wasn’t until nearly 10 pm but we trundled our luggage across the road, with the faint hope of checking our bags with Air Canada. Their desk did open but only for those passengers joining the incoming Toronto flight for its Buenos Aires leg. We’d have to wait until six for our check-in. After a very long brunch at the Great Gatsby we found a seat by a power point and spent the afternoon replaying all the trip’s pictures.