The End is Nigh

Flying on into the night after leaving the coast of Brazil, it was still relatively early in Chile time terms. Dark outside now, there wouldn't have been anything much to see of the South Atlantic from 35,000 feet even if it had been lighter, nor the deserts of North Africa later on.

Looking at the menu options on the seat-back TV/music system, there was a good choice of newish films, so I tried some:

• Bridget Jones's Baby  - very good
• The Legend of Tarzan - okay
• Storks - succeeded in putting me to sleep!

and later on discovered in the music offerings:

• Leonard Cohen - You Want it Darker - beautiful.

Just as we were actually getting a bit of sleep, the cabin lights came on and the friendly stewards/stewardesses started serving breakfast. This was something like 2 am for us, Chilean time, but 6 am in Rome where we were due to land at about 7 am.

Outside, the first glimmerings of dawn were showing on the horizon as we flew in over Sardinia. The Captain even helpfully turned on the 777's landing lights to make a much more interesting photo:

Here's our path in over the Mediterranean and an arrow where that was taken.

As we turned in over the coast, the lights of Rome welcomed us with a sparkling display in the pre-dawn light:

The landing was fine, I don't remember it being anything other than smooth, but once we'd slowed enough to leave the runway, we taxied for what seemed like miles. In fact, looking at the GPS log, it was actually about five miles in total from where we landed to a parking area where we transferred to a bus, and finally got into the terminal.

It was cold getting out of the plane, 6°C, a bit of a shock having left Santiago in sandals and a thin shirt. But soon enough we were in the warmth of the busy terminal and found the Alitalia lounge, where we were pleased to find that our Business Class tickets (no Premium Economy seats on the next flight) for the flight to Heathrow entitled us to spend as long as we wanted there. Free breakfast, coffee, fruit juices, etc were all very welcome and freed up the few Euros we had to spend on a few last minute duty-free items.

All in all, we were very pleased with our Alitalia flights.

After a rather boring but comfortable five hour wait, we got aboard our Airbus A321 with probably the best seats on the plane, 1A & 1C, having the most legroom.

The view from the port side of this plane showed Corsica nicely as we climbed away from Rome, then up and over the Alps - not as spectacular as the Andes though.

Two and a half hours later we descended over the French coast just south of Le Touquet crossing the Channel to enter British airspace with views across Hastings and down to Eastbourne.

After one and a half circuits in a holding pattern we were given clearance to make our approach to runway 27L. Skirting the traffic zones for other airports around London, we made our way north to Battersea from where we had nice views of Central London: the Shard glinting in the afternoon sun ....

and the London Eye and Waterloo Station amongst other London landmarks ......

When seen through the pilots' eyes though, the map is very much more complex. They don't have time to enjoy the views as I did. There's a lot of very important information in this map of the crowded airspace over London:

Heathrow itself is equally complex. The pilots need to know which of 20 different radio frequencies to be communicating on, amongst many other things.

And even when safely down, getting the right taxiway to the right terminal and the right gate number is a challenge in itself. I'm always in awe of these highly skilled professionals who keep us safe

The landing was especially smooth, I was hardly able to tell exactly when the wheels touched down. I was even more impressed when we passed a windsock and saw that there was a moderate crosswind, so the pilots would have had to land with the plane at an angle to the runway, sort of sideways, and straighten it up as the nosewheel touched down, 10/10.

I always find it disconcerting landing somewhere like Heathrow with so many buildings, roads and houses so close to the flight path, as viewed from the side of the plane. From the pilot's viewpoint, it probably looks far safer.

Anyway, we touched down beautifully and taxied rapidly to a gate, slightly ahead of schedule. Significantly more efficient than our arrival in Rome. Barbara & I leapt off the plane first and were the first to get to the loos!

Once our big bags arrived on the dreaded conveyor belts, I inspected them carefully. We hadn't seen them since the check-in at Santiago, having just minutes before repacked them with several extra rather large bottles of wine, in addition to rum from Barbados, and the other special wines from the vineyard outlet. I'd worried the whole time that we'd have very wet and smelly, red-wine stained clothes. But, miracle of miracles, both cases seemed to be dry with no smell of anything alcoholic.

We'd been in touch with Aurian while in Rome and, as he was working in North London that day, offered to pick us up from Terminal 4 so that we didn't have to bus to Swindon as previously arranged. It all worked perfectly; he arrived about ten minutes before we got through customs.

About 90 minutes later he delivered us safely to the door of our very cold house. I'd left the heating set to come on briefly every day, if it got very cold, to protect the house and water pipes from frost, but when I tried to set the heating to get some hot water (baths were the one luxury we'd missed in our five weeks away), the boiler failed to light with an F5 fault code. The internet came to our rescue and after a bit of boiler dismemberment I found the problem and reset the offending switch and we had hot water & heating at last.

And when we unpacked, all the wine and rum had survived, thank you Alitalia and all the baggage handlers at Santiago, Rome and Heathrow.

Thanks also to all the lovely crew on Black Watch.

But especial thanks to Sara & Eddy who really put themselves out to give us such a lovely time in Chile. A very special holiday.

Would anyone like to see 2,000+ photos? ☺☺

Sad Farewells

Monday 6th February 2017

Waking earlyish this morning, before 7 am, a nice dawn greeted us.

We needed to be fully packed and ready for Eddy, Sara (and of course Clemente) to collect us in the rented Renault, which we'd arranged to have for an extra day so that we could say our goodbyes at the airport and, we hoped, it would be easier (and a little cheaper) than a taxi.

Packing our bags was a good deal less stressful than when leaving Black Watch because we had a 3 kg higher limit on our large cases and had left much 'stuff' with Eddy & Sara that we'd brought from home. In fact we had something like 18 kg spare in total between the four bags (two carry-on & two in the hold).

A bit more wine seemed like a good idea!

Eddy & Sara arrived in due course, a bit later than originally planned due to Clemente having tooth troubles. As I'd checked in on line and confirmed our seats though, it didn't look as though there'd be a problem time-wise.

After saying goodbye to many of Eddy's nice colleagues at Hostal Providencia, we squeezed our bulky luggage into the boot (trunk over there I suppose) and set off, having established that there was a supermarket en-route where we could top up on our wine supplies, though 18 litres was probably a bit OTT!

Well, we got to the supermarket and got a couple of extra bottles of wine, 1½ litres of white for Barbara & 2 litres of the cheap carménère for both of us ........

And then there was THE PROBLEM !

To cut a long story short, we had to transfer our luggage to a taxi, by which time our last check-in time was getting uncomfortably close. It wasn't how we'd wanted to leave Eddy, Sara & Clemente, with whom we'd had such a lovely time. There wasn't even time for a farewell selfie.

The taxi driver did a good job and got us right to the departures terminal as quickly as possible, though first we had to repack our bags with the new wine acquisitions and re-weigh them to ensure all were still inside the limits.

Then we found the check-in desks for Alitalia, and some very long queues. My heart sank! It had been a somewhat stressful morning, but, I remembered, we had Premium Economy tickets. I enquired at the Business Class check-in if we could go there and indeed we could - no queue, straight through.
☺☺☺☺☺
I was very pleased I'd chosen the Alitalia Premium option instead of American Airlines standard economy at the same price, when I booked the flights what seemed like months ago now, but was only just before Christmas.

We didn't have to wait very long before our Boeing 777 was ready for us get aboard.

It got even better when boarding started, as we got to board first with the business- and first-class passengers. Very nice seats with good legroom and plenty of overhead storage space. The entertainment systems were good as well; I ended up watching three newish films altogether.

In due course everyone was settled down. Our cabin staff were very nice and offered drinks before take-off and then we hurtled down the runway in a southerly direction before making a 180° turn to pass west of Santiago.

This photo (taken from the first, lowest arrowed position) looks across Santiago which is shrouded in haze beyond the hills, but the Andes rise spectacularly in the background.

And a bit of video of the same; nice quiet aircraft.

Then we continued climbing and turning to the north-east, heading into the Andes. The views just got better and better.

We weren't flying over the Andes but through them, even though we were still climbing. Distant mountain tops were clearly above us and nearby peaks were not that far below us. I was very glad it was a daytime flight and clear weather and knew that the flight crew could see where we were going.

Seventeen minutes after take-off we were very much into the heart of this part of the Andes when a particularly spectacular peak came into view alongside us at about the same height.

I thought it merited a bit of video as well:

This turned out to be Aconcagua, which is (quoting from Wikipedia) "the highest mountain outside Asia, at 6,961 metres (22,838 ft), and by extension the highest point in both the Western Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere". An 'easy' mountain to climb apparently!

We had left Chile's airspace well before our close encounter with Aconcagua which is in Argentina, then, leaving the Andes, flew on over the Argentine plains and the forests of Paraguay and a great deal of Brazil before getting to the Atlantic as it was getting dark.

The Premium Economy Alitalia service was excellent, highly recommended. A pleasant way to end such a lovely holiday.

Tomorrow Rome, Heathrow and home.

Hidden Gems

Sunday 5th February 2017

Before Sunday, we thought we'd had some fairly spectacular views of the Andes from our woodland cabin valley, though it had mostly been a bit cloudy and hazy.

Here's a panorama I took a day or two earlier, click on it to view it in greater detail.

But this Sunday, our departure day for Santiago from where we'll fly home tomorrow, dawned rather clearer than previously.

"Look", I said to Barbara, "I can see a superb snowy peak over there, peeking over the hills.":

"Yes," she said, "it's amazing isn't it."

Then I showed her the photo I'd taken of what I'd seen. "That's not amazing" she retorted, "THAT IS" ......

I'd needed to move a few metres to my right to see what she'd been seeing all along, so hadn't initially seen it. Before today, the volcano had been shrouded in cloud and not especially snowy, so we hadn't really noticed it:

It's almost certainly the Volcán Descabezado Grande, though Cerro Azul (aka Quizapu) features significantly in many maps of the area, but it's far more pointed. The name 'Descabezado' means headless, which it certainly is, and still active apparently.

We reluctantly packed our things in the car to start the first small leg of our long homeward journey. Not far down the dusty track we'd previously only seen by the car's headlights, we stopped for another view of the Descabezado Grande.

It looked just as impressive.

After a brief stop at a roadside vineyard outlet shop for emergency wine supplies to take home, Sara decided a light last meal together would be nice, so we stopped at the Juan y Medio restaurant at Rosario.

Parking attendants here were significantly better than many places we'd stopped. As well as ensuring we'd parked safely, our attendant rushed up with a large bit of card to act as a sunshield over the windscreen - it was very hot indeed. He was delighted with the 500 pesos tip (50p) I gave him as we left. Standing in the hot sun all day I felt it was well earned.

Inside the restaurant it was pleasantly cool and the menu looked very interesting, varied and good value. Quite how good we were yet to discover.

I opted for the Empanadas de Horno, one of Sunday's Meals of the Day, partly because it was cheap, £3 or so, (therefore small as I wasn't that hungry) and I knew what to expect with an empanada. I also asked for a side order of Puré Picante (spicy mashed potato).

We'd failed to notice what our neighbours on adjacent tables were having in this large and very busy restaurant, so when our orders arrived, they came as a bit of a shock. Sadly I don't have a photo, but my empanada must have been a good 10" (25 cm.) across. It was HUGE, at least four or five times the size of the typical empanadas I'd had previously.

And then my side order arrived: a huge soup bowl, again about 10" across, filled with a huge mound of mash, straight out of 'Close Encounters'.

Blimey! 

I offered the mash around to see if there might be any offers to help me eat it, but everyone else had similar problems. Clemente's plate had a pile of chips as big as my mash, as well as the rest of his meal. We all struggled to finish our meals, and made a good job of them, but had we known, we could probably have ordered two meals between the five of us, and would have been well filled.

So, when in Chile, and you're very hungry, look for one of the four Juan y Medio restaurants - they're good value and very filling.

Rolling out of the restaurant, we continued back towards the heat of Santiago, passing the only train we'd seen in Chile. They're a rather rare species apparently.

Back in Santiago, we made another stop before the Hostal Providencia, at Sara's older sister Javeira's home where she lives with her daughter and makes rather unique micro-embroidery.

We saw several examples, most impressive.

And back to the hostel for one final night, this time with a different view.

The Best Rum Cocktail in Chile?

Saturday 4th February 2017

A lazy day enjoying the ambience of the forest cabins and the grazing alpacas. 

Sara & Eddy popped off in the car for additional supplies with a view to having another barbecue and found a raspberry farm. Armed with several kilos of fruit, Sara made some rather spectacular raspberry daiquiris with the remaining rum - very tasty.

And another barbecue with the strange grill which seemed to made from an industrial size gas cylinder and substantial bits of rebar (concrete reinforcement).

The Best Divers in Chile?

Friday 3rd February 2017

After our fascinating expedition to see the Siete Tazas (Seven Cups) a few more kilometres off-road driving brought us to a veritable hive of activity in the remote Chilean National Park, Radial Siete Tazas. Large buses had struggled up to this entrance to the park with hordes of tourists, while others arrived on dusty motorcycles and the most hardy on push-bikes.

As well as a small shop/café, a lovely little restaurant served the ever changing population, and various campsites and cabins offered accommodation. The café did a basic but acceptable coffee, and a cat family to pass the time watching while appreciating our coffees.

But a rickety bridge over a small river gave us the first view of our reason for coming:

some rock pools in the river (Rio Claro again) where others were already swimming  ......

The pools looked rather cold for swimming but, before I got there, Clemente had already been in, fully clothed apparently - not necessarily intentionally.

An interesting set of stepping stones got us all across to a tiny beach where the more intrepid members of the party started trying the water. Here's a huaso (horseman or cowboy) giving one of his horses a drink in the river by the stepping stones.

The most intrepid actually changed into their swimwear. I settled for sitting on a rock, mid-stream, with the camera, not at all convinced that they would really all follow Clemente's lead. It gave a good vantage point for a group photo as well as the water action.

Left to right: Sara, Amparo, Tamara, Eddy, Clemente, Mauricio and Barbara. One by one though, the youngsters did get in. Barbara and Mauricio settled for a paddle, but Eddy, Sara and Tamara all braved the mountain waters with Clemente.

It didn't start out as a diving competition, but everyone had their own technique and flair.

Clemente got 10/10 for this spectacular bouncing off the surface of the water jump ............

Tamara won the slow motion dive and the synchronised swimming, except that there was nobody else to synchronise with ...........

Eddy won all the technical marks for his half twisting back flip ............

And Sara got full marks for technique and style with this very clean dive with minimum splash ...........

Eventually the swimmers tired and got dry and redressed and we bade farewell to Tamara, Mauricio & Ampara. On the way back in the car, Eddy attempted to run over a few parrots (or maybe parakeets?) which were grazing in the road (he failed).

But after we stopped, they all flocked back to the road to continue grazing. The ones that stayed in the trees though, were much more photogenic, their true colours being more evident.

The rest of the drive back to the cabin was uneventful, but when we got back we needed to settle in to the five-bed cabin Eddy & Sara had originally booked. It was every bit as nice as the eight-bed cabin, if anything a bit more stylish.