Friday 17 February 2006

Rotterdam - Amsterdam - Madrid - Santiago de Chile: over 21 hrs of flight

Finally the moment is there. After months of preparations our journey to Patagonia, the southern parts of Chile and Argentina, is about to start. We have taken the entire day off work and we will not depart until 7.30 pm with Iberia from Amsterdam via Madrid for Santiago de Chile. We spend the day at home, relaxing, but that starts to get boring after a while. That is why we leave in plenty of time for Amsterdam. We take the 4pm train from Rotterdam. At checking in, at around 5pm, we are told that our plane has not left Madrid at that moment and that we are likely to get some delay. In the end we leave about an hour late. Our transfer at Madrid Airport is going to be a bit tight.  We land at 11.15pm in Madrid. According to the signs it is about 25 minutes walk to Terminal 4S. We make a run for the station of the unmanned train, which will take us from terminal 4 to terminal 4S. At 4S we continue running, get throug passport control and continue running towards gate U65.  When we get there the boarding process has just begun. Heated and barely catching our breath we take our seats on the exit row (!). We are a bit worried about our luggage. Would it have made the quick transfer as we did ourselves? The flight itself  is uneventful. At 1pm we get dinner and just before arrival we a something called breakfast.

Saturday 18 February 2006

After 12 hours of flight we land at 9.30am at the airport of Santiago. When we clear passport control we see our suit cases rolling of the belt among the first pieces of luggage. Unbelievable after that tight transfer in Madrid! We are very glad. We had not counted on it. We are met by a driver, arranged by our hotel, who is waiting for us with a sign with my name on it. It is nicely warm - about 25 degrees. The ride to the Crowne Plaza Hotel takes about half an hour. The hotel is fine of course. We take a shower and allow ourselves an hour to acclimatise. We then take metro into  town in. The metro is clean, frequent and fast. We get out at Plaza de Armas, the central square of the city, the country as a matter of fact, as all distances in Chile to Santiago are measured from this square. We walk towards the Central market, where lots of fish and vegetables are being sold. There also plenty of opportunity to eat it, which we do. We take a seat at one of the many tables of La Quinta Augusto. It is a nice experience to eat your meal of seafood among the fish stalls of the covered market. We then walk back to the Plaza de Armas and take a peak into the cathedral. A neo baroque building from the early 19th century. Unfortunately most of  the interiour of the church is fenced off because of repairs. We than continue to La Moneda, where the presidential palace can be found. This was the scene of the dramatic events on  op 11 september 1973 leading to the deposement of the democratically elected president Allende by a military junta led by general Augusto Pinochet. The palace was fired upon and Allende commited suicide after speaking to the nation on radio saying, that he believed in Chile and her destiny ("Tengo fe en Chile y su destino"). Today there is a controversial statue of Allende (the only in Santiago) in front of the Palace. We walk along the Alameda, the busy and wide traffic artery of the city towards the San Francisco church. Here we turn into Calle Londres, which together with Calle Paris forms the Londres-Paris quarter. It looks just like St Germain set in Santiago. We have a drink on a side walk terrace and continue to Cerro Santa Lucía. This is a rock on which a park was laid out with a pretty view over the city. This was where  Valdevia officially founded the city of Santiago in 1541. The park was constructed in the  19th century by 150 prisoners. It is a bit of climb but having arrived at the top we are rewarded with a nice view. Santiago is a large city, but its centre is far from hectic on this Saturday afternoon. Only the busses tear along the avenues at high speeds. In the far we can distinguish the Andes, but in this hot weather the view is blurred by the smog. The Chilean capital is situated at the foot of this mountain chain, that forms the border with Argentina. To the west the coast is no more than 2 hours away. Chile is very narrow, but on the other hand very long. From North to South it is more than 4,000 kilometres! 

We continue to our hotel, where we take a break.

In the evening we venture into the Bella Vista area. We drink a Pisco Sour, the  Chilean cocktail, atj El Casa en Aire. The café has been named after a poem by Pablo Néruda, Chile's most famous poet. The drink is the national cocktail of Chile (and Peru) and is made of Pisco (a brandy made of sweet white muscatel grapes), lemon juice, sugar and whipped egg white. Refreshing. We then walk around the area, that has yet to get going. At 9pm we are the first guests at Casita Española, the restaurant where we have a decent,yet not spectacular meal. Unfortunately the wait staff is more busy among themselves than over us. The rations are more than generous and we have to send some of it back. We then retire to our hotel for an early night. 

Weather: sunny 25 - 28 degrees

Sunday 19 February 2006

  Santiago de Chile - Bariloche (Argentina): 840 km (2:55 hrs of flight)

After breakfast we walk towards the funicular that will take us up the Cerra San Critóbal. The first ride up leaves at 10am. At the top we see that lots of cyclists have climbed the the mountain via the winding road. The view over the city is worth the while. Now we get a really good impression of the sheer size of the city and how close it is to the Andes. 

We walk back to the hotel. On our way back we stop in the Bellavista district at one of the many shops selling jewelry adorned with Lapisazul, blue gems, for which only Chile (and Afghanistan) are so famous. Lapisazul is one of the most typical and still practicle souvenirs in Chile. Prices are lower here than overseas, we are told. I buy a couple cufflinks made of silver with a piece of lapisazul on them. 

We take a taxi to the airport where we will take a flight to Bariloche in Argentina. We have to pay US$26 pp in international departure tax before we can complete our check in. We leave at 2.05pm with LAN Chile for Bariloche in Argentina, with a stop in Puerto Montt. During the stop (after 1.15 minutes of flight) it appears that the aircraft has a malfunction and we all have to get out of the plane. The captain comes into the cabin to give us the bad news. He predicts a delay of about 2 hours. We receive a voucher for a snack and a drink, which causes a run on the tiny snackbar. We have a choice of two typical Chilean snacks: a tostada queso y tomate (toasted sandwich with cheese and tomato) or a Barros Lucco (a toasted sandwich with a pork chop). The latter snack was named after a former president, but is often jokingly called a Burro Loco (crazy donkey). After 2 hours the captain tells us that we will fly with new plane, that has just landed. What we do not know is that the plane is full of passengers bound for Santiago. They have to (grudgingly) clear the plane first before we can board it. It takes no more than 25 minutes of flight to Bariloche, where we land around 7pm. We rent a car at Hertz and drive into town. When arrive there it turns out that our hotel reservation has been lost by the receptionist and that there is no place for us at El Ciervo Rojo. Neighbouring Hotel Kilton has a room for us: a simple affair with private bath and toilet for only AR$100 (US$30).

We end the evening with a beer on the sidewalk café of the Pilgrim. The owners brew their own beers. Music is provided by a music festival on the street sponsored by a telecom company.

Weather: sunny 26 degrees

Monday 20 February 2006

We rise early. After breakfast we call Vamonos travels in Amsterdam, the tour operator in back in Holland where we booked a boat trip that we have planned to do tomorrow. But we still have not got our tickets and we do not know when and where we have to present ourselves tomorrow morning.  . 

We take the car for ride along Lake Nahuel Huapi, to Villa Angostura. The route follows the banks of the blue coloured lake and is surrounded by snow capped mountains. At the beginning the roaded is sealed, but after a while we have to make do with a dirt road. This slows us down and we have to follow the track. Here and there we are thoroughly shaken in our Volkswagen Gol by some "wash boards"  patches. Villa Angostura is a busy tourist town. We carry on to beautiful  Lago Espejo and after that Lago Angustura. These are also very beautiful lakes.  

Back in Villa Angostura we have lunch and we make another phone call to Vamonos. They appear to have good news. We drive the same route back to Bariloche. In Bariloche we have a beer and do some shopping for our breakfast tomorrow, as we will be rising very early (we have to report downtown at 6.30am, we have been told) the next day for the boat trip. Later that night we have a fine dinner at restaurant Kandahar, just outside the town centre. The decor is Himalay meets Andes and the excellent food is very Argentinean. 

Once we are in bed the phone rings. A woman of a local tour operator tells us that we will be picked up at 8am at our hotel. Different from what were told earlier. Confused, we set the alarm clock a bit later...

Weather: sunny 25 degrees