20 August 2010

Hello again,

I'm off to Santiago "again" this afternoon. It feels like I'm travelling there a lot in recent times, although it isn't something I've really planned to be doing, but rather has just come about through a combination of circumstances. This trip is a rescheduled personal trip, following the clash of a work and personal trip two weeks ago. I made a bit of a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision to reschedule the flight for only two weeks later, and now it has a bit of a feeling like being FIFO again, where you seem to be often on a plane...

Still, there are plenty of worse places to be than Santiago. It has a feel about it that I enjoy and with plenty of new things still to explore, I'm looking forward to it. I plan to visit a few museums and that sort of thing, and also hope to find my way to see some live music, eat some different food, perhaps taste a new wine or two...

My travel plans would have been considerably influenced by my lost travel documents, but their return has made things so much easier, even though they are cancelled (but sssshhhhh, don't tell anyone!). Travel as a foreigner requires showing your passport at check-in and that bit where you have your ticket checked and you head off and actually board the plane. It is fortunate that the number isn't actually recorded anywhere!

At check-in, as usual, I'm eternally hopeful that I'll score a seat on the Andes side of the plane, and a window seat at that. Feeling very positive about my chances of that, I've brought my big camera as hand luggage so that I can get some better quality snaps than I can manage with the little camera, although as ever, taking any photos out of a plane window the quality is always compromised.

As luck would have it, I am allocated seat 21L. I do some mental maths and come to the conclusion that I am definitely going to be sitting in a window seat, but on the Pacific Ocean side of the plane. I also reckon that row 21 must be towards the rear of the plane, which might seem a bit crappy, but is actually quite good, as the wings and engines aren't in the way of the scenery.

On boarding the plane (through the back entrance), I find that row 21 is the very last row in the plane. If you consider the first seat in the plane to be A1, then 21L is the last! Quite remarkably, the engines of the plane burst into life, everyone is seated and we leave the apron exactly on time. Everything seems to have gone very efficiently today.

The flight highlights of the Pacific Coast are largely obscured under cloud, as per usual. The massive cloud bank still forms a remarkable site as it abuts the barrier of the coastal mountains. Wispy bits of cloud seem to be spilling over the top of the barrier, and then all of the water vapour evaporates immediately, leaving the land to the east in bright sunshine. I still find it a remarkable sight.

Santiago airport also provides a welcome surprise, with both items of my luggage being in my hands before the majority of the other passengers, as opposed to usually being last. Exiting the airport is again amazingly easy. I don't have a lot of experience at other airports around the world, but if any of them are easier, I'd be impressed to see it. Potentially it is simply to do with the arrival of the flight being at an odd time? Regardless, within 5 minutes of me collecting my bag, I'm in a taxi and we're driving through the toll gates out of the airport.

As opposed to previously, I'm trying a new hotel in Las Condes called the Director Hotel Suites. The website presents a lovely view of the hotel and the price is pretty reasonable, the location is within a few hundred metres of my favourite wine shop, it's near a subway station, and there are plenty of restaurants nearby. Perfect?

My room is OK (not great, not terrible), mostly due to some "older" decor. The windows are all open to let in some fresh air, which is good, although there is a hint of cigarette smoke, which is a bit of a bummer. Damn these Chileans and their smoking! I close the windows and head out into the afternoon, with a mission of trying to locate the Australian Consulate, which is alleged to be nearby.

A stroll along Av. Isadore Goyenchea locates the Consulate. I think that most of us would agree that the words "Australian" and "subtle" aren't often used in the same sentence by foreigners describing the majority of us, and the Consulate lives up to that. Any doubts about whether I had the right address were erased by the very large Australian flag flying on the corner outside the building. While my heart swells a bit with patriotic pride at seeing the flat flying proudly in another part of the world, I can't help but wondering what the majority of the locals think about such a prominent display, given their own patriotism towards Chile?

I had dinner at a German restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. Two bits of interest from that - one was an excellent chocolate mousse with vanilla ice-cream, and the other was the view from my table (the place that they put children who don't eat their vegetables!).

Andrew