Chile #1

CHILE 1

Flying with LAN was an experience in itself
Pro's
Nice new plane
Comfy seats
Good in flight entertainment

Con's
If you like service with a smile this is not the airline for you as these trolley dollies may have never smiled in their entire lives. Dont expect any service apart from the dinner and breakfast, and be sure to bring a snack with you.

We realise that flying with Singapore Airlines for the last few years has probably got us used to a level of quality that cant be expected on all airlines,but a smile, just one smile. Its not to much to ask is it? We had heard that smiles were few and far between in Santiago, but it was almost like the crew are all given an annual allowance for Botox, and they had all had injections only minutes before lift-off.... strange.

We are at this very moment trying to stay up and adjust to the time zone change... we have struggled with Santiago Airport, trying to locate some US dollars, to no avail, however I am now almost a millionaire when it comes to Chilean Pesos!! I guess we will be needing those too.

Pucon

Finally got our US dollars after checking into the Hotel Libertador (i think we will save this story to tell another time) and I must admit the culture shock mixed with the jet lag made the process a whole lot more difficult than it should have been (word of advice; dont bother with travellers cheques here in S.A as you lose a whole lot on the exchange) and then met the group who we are traveling down to Patagonia with, a mixed bunch but everyone is really lovely. Had another interesting looking meal (will leave the story of Philip's vegetarian lasagna for him to tel)l and headed to bed for a 5.45 am start.

Salto de Laja

Set out to Pucon the next morning and made it there in just over 11 hours with a stop at Salto de Laja, a nice little water fall. Pucon is a very western little town, with alpine lookijng buildings and much friendlier people than Santiago and locals have been helping me with my Spanish along the way which I love. Early to bed as the next day we tackled Volcano Villarrica, which sits overlooking Pucon. Villaricca is 2847m in altitude, and was a real challenge, wont go into details but we made it to about 2150m, which for both of us was a complete success considering the duration and difficulty of the climb.

On the way down my legs were complete jelly, thank god there was a different route down which was like walking on the moon. Now a day of rest before heading to Argentina tomorrow.