Sunday, 23 January 2011 - Valparaiso

SHIP TO SHORE

A very quick and easy disembarkation process this morning saw me off the Veendam and ready to start the long trip home. Our small group called Antarctic Bound who had pre-organised a tour and transfer to Santiago were a little late in starting as Marisu’s luggage had gone missing somewhere in this easy process. Hopefully it will be delivered to her hotel in Santiago.

Our tour involved going through downtown Valparaiso and then up and around some of the many colourful and steep hillsides.



Chilean Naval Offices in downtown Santiago - or Disneyland Railway Station?



A lot of the homes, ranging from little shacks to three storied residences, are brightly coloured, a tradition started when left over paint from ships was used to save money. I was surprised at the number of homes, including the multi-storied ones, which were constructed in corrugated iron. My ancestor who came around the Horn actually worked in Valparaiso for awhile so it was interesting that one of the hills we visited had been where the English colony had lived.



Veendam with Valparaiso in background



We then went along the coast to the neighbouring suburb of Vina Del Mar, a more upmarket area where a lot of cruise ship passengers and inland residents stay. Here at 2.30 pm we stopped for lunch. Most of us wanted something quick and easy but our guide had other plans. Lunch was in a restaurant converted from an Englishman’s faux castle built along the shorefront. Although the food was okay we didn’t get out of there until 4.30 pm – and that was only after a one course lunch!

Although Valparaiso looked poor, apparently it has become very popular to buy a place up in the hills – at around US$500,000! As a lot of the places up there are teetering on the edge of steep hills and it’s an earthquake prone area, I know of a number of other locations I’d pick first. As a keen photographer, though, the bright colours and peeling paint make for great subject matter.

Faux Castle



By this time as it was still nearly two hours to Santiago followed by a short tour, dropping off some at hotels and then the remainder of us at the airport, those of us going to the airport were concerned about getting there for the three hour check-in so rebelled and asked to go directly to the airport.  This turned out fine for some but American Airlines and LAN International (other than their US flights) were pretty strict about the 3 hour check-in time so it meant quite a wait for others.

As the lone Aussie I separated from the others. There was no queue at my check-in counter so I fronted up a little early and then hit a snag. I was on a LAN Chile ticket with a codeshare flight coming across to Buenos Aires with Qantas. LAN changed my flight number to BA to a straight Qantas number – but forgot to reissue the ticket and enter a return flight. At no time had this shown up when I looked at my booking online but with my ticketing I hadn’t been able to check-in online. Suddenly late on a Sunday evening on a full flight I had no ticket or seat! It took over an hour and a half for LAN to work out what went wrong – and then they couldn’t reissue the ticket until they found the person responsible and who was going to have to pay for this ticket! So, after getting to the airport at 6 pm for an international flight at 11.10 pm, I didn’t get a ticket or boarding pass until 9.25 pm. As the flight was full I was given one seat for the Santiago to Auckland sector and then a different seat for the Auckland to Sydney sector.

I’m easily amused (in case you hadn’t already realised) and like people watching so while I was standing at the check-in counter for all this time (and keeping polite and calm) I noticed the Latin lotharios behind the check-in counter of the neighbouring airline. These two guys with too much hair product would leer at most of the women walking past and the smirks they exchanged when a woman in a form fitting top approached one of them for check-in made me want to cringe. I even saw a young male baggage handler wheel his trolley into someone as he craned his head around to get a rear view image of women walking past him!

Finally, with my precious boarding pass in my hand I went through immigration – and got chatted up by the young (and good looking) guy behind the counter. I came away with the impression that it was open season on anyone female under 50 with fitted clothes. It was kind of funny but also very off-putting – and I must say this was the only time in South America had I seen this very obvious behaviour (obviously they have a little more subtlety at other places).

After getting to my gate with not a lot of time to spare I didn’t have much time to wait until my flight was called. I approached with my boarding pass and when it went through the machine I was pulled out of line and told to take my pass, ticket and passport to the counter. What now? The LAN staff member made a note of my passport number, crossed out my seat numbers and moved me up into Business Class! It obviously paid off not making a song and dance about LAN’s stuff up with my ticketing and I could look forward to a much more comfortable flight home in a flat bed seat!