One of the Continents we have neglected to travel and explore has been South America. The military gave me the opportunity to visit Guayaquil Ecuador and that was not inspiring – actually it was pretty much a crap hole. My son and I did spend a week hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, “which was cool” and I felt it was worth taking some time and exploring further south into the Continent. Reva and I had planned to do this trip back in 2021, but the Pandemic crushed those plans. But now, the world has opened back up and its time to try this journey again.

I remember reading a quote years ago that Civilization stops at the US/Mexican Border and reforms again at the borders with Chile and Argentina. Whether or not that was really true, I couldn’t say, but I had always heard that Chile and Argentina were great Countries to visit; inexpensive, friendly and beautiful. So I was excited to find out! Reva was more apprehensive about traveling around in South America, but it was mostly a cruise, so she was OK with it.

The cruise was to be our first and most likely last on a Princess Cruise Ship. The cruise itself was scheduled to depart from San Antonio Chile, and sail around Cape Horne and end up in Buenos Aires two weeks later. We planned to add a week before and after the trip to explore Machu Picchu, Peru and a few sights in Brazil. Here, I will summarize the journey and things I learned along the way.

I learned in the Military the slogan “Semper Gumby”, “always flexible” ( a reference to the Marines slogan and the little rubber toy from my childhood) and that was definitely needed for the beginning of this trip. This was a good way to approach a trip to any unknown destination. In this case, the changes started early. About two months before our trip, civil unrest broke out in Peru and in particular the Cuzco area. This resulted in nationwide state of emergency and the closing of Machu Picchu indefinitely. We waited as long as possible before we canceled this portion of our trip but we didn’t want to risk getting stuck in Peru.

To be honest, I was fine dumping Peru and Machu Picchu from the adventure. As someone who had been there previously, I thought that it had become ridiculously expensive and frankly not really that impressive. Train tickets that should be $20 are now $200 or more and everything is set up to exploit foreign tourists. Peru’s government and some of the most wealthy individuals in Peru benefit the greatest from the tourism and most of the local community live in poverty. Hence, the locals end up blocking the train line. (Machu Picchu is only accessible by train or by hiking; there are no roads.) It is a beautiful site, but the trail through the Andes and many of the sites in the “Sacred valley” are as impressive. This is a site that is very hyped up, well beyond what it should be.

So our revised plan, was to fly directly to Santiago, Chile a few days before the cruise. Our flight from Orlando had an overnight layover in Bogota, Columbia, which gave us an opportunity to get a glimpse of this Capital City. We opted to stay at a hotel just outside the Airport, so we could get back to the airport quickly for our early morning flight.

We arrived at the Orlando Airport about three hours early for our Avianca flight and after a minor parking delay headed to the ticket counter to check in. This resulted in our second observation. “Foreign Airlines have their own rules and regulations which you need to be aware of.” In this case, Avianca Airlines required us to show a completed Agricultural Form for Chile prior to issuing us our Boarding Passes. Not a problem, if any of the Agents spoke English and could tell us where to find the online form to complete. They kept showing us an email that we needed to obtain after completing the form that we would need in two days. Unfortunately, it took us the better part of an hour to find the correct form and complete it. This ended up making us rush to catch the flight. (For the record; when we did arrive in Chile, links to the webpage to complete the form were available everywhere as well as paper forms if you couldn’t use the web. Additionally, most of the passengers on the plane did not have the completed form. It appears that this was just an Avianca requirement for passengers from the US. )

The rest of the flight was uneventful, other than Columbia still requires passengers to wear masks on airplanes (a year after this requirement was dropped in the US) and gives you nothing for free. When we landed in Bogota, Reva questioned “Is there any air here?” I found myself breathing hard as well. I knew Bogota was in the mountains but I didn’t know it was 8,600 feet above sea level. A half mile higher up than Denver! The airport was very modern and Columbia claimed to be the “Friendliest Country in the World”. Another observation: “Border Crossings are always tricky and potentially very slow.” In this case, it wasn’t too bad, but as we walked we kept passing signs stating the expected wait time from that location. “93 minutes from this spot.” You have to be kidding, this isn’t Disney! To enter Columbia, we had to show our Covid Vaccination Cards or a Negative PCR test. Fortunately, we had all the needed paperwork and was through immigration and out of the airport in 15 minutes.

It was a cool night and an easy airport to navigate. There is one pickup location for all of the hotel shuttles and all the major brands (IHG, Hilton and Marriott) operate at the Airport. We stayed at the Habitel Select which is a Columbia based hotel chain and one of the closest properties to the Airport. After a good meal and a decent night sleep, we headed back to the Airport for our early flight to Santiago. Columbia felt very American like. We did not see much, but what we did see was very modern. A dramatic contrast from most of the Latin American Countries further north. It would be worth coming back and exploring the area more.

Our arrival in Santiago, Chile was on time and I was glad to ditch the facemask. We immediately noticed the signs everwhere regarding the required form in Spanish and ENGLISH! “That would have been helpful!) We cleared customs quickly and an Agricultural Administration Employee glanced…and I do mean glanced…at our completed form on our phone and we were in Chile. One item on the form I thought was unique. There was a question asking if we were traveling with anyone under the age of 18. This would trigger additional questions and screening. I believe this was attempt to held control human trafficking and not a bad idea…a little odd on an Agricultural Form…but what the heck. We grabbed an airport taxi (required at the airport) and headed downtown.

Our hotel was the Doubletree Santiago, which would be our home for the next few days. The Doubletree was a beautiful modern hotel. We were upgraded to a Junior Suite which gave us a great view of the City and the mountains.

Now part of the appeal of South America to me was the value of the dollar compared to the local currency. This is definitely the case in Chile. At 800 pesos to the dollar, everything was a bargain for us. Even though this is a big city, the size of Chicago, all the prices were very reasonable. Even the Hilton Doubletree Hotel, just 1.5 blocks from the tallest building in South America, was less than $100 a night. Meals at most restaurants were only $5 to $10 each and very good wine was only a few dollars a bottle…..and they have very good wine!

The City itself sits at the Base of the Andes Mountains and is in the desert. Hot, dry and sunny! Not a bad place to be in mid-February. I felt the City was reasonably clean, modern, and had many nice parks. A river cuts through the City and the city is divided by a large mountainous park. On the negative side, and possibly compounded by wildfires burning around Chile, the air quality was not great and the views of the mountains was not clear even from the viewing areas on the Gran Torre Building.

We spent a few days enjoying the City, which I would not hesitate visiting again. With all the parks, pools, bike paths, and cable cars, there was plenty to see and do. There was no need to exchange money, since credit cards were accepted everywhere. After we arrived, we immediately walked over to the Gran Torre and after wondering around the building for a bit, we found the ticket counter for the observation floor. The building itself houses a very large shopping mall on the first 4-5 floors and is a hub of activity in Santiago.

The next day we spent exploring the City and its many parks. We took the Gondola cars to the top of the large City Park to explore the Virgin Mary Statue which overlooks the City and spent the day just enjoying the many delights of Santiago.

Of course, this was just the gateway for our main event which was the 14 day Cruise around the Horn of South America. Which is discussed in the next blog.

In summary, here are the big lessons we learned on this phase of our Journey:

1. Semper Gumby! Be flexible! Events this region of the world unfold quickly and your plans may need to be modified….consider refundable and changeable air fares to avoid extra expenses.
2. Understand Foreign Airlines. Foreign Airlines have their own rules and regulations which you need to be aware of and prepared for. (This issue came up again at the end of the trip….which I will discuss in a future blog.)
3. Border Crossings are always tricky and potentially very slow. Understand border entry requirements …. its your responsibility. (On our return flight to Miami, I was seated next to a woman who was not vaccinated and did not have a negative PCR test. She was denied entry to Columbia and was put right back on the plane (at her expense) and sent back to the US.)