Antarctica and Beyond!: Day 1 – 27/12/12 - Tullarmarine, Sydney, Auckland, Santiago

This is being posted on January 10 from Ushuaia, after disembarking our home for 10 days, the Polar Pioneer.

Alarms awoke us at 2.30am, me from a deep sleep, Mary – not so much! The Ciloms courtesy bus had us to the airport by 3.30 and there was no-one home yet, so we sat and waited for the Qantas staff to arrive.

Once we checked in about 4.30, we wandered through to the gate lounge, nothing was opened, so we waited for the coffee shops to open then we enjoyed a cuppa and read the complimentary papers.

The flight from Melbourne to Sydney on a Qantas747-300, it was a refurbished plane with interactive touch screens, quite comfy really.

At Sydney, we met up with David and Susan from our trip on the bus between terminals, then ran into Kate at the gate for our next flight, we had a bit of time to walk through duty free, but not enough to seriously look.

It was all the usual fun being early in the trip, not quite sorted, so juggling the passports, tickets, liquides and laptops, we hope to get a bit more organised as the trip progresses – fingers crossed!!!

There was an issue with out seating through from Syd to Santiago and Mary and I couldn’t be seated together, as it was a full plane, this wasn’t a major issue, as we at least had aisle seats and could talk if we needed.

I was seated in the second last row, but had a nice South American couple beside me and were OK, just got a bit sick of being second last to get fed/watered everytime.

We were all on board by 9.00 am, but still waiting for some passengers so took off a bit late. The flight time to Auckland was 2.45. Watched the Bourne Legacy on this leg, which managed to keep me awake…just.

Landed into Auckland approximately 12.50 AEST, through transit into lounge for a bit, met with Kate, David and Susan again , then back on board about 2.25 AEST.

Our plane from Syd to Santiago, was not quite so flash a LAN Airbus 340-300, a bit older etc.

This flight was approx. 11 hours and we had plans to sleep, so we could aligned to Santiago time, our best laid plans were foiled, as it just didn’t happen. Watched another movie – Contagion and some other TV series etc, did some reading, got dinner and breaky and some catnaps along the way.

Finally arrived at Santiago at 11.30am local time on the 27^th. No issues with customs or reciprocity taxes, though the airport was very busy, the lines moved pretty quickly.

We managed to organise a transfer to the hotel San Galerias. We dumped our gear and took off to explore.

Our first challenge was accessing some local PESOS, we couldn’t quite figure out the ATM in the hotel, they sent us across the road to a bank, and luckily some other Aussies from our flight and were able to assist us –easy when you know how.

By now it was about 2am AEST on the 28^th, but we were still on the 27^th…we wandered around the centre of Santiago and explored Cerro Santa Julia – a large hill in the centre of town which was developed into a public park by Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna in 1872. There were lots of terraces – like Neptune Terrace

Santiago is surrounded by mountains, and was quite warm, interesting to see that dogs just roam the streets, they are all quite healthy and very happy, but no collars or leads and seeminly no owners, they have great road sense, and cross at crossings when people do. Must get a photo of the dogs when I go back.

After our walk up and around the hill, we walked out to the artsy/foodie precinct, and had some tea at Sur Patagonica - I had a lovely Oceania Salad with a raspberry drink of some kind and Mary and Kate braved and enjoyed the local beer.

After tea, we wandered back to the hotel and back our for a bit longer. Finally made it into bed at 9ish Santiago time.

PS. Having trouble with photos using current wifi available, so will post the writing...sorry about that, the photos are the best part, I will keep trying.

Mary and I at the airport...super early and eager!

Having a cuppa and reading our last newspapers in the lounge- selfie in the mirror shot.

Selfie with the new iPhone fish eye lens think this was Sydney airport lounge

Panoramic shot of Santiago from the top of Cerro Santo Lucia.

Kate and Mary enjoying a Chilean beer. We have been awake for a very long time, it's hot and they deserved it. Great place to eat Patagonica Sur in Santiago.