Orly Hotel Santiago

Panorama image from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org (Click on the image to enlarge) The air is Antarctic clean compared to the oft diesel entrapped fumes of Buenos Aires. Not that the pollution takes much away from the smorgasbord of delights BA offers a tourist. However the freshness of Santiago screams 'you are at the base of the Andes and a pebble jump from the ocean' and thusly one's vision will encompass all horizons and beyond. It is as if one sees the history and culture in Santia...

We missed our day at the Ranch, due to yours truly not checking our flight tickets before booking the day trip. Let's just say it caused some problems; the solution was to go today. Our phone just rang it is our infamous guide who tells us that it is raining in Spain or Patagonia or wherever and that means rain at our ranch and that means "I wouldn't recommend you going today..." (As if we had another day available). Then he tells us there will be a 50% cancellation fee. One is not born 'this...

Born Ricardo Neftalí Reyes Basoalto July 12, 1904(1904-07-12 ) Parral, Chile Died September 23, 1973 (aged 69) Santiago, Chile Occupation Poet, Diplomat, Political figure Notable award(s) Nobel Prize for Literature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Neru da#Interesting_Facts This link provides extraordinary detail about this internationally famous poet, politician, person and Nobel Prize winner in Literature (1971), awarded two years before his death ======================================= ==...

For the next six nights we will be staying at Hotel Orly in the Providencia area, a fairly upscale residential neighborhood with lots of shops and some restaurants as well. Our room + bathroom is nice, not too big, but very clean. The staff is extremely helpful and the breakfast buffet tasty. It seems that most people who stay here are Americans, including one man who was on our flight to Santiago. We remember him because he started a rather one-sided conversation about skiing with the person...

It is complicated to keep track of time here, Argentina has a one hour time difference with Chile, but today Chile's time goes forward by one hour on Sunday, which we were told about by another scientist at the meeting. A useful bit of information, in particular since our flight is that very same day.... We started the morning with a nice and varied breakfast buffet at our hotel, NH Cordillera. The hotel itself seems very modern and nice from a distance, but up close I thought it looked somew...

Yesterday we drove south to Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. These are respectively, the main seaside resort for Santiagans and the main port of Chile. Vina is a sprawling city of high rise condos standing shoulder to shoulder along the coast. It was packed with people jogging, bike riding, beach walking, and, later in the day when the sea fog had cleared, sunbathing on the beach. The traffic was chaotic and strangely slow. Chileans drive very tentatively and slowly, not at all what you would exp...

Today we're off to a new country - Chile. Our bus was 9:45 from the bus station. We booked with TURBUS, a chilean company, and the cost was around 7GBP each with some sandwiches and a drink. We took the same route as yesterday, up to the border crossing - then the fun began. When we stopped the bus driver(s), who didn't speak english, indicated that we go somewhere, then come back. Assuming they meant passport control, we, along with an american and canadian couple header for passport control...

Up early to leave at 0730 but couldn't check out till then. Took us 7.25 hours to get to the airport at Punta Arenas with two very short stops, including getting fuel at Cerro Castillo (very expensive!) Think that was partly because of all the stop/go boards at the roadworks between Cerro Castillo and Puerto Natales - it'll be much quicker when that's finished and it doesn't look as though it'll be long! Returned car and checked in for both Santiago and Calama tomorrow morning. Collected by o...