A Visit To The Andes

A Visit To The Andes
As promised, my next trip would be to Santiago, Chile. There won't be much airplane talk in this post....mostly sightseeing. Sorry.

Another all-nighter I'm afraid. There's no getting around them if you want to go to South America non-stop from DFW.

I took my rest break during the middle portion of the flight so as to be rested for the approach and landing. The sun was beginning to rise as we started our descent about 100 miles from Santiago. The Andes were very close on our left wing. Our EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity warning system) was reporting some very high terrain in the neighborhood. The green numbers 224 indicate that an obstacle rising to 22,400 ft was in range. That would be Mt Aconcagua just inside the Argentine border. It's the tallest mountain in the Americas. That's it in the photo on the left.

A straight in approach from the north would require an full ILS approach due to some morning haze and fog. But the descent over the mountains to the north was clear and very impressive.A short nap followed our drive into the city. The time zone in Chile is the same as the eastern US so there's not much jet lag to contend with.

Then it was out for some sightseeing around the city and later a nice dinner with the other two pilots. A huge steak, salad, side dish, dessert, and a beer only cost about $18. Not too bad! Sure beats the prices in Europe.

The next day we rented a car and took a drive up to the ski resort of Portillo. It was about a two hour drive north and east of Santiago. From ground level we could easily see how rugged these Andes really are. Most impressive!!
We encountered quite a bit of truck traffic on the way up. But we finally made it to Portillo.
The ski lodge overlooks a frozen lake.There was also a tour operator giving sightseeing rides in their Eurostar. Looked like fun.
But as the chopper flew off we knew we had to get back to town and pack up for the leg home. We only got lost once on the way back but still made it in time for the pick up from the hotel.

Nine hours enroute back to DFW this time. Yes, it was an all-nighter.

I'm looking forward to my next trip to Chile.


For a look at some more of my photos, please aviate over to Plane & Simple.