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This little jaunt had its genesis on 19 April 2018 when I received a PM (‘conversation’ in new parlance) from @juddles, touching base. He and I first made personal contact when he very generously helped me out with some internal flight bookings in Colombia and invited me to spend a weekend with his family outside Medellin, back in 2015.
(As an aside, my flight out of Australia was QF F SYD-DFW. The story of Rebecca, @juddles’ daughter’s QF J PJ-clothed doll that often featured in AFF posts back then, how @juddles and his family were going to be hosting a stranger through a FF forum and Mrs juddles’ predilection for Champagne was enough to garner a bottle of Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill and a couple of pairs of F pyjamas to offer my hosts. Must love QF at times!: Let's mix it up and fill in some experience gaps: RTW 2015)
The message from @juddles contained this intriguing comment, probably related to my penchant for annual DONExs: “Rather than endlessly do loops of the planet, why don't you pick somewhere (Chile) and stay a while?” He went on to talk about his fishing village house and things to do in that region (Region IV).
Now, I’ve been to Chile many times over almost the last 20 years, but Region IV, centred around La Serena about 500 km N of Santiago) is one part I haven’t yet got to apart from flying over it on the way to the Atacama region further north.
Funnily enough, I had at about this time been casting around in my mind for somewhere to go using QF points. So, I didn’t need any more prompting. After a swift reply to check suitable dates (just after the summer school holidays in Chile finish at the end of March) and advise @juddles that I’m prone to instant decisions, that instant decision was made.
I jumped onto QF and of course there was nothing in the way of J redemptions on QF SYD-SCL around late March. BUT – ding! There are seats PER-xDXB-SCL on EK!
What’s going on, I think to myself? I didn’t know EK flew to SCL. Well, they didn’t at that time but were due to start in July 2018, by extending the DXB-GRU service on to SCL to turn around there. How is THAT for sweet timing I think to myself!
An instant decision was made to snare PER-xDXB-SCL and it was all locked away by 23 April - within four days of @juddles’ message. I decided to think about the homeward flights later after considering a few other things that have been on my to-do list in South America.
A few weeks later I locked in a QF points redemption in QR J EZE (Buenos Aires)-xDOH-PER, for six weeks in South America. Sweet! And a nice EK/QR J flights coughtail to boot.
I bought a few LA el-cheapos to get from SCL to La Serena (LSC) and LSC-xSCL-EZE, then from AEP (Buenos Aires)-Salta (SLA) in NW Argentina and back. A drive around the Salta region has been on my must-do list for many years. (And it will mean a truckload more kays on the fabled Ruta 40 @RooFlyer).
While I’m in Buenos Aires, I also decided to take the ferry over to Uruguay for about a week to drive around there for the first time.
So, come tomorrow night, I’m on the bird to DXB, with Thursday night there before the Friday morning ride to GRU (1.5h layover) and on to SCL.
Here are the flight routings and the general driving points for Uruguay and Argentina, while @juddles has some cool plans for the time around La Serena in Chile.
The Argentina circuit will take in the contrast between the arid high Andes and the moister western plains, while Chile will be from the dry coast to the fertile valleys and the arid heights of the Andes.
(As an aside, my flight out of Australia was QF F SYD-DFW. The story of Rebecca, @juddles’ daughter’s QF J PJ-clothed doll that often featured in AFF posts back then, how @juddles and his family were going to be hosting a stranger through a FF forum and Mrs juddles’ predilection for Champagne was enough to garner a bottle of Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill and a couple of pairs of F pyjamas to offer my hosts. Must love QF at times!: Let's mix it up and fill in some experience gaps: RTW 2015)
The message from @juddles contained this intriguing comment, probably related to my penchant for annual DONExs: “Rather than endlessly do loops of the planet, why don't you pick somewhere (Chile) and stay a while?” He went on to talk about his fishing village house and things to do in that region (Region IV).
Now, I’ve been to Chile many times over almost the last 20 years, but Region IV, centred around La Serena about 500 km N of Santiago) is one part I haven’t yet got to apart from flying over it on the way to the Atacama region further north.
Funnily enough, I had at about this time been casting around in my mind for somewhere to go using QF points. So, I didn’t need any more prompting. After a swift reply to check suitable dates (just after the summer school holidays in Chile finish at the end of March) and advise @juddles that I’m prone to instant decisions, that instant decision was made.
I jumped onto QF and of course there was nothing in the way of J redemptions on QF SYD-SCL around late March. BUT – ding! There are seats PER-xDXB-SCL on EK!
What’s going on, I think to myself? I didn’t know EK flew to SCL. Well, they didn’t at that time but were due to start in July 2018, by extending the DXB-GRU service on to SCL to turn around there. How is THAT for sweet timing I think to myself!
An instant decision was made to snare PER-xDXB-SCL and it was all locked away by 23 April - within four days of @juddles’ message. I decided to think about the homeward flights later after considering a few other things that have been on my to-do list in South America.
A few weeks later I locked in a QF points redemption in QR J EZE (Buenos Aires)-xDOH-PER, for six weeks in South America. Sweet! And a nice EK/QR J flights coughtail to boot.
I bought a few LA el-cheapos to get from SCL to La Serena (LSC) and LSC-xSCL-EZE, then from AEP (Buenos Aires)-Salta (SLA) in NW Argentina and back. A drive around the Salta region has been on my must-do list for many years. (And it will mean a truckload more kays on the fabled Ruta 40 @RooFlyer).
While I’m in Buenos Aires, I also decided to take the ferry over to Uruguay for about a week to drive around there for the first time.
So, come tomorrow night, I’m on the bird to DXB, with Thursday night there before the Friday morning ride to GRU (1.5h layover) and on to SCL.
Here are the flight routings and the general driving points for Uruguay and Argentina, while @juddles has some cool plans for the time around La Serena in Chile.
The Argentina circuit will take in the contrast between the arid high Andes and the moister western plains, while Chile will be from the dry coast to the fertile valleys and the arid heights of the Andes.
. It turned out to be the better side for the view.
