3 Weeks in South America: Peru, Brazil, Uruguay & Chile

[Mattg]

Instead of returning to Cusco, we left the tour in Ollantaytambo and caught the train straight from there to Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu. We would overnight in Aguas Calientes, then arrive at Machu Picchu before sunrise the next morning.

The train station at Ollantaytambo:


The train was somewhat old, but the seats were comfortable.




A complimentary snack and drink was served in each direction. This was the menu:



And the snack...



The on-board staff were very friendly, and I was impressed by their attention to detail. When serving the drinks, for example, they made sure that every passenger's coaster and cup was facing the right way.

I had to laugh though when they said (individually to every passenger, I might add) "thank you for choosing Inca Rail". It's hardly a choice when the alternative is to walk...

The train to Machu Picchu is one of the most expensive train trips in the world, by distance. The 40km trip from Ollantaytambo takes around 1.5 hours, and costs around US$65 one-way. That's using the Inca Rail Expedition train – the Vistadome train is even more expensive!

The service is good, and I understand that there are costs in running it. But there are two things in particular that annoy me about this. Firstly, Inca Rail and Peru Rail have a blatant monopoly on transport to Machu Picchu, and they are well and truly exploiting their market power. The only other way to get to Machu Picchu is to walk (as there are no roads there) or to take the local train. The local train, by comparison, costs just 4 soles (less than $2). However, non-Peruvians are not allowed to use it.

The second thing that annoys me is that none of the profits from these train services actually remain in Peru. According to a local travel agent I spoke to, Peru Rail and Inca Rail are both owned by the same UK-based company that owns the Orient Express. So these high train fares aren't even supporting the Peruvian economy!

 

[Mattg]

It quickly became obvious that we were visiting in the high tourist season. The whole region was considerably busier than it was during my last visit (in February) a few years ago. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing - winter also happens to be the dry season, which was a plus. But it did mean we had to plan everything in advance.

We considered hiking the Inca Trail but when we checked two months out, all of the places had been reserved right up until October!

We also tried to get tickets to climb Huayna Picchu mountain but when I tried to book around a month in advance, there were no places left! There is a limit of 400 people per day, and 400 people had already beaten us to it. However, there were still some places available for the (much higher) Machu Picchu mountain. So we booked them.

It would also be advisable to acquire your entrance ticket in advance. Officially, the Peruvian government caps the number of visitors to Machu Picchu at 2,500 per day. In practice, I'm not convinced that this is at all enforced. But I wouldn't personally want to risk going all that way, only to be turned away!

 

[Mattg]

Our alarms went off at 4.30am the next morning. By 5am, we had joined the long line of tourists trying to get on the first bus up the mountain. The buses to Machu Picchu don't start running until 5.30am, but by 5am I would estimate that the line already had about 200 people in it! It probably would have stretched the entire length of the town of Aguas Calientes by the time 05:30 came around!

I was really excited to be returning to Machu Picchu. I'd been once before, but it was my friend's first time. It's a truly magical place to visit.

We were on the bus by 5.50am, and reached the entrance to Machu Picchu at 6.15am. By this time there was a bit of light, but it was still an hour before the sun made an appearance.

The idea of getting there early was to (a) beat the crowds, and (b) see the sunrise from Machu Picchu. Unfortunately it seems everyone had the same idea, so it was packed. This was the queue to enter Machu Picchu just after 6am:



But we did get to see the sun come up from Machu Picchu - now that was incredible!



While the sun came up we joined a two hour guided walking tour of the impressive "lost city".

 

[Mattg]

After the tour finished, we headed towards the entrance of Machu Picchu mountain. That's the one in the background of this photo:



There are two "groups" of 200 people that are can climb the mountain each day. The first group is allowed to enter between 7-8am. We were in the second group and had to enter between 9-10am.

The climb up Machu Picchu mountain was a tough slog, involving a LOT of stairs...



...but, without a doubt, it was worth it for the views! Not only did you get a birds-eye view of Machu Picchu, but also the surrounding towns and mountains.





They say that it should take around 1 hour and 45 minutes to climb Machu Picchu mountain. We did it in about 1 hour and 10 minutes, but we kept a pretty speedy pace. At least one guy I spoke to did it in around 45 minutes.

 

[Mattg]

Exhausted after the climb, we headed back down the mountain to Aguas Calientes.

The bus back to Aguas Calientes:



And the town itself:



Our stay in Aguas Calientes was once again short and sweet. That afternoon we headed back to Cusco using a train/bus combination.

For the return train trip we had seats on the right hand side, which offered great views like this one:

 

[Mattg]

I left my friend in Cusco the next morning. She headed south to Lake Titicaca and I flew back to Lima. My time in Peru was almost over.


Back at CUZ airport

For the return flight to Lima, I decided to try out an airline I hadn't flown before. I booked with Star Peru, which was cheaper than LAN and around the same price as Peruvian Airlines.

I originally booked a flight with a stopover in Puerto Maldonado (a small city in the Peruvian jungle) as it was offered for the same price and I thought it would be interesting. However, the day before the flight I received an email from Star Peru informing me that I had been transferred to a direct flight to Lima departing an hour later. I did find this a little disappointing, but it didn't disrupt any of my onward travel plans so I just went with it. Turns out the flight via Puerto Maldonado was still running, but I believe they had oversold it.

Flight: 2I1118 Cusco-Lima
BAe 146
Departure time: 10:55
Arrival time: 12:15

Boarding in Cusco:



This was my first time flying on a British Aerospace 146 aircraft, and – what can I say – it's a funny-looking flying machine! It's short and fat, with 3-3 seating but only 17 or so rows. It also has four jet engines attached to its wings, which is pretty unusual for an aircraft that seats less than 100 passengers.



The aircraft operating my flight was 25 years old, and it was showing its age. However, it was actually pretty comfortable on board. The legroom was noticeably good. The seats reminded me a little bit of QantasLink's Dash 8s.



There was definitely no in-flight entertainment of any kind – not even an in-flight magazine.

The crew on my flight did their job, but a few smiles here and there wouldn't have gone astray. For the snack each passenger was served a small bag of peanuts & sultanas with a choice of soft drink, water, tea or coffee.



We departed about 15 minutes early. Despite encountering no obvious delays, we arrived about 10 minutes behind schedule. I suspect that the airline has simply underestimated the amount of time they've scheduled for the flight.

Despite the older aircraft, the flight was fine. I would fly with Star Peru again if the price was right.

 

[ellen10]

Great trip report and enjoying the photos.

 

[Mattg]

The next day was a long day of travel. The plan was to fly from Lima to Brasilia, via Santiago and São Paulo.

I haven't had the best of luck with internal South America flights in the past. My bad luck was set to continue.

The problems began before I even boarded the first flight. As I explained at the start of this trip report, the Lima-Santiago and Santiago-Brasilia flights were booked on separate tickets. The first two flights were operated by LAN, with the last operated by TAM. In theory, this shouldn't matter as LAN and TAM are basically the same airline, having recently merged as "LATAM". Regardless, I was told that my boarding passes from Santiago to Brasilia could not be issued in Lima, nor could my bag be tagged beyond Chile.

When I explained to the check-in agent that I would have to pay a US$117 visa fee if I had to pick up my luggage in Chile, she called a supervisor over and managed to somehow issue my boarding passes all the way to Brasilia. However, despite her best efforts she could only tag my bag to São Paulo. Apparently the TAM computer system wouldn't allow it to be tagged any further. This wasn't a bad outcome in the end, but I spent well over half an hour at the check-in counter and I still couldn't get my bag tagged to the final destination!

I was given an invitation at check-in to use the Sumaq VIP Lounge in Lima. This was a nice lounge, with a fully-stocked bar, lots of comfortable leather chairs and nice showers. The breakfast food options were a bit disappointing though with just toast, yoghurt and cereal available.

Flight: LA531 Lima-Santiago
Boeing 787-9
Departure time: 08:37
Arrival time: 13:05



I was in row 12, a bulkhead seat at the front of economy for this flight.

My first impressions of LAN's Dreamliner were excellent. The cabin was brand new and looked great. Perhaps it was the mood lighting. I thought the seats were a bit on the narrow side, but otherwise very comfortable. One thing I particularly liked was the extra soft padding in the headrest. The legroom was decent too, and in fact I think the first five or so rows of economy had extra legroom.

Legroom shot in row 12:



Another thing I enjoyed was the in-flight entertainment on the Dreamliner. On LATAM's narrowbody aircraft, entertainment is only available by streaming through the LATAM Entertainment App. The App offers a moderate selection of TV shows, movies and TED talks, as well as a flight map. But the Dreamliner entertainment system offered a much greater range, including a wide selection of games and music. The touch screen was highly responsive, too.

Breakfast was served on this flight. As with all the LATAM flights I've taken in Economy, there was only one meal choice. On this flight it was an omelette. It tasted alright, although I thought the serving size could have been a little bigger. One thing that impressed me about the meal service was that it came with proper metal cutlery and crockery, even in cattle class.



The service on this flight was good and the flight was very enjoyable. If all of my flights on LATAM were like this one, I would probably fly them more often.

There was just one minor hiccup. We arrived in Santiago on time, but the aerobridge at our gate wasn't working. This meant we had to return to our seats and taxi to a new gate, which took around 15 minutes and delayed the arrival slightly.

As my connection was a little over two hours, this didn't matter and I returned to the LATAM lounge for a leisurely lunch after disembarking.

 

[Mattg]

LA700 Santiago – Sao Paulo (Guarulhos)
Boeing 787-8
Departure time: 15:40 (scheduled)
Arrival time: 20:35 (scheduled)

The next flight was another Dreamliner flight; this time on a Boeing 787-8. I would be flying the first leg of a flight from Santiago to Milan with a stopover in Sao Paulo.

We boarded the aircraft, and the departure time came and went. We weren't going anywhere. About 30 minutes after the scheduled departure time, an announcement was made that there was a mechanical problem and that they were working to fix it. As each extra minute passed by I was getting more and more nervous, as my connection in Sao Paulo was in jeopardy. I had less than two hours in Sao Paulo to collect my luggage, clear customs & immigration, change terminals and make the last flight of the day to Brasilia.

Almost an hour after we were meant to depart, the call was made that our aircraft wouldn't be going anywhere and that we all had to disembark. I knew straight away that I wouldn't make it to Brasilia that night.



Instead of joining the ever-growing queue at the gate, I returned immediately to the LATAM lounge. Thankfully, the lounge staff tried their best to help. But my problems weren't solved just yet - they were offering me alternative flights that were nothing short of ridiculous. One option would have me leaving Santiago at 2am the next morning and arriving in Brasilia at 4pm the next day – just two hours before my next flight (to Belo Horizonte – which was on the same booking!) was due to depart. Another alternative offered was to skip Brasilia altogether.

I made it clear that I would prefer to fly to Sao Paulo that night, then take the first flight to Brasilia the following morning (as this would get me to Brasilia with the least possible delay) – but only if the airline provided a hotel in Sao Paulo. They eventually agreed. I believe this was the best possible outcome given the circumstances. However, it still meant that I missed out on seeing my friend in Brasilia as I eventually arrived 11 hours late.

I kept my seat on the original flight to Sao Paulo and we departed on a new aircraft 3 hours late.

A rather unusual announcement was made shortly after take-off: "In a few minutes we will pass over the Andes. Please keep your seatbelt fastened at this time as we expect turbulence." The announcement was even automated, so I'm guessing this is a common occurrence/procedure.

Dinner was served on this flight. Again, only one meal choice was offered. On this flight it was gnocchi with cheese and tomato sauce and was quite tasty.



It was almost midnight when we arrived in Sao Paulo and I joined the long line passengers trying to sort out their missed connections. I was given a voucher for "Hotel Matiz" and a new boarding pass for a flight the next morning.

The hotel voucher was all in Portuguese, and nobody thought to tell me where the hotel actually was or how to get there! Turns out it was located 15 minutes down the road, and I was supposed to use a shuttle bus that departed from a different terminal. How the airline thought I was supposed to work that out at midnight and with limited Portuguese is anyone's guess. I tried asking airport staff for help but none of them spoke a word of English!

The hotel wasn't too bad, once I worked out how to get there! This was the room:



It was already 1am when I checked in, and I had to return to the airport around 6am. At check-in I was informed that LATAM Airlines would pay for something from the restaurant, and I was given a form to fill out my meal request. I just wanted to go to sleep by now, so just ticked "water". Two hours later - in the middle of the night - I was woken up by someone banging loudly on my door. In a daze, I answered the door and it was room service with my single bottle of water. Seriously?!

A short sleep later and I was back at the airport.

I had to buy something from (what I thought was) a duty free store in Sao Paulo. Turns out that just because an airport shop is named "Dufry", doesn't mean the products there are duty free at all. The tax on my purchase was a whopping 28%!

Flight: JJ3562 Sao Paulo (Guarulhos) – Brasilia
Airbus A321
Departure time: 08:40
Arrival time: 10:25

This flight was full of "suits" heading to the Brazilian capital.

I was in row one, which had a decent amount of legroom. I was unable to pre-select row one (or an exit row) for any of my LATAM flights online. But the upshot of this is that front row seats have still been available when checking in for every LATAM flight I took on this trip. With just one exception, the agents have always been happy to allocate one of these seats to me for free at check-in as a oneworld Sapphire flyer.

The snack served on this sector was typical of what I received on every other domestic TAM flight. On each flight, I received either a small ham & cheese bread roll or a bag of crackers. This time it was the crackers. Without fail, this would come with a choice of water, orange juice, soft drink or coffee.

We landed in Brasilia slightly behind schedule. It was 11 hours since I was supposed to have arrived. My next flight would depart later that evening, so I at least still had the better part of a day to explore the Brazilian capital!

 

[RooFlyer]

Great TR - thanks. Visiting MP twice would be pretty special. I didn't begrudge to train cost though - I got the Vistadome both ways and I reckon it was good value, especially the 'fashion show' from Aguas Calientes back to Cusco (Poroy).

My experiences and impressions of LAN (as it was then) were uncannily similar to yours - good seating, good on-board service and meals, lousy on-ground service and always a hint of unpredictability!

Did you have 'Preferente' boarding? In my view a must-have, given the boarding scrums that were typical of my flights.

 

[craven morehead]

Just stumbled on this Gem great stuff!

 

[craven morehead]

For lunch I tried the lamb moussaka, which was tasty:

View attachment 75897

The catering was almost identical to Qantas' domestic Business catering.

We flew straight into the sunset just a couple of hours after take-off.

View attachment 75893

Throughout the night the dedicated Premium Economy flight attendants were only too happy to deliver drink top-ups and snacks.

The in-flight entertainment (which is stowed beside the seat) was very good too, with a wide range of content, although there is no difference as far as I could tell between the IFE in Economy and Premium Economy.

Breakfast was served around two hours prior to landing. By this point the sun had come up again, although it was still Wednesday as we had crossed the international date line.

Breakfast was very similar to the domestic Business breakfast I'd had on the previous flight. I thought it was pretty good.

View attachment 75894

We soon reached the west coast of South America and had some spectacular views of the Chilean Alps as we flew towards Santiago.

There were some air traffic control delays in Santiago which meant that we had to hold for around 15 minutes to the north of the airport. I don't think too many people minded as the views were fantastic!

View attachment 75895
View attachment 75896

We eventually arrived in a foggy Santiago around 40 minutes late.

This was a really nice flight. The Premium Economy service was nothing short of excellent, and I even managed a few hours of sleep in my seat. I would definitely consider paying a bit more to fly it again.

Matt would you say at this point PE had exceeded your expectations? The pics above have certainly impressed me so far.

 

[JohnM]

BP scanned.

 

[Mattg]

My experiences and impressions of LAN (as it was then) were uncannily similar to yours - good seating, good on-board service and meals, lousy on-ground service and always a hint of unpredictability!

Did you have 'Preferente' boarding? In my view a must-have, given the boarding scrums that were typical of my flights.

I think you've summed up LAN perfectly!

Thankfully I did get "preferente" boarding... that along with priority check-in was definitely useful, except for the few times that we boarded via buses. Boarding for most flights was a scrum, and the check-in queues were generally similar. In fact, without priority check-in I probably would have missed one of my flights. (I'll get to that in a few posts...)

I also got priority baggage on all of the LAN flights, but never on TAM for some reason.

 

[Mattg]

It was great to be back in Brazil! It's one of my favourite countries and it was a beautiful, warm morning in Brasilia.

Given the delay to my arrival, LATAM agreed to rebook me onto the last flight that day from Brasilia to my next destination, Belo Horizonte. This meant I had about 10 hours up my sleeve.

I originally planned to take a bus into the city. But - in true Brazilian fashion - the bus drivers were all on strike! Taxi it was...

Brasilia isn't exactly a touristy city. In a way, it reminded me of Canberra. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, an architect who designed many buildings all over Brazil, and even the UN headquarters in New York. The city is barely 50 years old, having been built from scratch from the 1960s onwards. The location was chosen as it is (more or less) in the centre of the country, and the city exists mainly as the seat of government.

Like Canberra, Brasilia is a planned city featuring a man-made lake. But unlike Canberra (IMHO), a great deal of attention and effort has been put into the architecture. Many of the buildings really stand out as works of art in their own right.

I spent a few hours walking along the Esplanada dos Ministerios, the very wide main avenue running through the centre of the city:



This building is not a spaceship, but Brazil's national museum:



Apparently this is a cathedral:



The two tall buildings here are actually Brazil's parliament:



And the Palace of the Arches, which is home to the foreign affairs ministry:



For a Brazilian city, Brasilia is modern, clean and safe. But it's definitely not a place for tourists, and honestly I felt it lacked something. Don't get me wrong, it's a pleasant place. It's just not somewhere you would go for a holiday. I'm glad I saw it, but I don't see any reason to return in a hurry. (This is probably the only Brazilian city I wouldn't return to.)

That evening I headed back to the airport for my second flight of the day.

Flight: JJ3853 Brasilia – Belo Horizonte
Airbus A320
Departure time: 20:50
Arrival time: 22:10

This was an uneventful flight. To my pleasant surprise, we actually arrived on time!

By the way, the airport in Brasilia was by far the nicest and most modern airport I've seen in Brazil. Unfortunately, as with all Brazilian domestic flights, there was no lounge access available.

 

[Mattg]

After my last trip to Brazil, I decided that I wanted to learn Portuguese. Since then I've been taking informal Portuguese lessons for the last year or so. I'm certainly not fluent, but I now know a few of the most common words, greetings, numbers and so on. These language skills would prove invaluable over the following two weeks.

It's very difficult to get around in Brazil without Portuguese as barely anyone speaks English. In fact, I did not meet a single person in Brasilia that did - not even the airport staff! In other cities, I've had multiple people laugh at me when asking them (in Portuguese) if they speak English. It's definitely not the norm.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't travel to Brazil if you don't know any Portuguese - just be prepared and don't assume that everyone can speak English.

 

[Mattg]

I spent six days in Belo Horizonte, where I was staying with friends. This was my third visit to Belo Horizonte and I really like the place. I had already seen most of the city's (admittedly limited) tourist attractions on the first visit, but there's something about Belo Horizonte that draws me back.

If you count the wider metropolitan area, Belo Horizonte is Brazil's third largest city. But is definitely not overrun with tourists. So, in a sense, visiting Belo Horizonte gives you the chance to experience the "real" Brazil.

This isn't a great photo, but it's probably the best one that I have of BH from this trip:



Over the weekend we took a road trip along the Royal Road (Estrada Real). The first stop was a small town called Lagoa Dourada, which is famous for a sweet treat known as "rocambole". This is a kind of rolled cake filled with sweet fillings such as doce de leite or chocolate. Yum!




Our final stop, where we spent two nights, was a colonial town called Tiradentes. This was a beautiful, historic town in the Minas Gerais countryside, around 3 hours from Belo Horizonte. Although it's a tourist town, the overwhelming majority of visitors were Brazilian.

 

[Mattg]

The town happened to be holding its June Festival in the main square during our visit (despite the fact that it was July). I believe it was some sort of religious holiday. The local school children were all dressed up and there was country music playing. Probably my favourite part was that they were selling delicious traditional food there.



On our final day in Tiradentes we took a ride on the historic steam train to the nearby town of São João del Rei.

 

[Mattg]

The town of São João del Rei:



Another day trip we took from BH was to the stunning Rei do Mato cave in Sete Lagoas:



On my final night my friend took me to see a football match at Mineirão stadium. Cruzeiro, the local team was playing Atletico Paranaense from Curitiba. Cruzeiro played well in the first half, and the excited crowd (99.9% of which Cruzeiro supporters) were cheering, singing, drumming, and everything in between! But things took a turn for the worse in the second half and Cruzeiro ended up losing 3-0. The majority of the crowd had already stormed out of the stadium in disgust after the second goal...

 

[Mattg]

Matt would you say at this point PE had exceeded your expectations? The pics above have certainly impressed me so far.

Yes, I would say so. It may not be Business class, but Premium Economy on Qantas is a nice way to fly. The soft product (food & very attentive, friendly service) was almost as good as J, IMHO.