A swing through South America

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SCL-LSC LA318
A320-200 Y+
CC-BLB
On time.

Needed water so went and found that generic 'bookshop, snacks, electronics' kind of place that seems to be in every decent sized airport these days. Then to the gate and boarding commenced at what seemed to be a pretty early time, although I've subsequently found it to be the norm for LA flights in SthAm. They start early because even using groups it is a slow process actually getting everyone on and seated.


Departure view of SCL.


The flight to La Serena is just less than an hour so service in Y+ is a bag of crisps and a little muesli bar kind of thing. Plus a bottle of water for each pax and then a drinks cart for tea, coffee, juice. No alcoholic beverages seen. The seating is standard Y seats but with middle blocked and what I guess is a comfortable enough 84cm pitch.

Descent view heading into LSC.


The last natural light at about 2000 local pulling into the small airport that is LSC.


LA, SKY Airline and JetSmart all serve the SCL-LSC route multiple times per day so although it’s a small airport it is still quite busy.

 

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La Serena is an old Chilean city that has been expanded in more recent times to takes advantage of miles of Pacific Ocean beaches. Resorts, condos and that sort of thing have combined what were formerly separate towns of La Serena and Coquimbo into one large urban area. La Serena old town is actually a couple of kilometres back from the coastline closer to a valley running eastward into the Andes.

I had booked accommodation in the old town area and it turned out to be a couple of Spanish era mansions tastefully restored as a boutique hotel.



It felt a bit like a Moroccan riad with a central open air area and rooms around the outside of the buildings. Staff were lovely too.

The town itself was a mix of some pleasant surroundings along with narrow, basic or maybe ramshackle areas.


I’d come to La Serena for what was the second best ranked golf course in Chile, unimaginatively named Campo de Golf La Serena. As the weather was better for the second day I was in town, for this day I first headed to a different course just for some practice. Pan de Azucar (sugar bread? - ahh Google translate calls it Sugarloaf - which is a common enough name. It’s most familiar to me for Mount Sugarloaf near Newcastle, which was where the regional TV/radio antennae were situated) was the name of the course. Pretty basic club and course.





Lots of mature eucalypts again, but pretty average conditioning. However, I’m playing golf for leisure and there’s plenty of people in the world who don’t have a secure source of food for tonight, so it’s all good.




A couple of sprinkles of rain here and there but very brief each time.

 

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This was almost a religious experience!

That night I went back to a restaurant right beside the hotel. As I’d gotten in later in the evening the previous night, the hotel staff didn’t really have any restaurants to recommend as they noted most places would already be closed. But I’d seen the doorway nearby and so just headed in there. Picture an old outback pub that has a token dining area and you’d be close. Plenty of locals eating there. Only locals. 1L bottles of beer. The sort of place that hasn’t changed since the 70s or 80s because no one wants it to.



They had a menu on the front door, and that was enough for me to order in simple Spanish because the older lady manning the bar and till had no English. Figured the Gran Bakarat looked okay (meat cheese tomato and I figured probably lettuce…)


My goodness it was spectacular.
The churrasco was like beef fajita strips; palta is smashed avo; and porotos verdes were I guess boiled/stewed/steamed green beans lathered on top of the avo.
(this kind of beans)


I thought I was getting a basic hamburger type thing but it was like a full meal.

It was so good I went back for the same thing the next night. When I walked in the second time the same lady gave me a knowing laugh.

 

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Now THIS is what golf is all about!


Adjacent to the ocean, sandy soil, small undulating dunes. Most people won’t care for the distinction but this is where you find “links” golf rather than parkland or resort style courses. La Serena GC isn’t actually a true links as it doesn’t have the firm and fast turf and the grass type was a little ‘sticky’ rather than the smaller leaf size of traditional links, but by goodness it was a very well done facsimile.





It was fine and sunny all day; 20-21 degrees with about a one-club breeze off the ocean. Perfect conditions.



I play off a 13 handicap, so when I say that I was even with the card through 12 holes, it had the potential to be the best days golf ever.



Alas, reversion to the mean is a thing and I ended up shooting 8-over 80 (have broken 80 twice before in my life so no great loss). I’d played off the white tees for the front nine and having gone around those first nine holes one over, decided to go back to the longer blue tees for the second nine, so it was likely to happen anyway.

I’d say the course reminded me of Magenta Shores on the NSW Central Coast, or maybe some of the courses on the Moonah region in VIC, but it just wasn’t as polished as those. Probably would sit somewhere around 75th best course if it was in Australia. I don’t say that to detract from it, but rather to highlight just how good we golfers have it Down Under.

 

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The next leg of the trip was to go from northern central Chile to southern central Chile, to what was apparently called the Chilean Lakes District. I’d booked Y+ with LA again for La Serena to Puerto Montt, via Santiago.

LSC-SCL LA105
A320-200 Y+
PR-TYM
On time

This leg was a domestic Chile flight operated by a LATAM Brasil aircraft (Brazilian rego and inside all safety markings were in Spanish, English and Portuguese). FR24 indicates it mostly flies in and out of SCL so I guess it must use Chilean crew.

LSC only has a couple of check in desks and a few token shops.




I headed upstairs to the cafe to wait and spied this Twotter sitting alone on the ramp.

I recall from the take off roll it had titles like British Antarctic Survey on the fuselage.

The same packet of crisps and muesli style bar were handed out for this flight, but they, along with the bottle of water, were handed out pre-departure with the note that there may be turbulence enroute that might prevent any inflight service.

As it was there only a few bumps and a quick 45 minute journey down to SCL.

 

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SCL-PMC LA59
A320-200 Y+
PR-TYP
On time

The flight time to PMC was blocked as 1hr 48min but was in reality about 1:20. We were travelling on another LA Brazil sister ship.





I guess if you live here you might become blasé about the sights of the Andes, but for me it was still pretty impressive. Then again on departure, sitting there behind the city:


As this was a slightly longer sector there was actually a heated chicken and cheese roll offered in Y+, along with the crisps and bottle of water (which is a 600mL bottle each time by the way). On most of these flights the Y+ cabin of 12 seats (3 rows of 2-2 middle-seat blocked eurobusiness style seating) was mostly full. I don't know whether LA is generous with upgrades for status pax or whether others were just paying for it like I was, as the price wasn't overly expensive.

The view on descent was pretty impressive too, with three volcanoes dominating the mountains about 20Km east of Puerto Montt (and Puerto Varas where I was staying).

I never really got a clear look at Volcan Orsono, but from other images on the web it is very Fuji-esque. In the image above it is the right-hand peak obscured by cloud.


Puerto Varas is the closer town here, situated on the lake. Puerto Montt is in the distance and is situated at the northern reach of Reloncavi Sound which is a waterspace open to the Pacific Ocean. The volcanoes are very obvious with their snow caps on satellite view.


On taxiing in they have an old C-47 frame sitting near the ramp. Apparently it flew for LAN Chile in the 60s after its USAAF wartime service and is now used for rescue and firefighting training.

Translating this website gives some more info: El C-47 de El Tepual


Also parked on the ramp was another Twotter wearing the same British Antarctic Survey (BAS) colours. Interestingly, when I departed a few days later there was no aircraft visible on the ramp but FR24 showed two DHC6 doing local flying, but with Chilean Air Force callsigns (but the registration marking was showing both as red BAS aircraft). Maybe they're contracted by the Air Force for Antarctic activities over the summer months.

 

[SYD]

Doing SCL-PMC in a few weeks time. It’ll be 3 of 4 LA PE flights and all showing full or close to 2 to 3 weeks out.

Watching intently now for tips!

 

[Scarlett]

Doing SCL-PMC in a few weeks time. It’ll be 3 of 4 LA PE flights and all showing full or close to 2 to 3 weeks out.

Watching intently now for tips!

The only real advantages of LA PE are the included piece of luggage and the seat. Group 1 boarding comes with the seat and quicker alighting. The main thing for me is that LA whY is listed as 71cm pitch which is ULCC torture levels. PE is not J space but probably 81-84cm pitch.

Actually I suppose the water bottle came in handy for later flights as I’m never sure of the status of local water arriving somewhere new so at least always had some water to drink and for brushing teeth that night.

Are you staying in Puerto Montt or somewhere else?

On arrival at PMC there were shuttle buses offering seats for CLP6000 to both Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas. Good easy and well oiled machine. They have desks at baggage claim or will bring a card reader to you outside if you just walk out to them. That’s the price for a person only, having luggage doubled the price. As comparison UberX to Puerto Varas was showing as 16K CLP after my arrival so I went with the shuttle. Another thing is that I thought they were taking us (three ‘groups’ - 5 pax total in the little 12 seater I was in) to the central plaza in Puerto Varas but they took each of us to respective hotels. Perfect.

Do an Osorno day trip! I didn’t and regret it. Puerto Varas felt like Queenstown NZ so there were tour brochures and travel agent types everywhere.

 

[SYD]

We’re picking up a car at PMC and will spend a few days based at Puerto Varas before heading out to Chiloe for a couple of days.

Made a note to checkout Osorno!