Adelaide Sydney Santiago – Our 2015 Adventure Begins

Day 1  Tuesday 17^th March 2015

And so it begins     Adelaide to Sydney

Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone. 🙂  To be sure to be sure.

After over 12 months in the planning we have finally started  our  next adventure.

The last few days have been pretty organised compared to previous holidays. I guess the move to the apartment has made things just so much easier. No gardens to worry about and everything is secure in our building. Thanks to Carly, Kieran, Ella and Ethan we know that Aiko will have a fun time playing with Hana and being very well looked after.

My day started early woke around 4:30 and dozed on and off until I finally had to get up around 5:30. I did a few last things that needed sorting out and then Deb was up around 6. We potted around and finished our packing, put the garbage out and watered the plants. We had a taxi booked for 7:45, it was a bit of a shock that 7 came around so quickly and we weren’t ready to leave (unusual for us). We walked out the door around 7:30 and went down to wait for our taxi.

We arrived at the airport around 7:50, checked our bags in and then met a friend, Mandy, in the Qantas Club lounge. We are staying with Mandy overnight in Sydney, before our flight to Santiago via Auckland tomorrow. Mandy was on the same flight as us so it all worked very well.

An uneventful flight had us in Sydney around 11:45 and after getting our luggage, strolled to our waiting limo for the drive to Mandy’s. 30mins later and we were in Mandy’s apartment near the Bangaroo development site. She has magnificent views over the western side of the harbour, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Mandy had to leave us and go to work, so we relaxed for a while before heading out to find something nice for lunch. We walked up and had a look at a few nearby cafes, and then Deb remembered that The Langham Hotel, was just a short walk away and that we really should go and have a look at it. As we walked in Deb mentioned that she thought they did “High Tea” and how nice that would be.  We had a look at the menu and Deb thought it was a bit extravagant and began to walk out. It didn’t take much for me to have her turned around and making a bee-line for the Maitre’d  station.

We had a very relaxing indulgent afternoon, me with my black Darjeeling and Deb with a Jasmin Tea, served up in some of Mr Wedgewood’s finest china. And the savoury and sweet delights brought out for us were a perfect match. Deb’s inner Princess was out and having a Grand time. 🙂

I left Deb at about 5:40 to go and have a drink and dinner with Patrick (and it just happens to be St Patricks Day). I met him at a small pub behind the Mandarin Oriental. We had a few drinks and just sat and talked, something I don’t get to do very often, and I loved it.    Eventually Pat said he had to go, so I reluctantly agreed and he made his way to the bus, and I walked back to Mandy’s.  It was sooo good to have some time with him.

Anyway, I forgot to mention that Deb had brought a bottle of Moet over with her to share with Mandy/ The girls had Salmon and salad for dinner washed down with the Moet, tough for some.   I was surprised to get a drop of bubbles in a glass to have with them when I got back.

A nice way to finish our first day.

Day 2 18^th March 2015     Sydney to Santiago via Auckland.

We used Mandy’s car service to drop us at the airport. It’s nice to be picked up in a stylish Mercedes, and even better when the driver has put a fresh coffee in the cup holder in the back for you. 🙂

 

We got to the airport in good time (We also got the drivers card for next time ) and got through all the formalities pretty easily.   Although I was asked to go through the “Full Body” scan machine, now that’s a whiz-bang bit of gear.  🙂

We had breakfast in the Qantas lounge and boarded our flight at about 9am.  We are flying on a code share with LAN, via Auckland to Santiago. The plane was an older Airbus that creaked and groaned with every bump on the ground and in the air, but it did the job! I tried to watch the movie Interstellar during the flight, but the flight proved to be about 30 mins too short for the movie. So after our 90 minute layover in Auckland I finished off the movie at the start of our final leg. I had heard that the final half hour had a lot of people scratching their heads, so I was really looking forward to the ending, but it all made very simple sense to me, now is that more of a comment on me rather than them?? 😛

Deb got about 6 hours sleep between Auckland and Santiago, I got about 2 ½ if I was lucky. It was a 10 1/2hr flight so Deb slept alot of it and read and I managed to get in another 3 movies

Customs and Immigration in Chile had changed since our last trip here. For a start they now have a “Reciprocal” entrance fee of US$117 each, which was a bit of a surprise!!! Because we didn’t pay this fee before we got to immigration we had to go back, pay it and get back on the end of the line for immigration!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!!

Got through there then had all our bags x-rayed going through customs, I don’t know what they were looking for, but apparently we weren’t carrying any!! Lol

As we came out through the final gates it was nice to see a driver standing there with a name board with our name on it. We both prefer to have an organised pick-up after long flights, rather than fight through the scrabble for taxi’s. Our hotel is about 25mins from the airport.

Really enjoyed the drive into the hotel, the guy who picked us up was very informative, while it is a poorer city than ours in Australia it has alot  more vibrancy.  Makes you feel alive.  Deb was impressed to find out that the President of Chile is a woman, Michelle Bachelet.

We arrived at the hotel to find it located about a block from the foot of the hill on which the San Cristobal statue is. Our driver and the hotel manager described Bellavista, the area the hotel is in as being very Bohemian and the Gastronomic Centre of Santiago. And that sounds just like our sort of place.

After freshening up, we headed out to have a walk around the area and find a bit of lunch. Our porter recommended a couple of local restaurants that we should try, the first was a local authentic Chilean cafe/restaurant and the other was the only place in the area that offered cuisine from Easter Island.

We lunched at Galendo, surrounded by locals. We had Pastel de Choclo  (a mashed corn topped spiced mince pie, very similar to a Chilean dish I cook at home) and Costillar Ahumado con Agregado  (Smoked pork rib).   It was all very delicious and the hospitality staff here are delightful.

After lunch we walked it off a bit, doing a lap of the block. We found a University , the local Uni Bar called Harvard! And it looked like drinking degrees were the order of the day. There are lots of cafe’s and small shops through out the area and they are packed with people enjoying themselves.

We eventually got back to our hotel and decided to have a relaxing afternoon and evening so we can have a good look around town tomorrow.

Our relaxing turned into a 2 and 3 hr sleep respectively. I think we are both a bit tired from the trip and picking up about 14hrs. At 7.30pm we knew we had to get up.

We went to a restaurant called Peumayen, we both loved it’s self descriptor, “Cuisine inspired by Native People”. They specialise in the foods of the people native to Chile, including Easter Island.  The restaurant had an amazing old world ambiance and a really interesting menu. We finished up having a tasting plate for entre.  Before that came out we were served a board of local breads from the north to the south of Chile. There were about 7 all up and all were delicious, many of them had potato as a core ingredient. Our entre consisted of small portions of Rabbit, Sweet Breads, Pulled Chicken, Seaweed and snails finished off with a Beef Tongue Pate.   All we could say was YUMMMM,

For main, Deb had slow cooked Pork with algarrobina and beans and I had Calmella (Horse) with vegetables and potatoes. Both were amazing. Mine was served up on what I can only call a “Big chunk of rock”. From the time we sat down we were given small morsels of palette cleansing or palette enlivening concoctions. The whole experience reminded us both of a meal we had at Orana in Adelaide, really unusual for combinations that just worked!!

We had a bit of a laugh at the end of our meal, the waiter had all sorts of problems getting a good connection for his portable EFTPOS unit, at one stage we suggested he climb a tree to get better reception . If you’re ever in Santiago we can highly recommend this establishment.

I did suggest to Deb that we go for a bit of a canter after dinner, but she said I was just horsing around 😛

Its now 10:30pm and time to get our body clocks adjusted to local time.

Deb just came running out of our bathroom and grabbed her phone, there is a large worm swimming in our toilet and she is getting a picture! Bathroom trips might be a bit quicker than normal! 🙂

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