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| The start of a very long and mediocre dinner service |
The Toronto departure was late; if the departure board was
accurate, we were the last flight to leave the gate, the last flight to get
de-iced and, very slowly, the last plane to taxi and take off. They served us what I can only generously
call a middling dinner, and it wasn’t fast in coming—I got through Hitchcock
and Killing Them Softly on the previous leg and now, 157 minutes into Zero Dark
30 before dessert (passed on both but SS
went full hog) then, by 2 a.m. Toronto time, or more less my regular Vancouver
bedtime, we both called it quits. ZD30:
Not exactly uplifting holiday entertainment; Act 1: Torture; Act 2: Politics
(so, really, more torture); Act 3: Shot in night vision, visual torture. Sweet dreams!
The hard, long, flat AC pods are about as good as anything going for a
bit of shut eye and despite the turbulence got something approaching six hours
sleep.
There was a hot breakfast, omelette or pancakes, but we both
just had fresh fruit, yogurt and coffee.
Or something resembling coffee.
 |
| Mountain views flying into Santiago, Chile |
The arrival into Santiago, (direct flight to Buenos Aires,
just not non-stop,) was pleasant. Scrubby mountains with agricultural plateaus
off of riverbeds. Reminded me of
Pakistan (where, when we wanted to fly to Hunza, had to wait for the clouds to
clear because the Fokker’s didn’t fly as high as the Himalayas. Worse, in the air, when the clouds roll in,
you’re flying on a prayer. In our case,
a detour to the Swat Valley. It’s no
wonder I’m indifferent to the actual travel part of the travel.)
Everyone disembarked. In the Santiago airport, without any instruction, we wandered aimlessly
in the crowd until we intuited that we had to walk through security, go one
flight up to international arrivals, walk back towards our disembarkation gate,
go down one flight, and board the exact same plane we’d been on for the
previous 10 hours. Joseph Heller
couldn’t have written it more ironic.
Oh, but it was sunny, some haze, but sunny and warm and
lovely. We took our sweaters off and
finally felt like we’d arrived. But we hadn’t. Buenos Aires was still two hours
away.
 |
| Actually good. Like actually. |
The Andes rise up immediately as you leave Santiago, but it
takes only about 15 minutes to pass over and hit the Alberta of South America,
Argentina, cattle, coffee, more cattle.
They served us probably the best meal of the lot; a fresh grilled
vegetable salad with prosciutto and boconcini.
Real flavours!
 |
| The Andes as you fly east from Santiago to Buenos Aires |
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