Not sure if this will be a flight report…
…or a walking report. ?
Whatever. Welcome to the second part of my BBA - PMC - SCL flight.
Stopover
Where was I?
Oh, yes. I'm comfortably seated in 24F at the moment, while fuel is being loaded…
…and passengers to PMC have disembarked and are being replaced by new ones going to SCL.
Well, "comfortably" is a bit subjective. In reality, I'm starting to feel a bit cramped and tired after an hour of contorting in order to register as many Patagonian lakes, glaciers and fjords as my cellphone camera can take.
Is it the legroom? I doubt it. As you see here, it's the usual legroom. I can move my feet freely. My knees are not pushing against the seat in front of me.
So, is it that I'm getting old? Maybe, because I doubt I'm getting any taller! This experience will have consequences, as you will see in my next report. The impossible, the UNTHINKABLE will happen.
BTW, I had to defend my window seat twice today! The first time was as we boarded. A lady was sitting in it. I kindly requested it and she and her husband said that I was wrong, that 24F was the aisle seat. I just remained silent until they double checked the pictogram on the overhead bin and realized they had it wrong. Then during this stopover, one of the FAs comes and asks to see my BP because a passenger was claiming my seat as his. I had to open my Sky Airline app and it was OK. Hah! Lucky for them. Only over my dead body would they get my window seat!
We're almost ready to continue our flight after the FAs ask the passengers three or four times to check their BPs because someone with destination PMC has not disembarked. They even ask in English, just in case! No idea if they eventually solved it, or if we kept flying with a stowaway onboard!
Oh! I almost forgot. From what I've read in some recent reports, these are becoming a valuable commodity these days, with some airlines doing away with them just when the weather is getting warmer around the world. I never thought I'd come to appreciate a nozzle this much!
The Flight
Some additional information about this flight.
We start the second leg of this flight - and third of this trip - …
…at 5:08 p.m.
Santiago is north of Puerto Montt…
…but we take off southwards…
…and bank steeply to the right, so I have a great view of PMC now.
Of course, the mesmerizing views of the Los Lagos region start their parade…
…though this time an unwelcome mist is spoiling the show.
I guess it has something to do…
…with the numerous wildfires affecting central Chile these days.
We leave the beautiful cone of Osorno volcano behind…
…to enjoy the view of the string of lakes of this area, beginning with Puyehue and Rupanco…
…lake Ranco and its little companion, lake Maihue…
…lake Riñihue and Mocho volcano, which are just east of my hometown. Mocho is very special, since its upper half seems to have blown up in some time immemorial. A new cone started to grow in the middle, surrounded by the snow that gathered in the cavity around it. I find it breathtaking.
North of Riñihue is lake Panguipulli. Panguipulli looks like a chicken footstep.
North of Panguipulli comes lake Calafquén, which sort of bends around little lake Pullingue.
And last for today, lake Villarrica and the volcano of the same name, which has been misbehaving as of late.
From here on, the mist is too thick for acceptable photos. Besides, the BOB service has begun. High time! We are less than an hour from Santiago now, and I'm starving! There was no BOB service on the way from Coyhaique to Puerto Montt.
The tray table passes the inspection, though a nice scrub with a disinfectant towel is always advisable.
You can check the menu on its digital format…
…or in the old fashioned, printed format. What I see here is disappointing. I have been proclaiming the wonders of Sky Airline to the world… for this? This is a simplified version of what their BOB used to be.
Even my favorite sandwich is gone! And Sky's prices fly higher than their planes! Three dollars for a tea? TEA, for God's sake!
The mechada sandwich that I used to order on Sky was large, thick, filled with tomato, avocado, beef… It was wonderful! It's not there anymore. Let's go for the second best option - mozzarella, tomato, pesto.
For the boozers among you, beer and sparkling wine is available.
When I eventually get my sandwich… it's smaller than my cellphone!! ? At least, the FA was honest and reminded me that the amount I was paying for the sandwich and the coffee was the same price of a Combo Full (see above), so I could choose to a sweet or salty snack, too. I chose the nuts.
Let's see. This mini sandwich contains tomato, pesto and mozzarella. What does it look inside?
It looks like ? !!
To say the truth, it tasted good. And the best thing, it was warm. Or is it that - as we say in Spanish - el hambre es el mejor condimento?
Lesson learned. No more BOB in Chile. It's throwing your money away. Next time I'll take my own snacks with me for the road. Period.
Not a hint of snow on the mountain tops around Santiago. I remember when - as a child - I heard about the nieves eternas, an expression that was used frequently to refer to the snow that always covered the Andes, which looked white the year round. A view like this was unthinkable.
Landing is always north to south at SCL, but we fly by the airport on the west today, for a change, so I can see much of it when we bank steeply to the right.
Then we make a U-turn around the area of Lampa…
…and descend…
…into SCL.
And that would be the end of this trip… or so I thought. Actually, I SCL has a little surprise for me. We are being dropped at…
pier C of T2, the international terminal!
walk until you drop
I disembark happily…
…unaware that I'll have to walk…
…about 1km…
…all the way to the domestic terminal.
I stop a while to check out the view. I'm in pain…
…because I hurt my left heel from walking so much around Coyhaique. I can hardly place my left heel on the ground, so I'm limping my way along SCL's corridors.
Every time I think we have come to the end of the road…
…a new corridor begins ???…
…and yet another… and this never ends!!! This guy on the left is not in the mood for walking, either.
He keeps up with the group of passengers from our flight for a moment…
…but soon he gives up.
As we go on the moving walkway, I crack when he turns to me, chuckles, and tells me 'Uuuuta, nos hubiéramos venido a pata de Puerto Montt! (F***ck, we'd better walked from Puerto Montt!) I couldn't agree more.
For some reason I think we are coming to the end of the corridors when we turn right.
But I'm not even close!!
The passengers from my flight have all disappeared by now, and passengers from other flights start to overtake me. I find this lady having a snack. I'm sure she gave up walking! I wonder if I will come across…
…the mummified dead bodies of other walkers who didn't make it??
I find gates like these by dozens. And they keep coming and coming, more an more of them, and I can't limp anymore. By now I'm dragging my feet.
And then… these stairs! I know them! These are the stairs leading from the domestic boarding room to baggage claim! Which means that…
…I have to keep walking!! ???
But it's much less now. I finally see the most beautiful words in the world: SALIDA / EXIT
I could fall on my knees and kiss the ground when I finally make it to the small station where you take the buses to Santiago.
I took this from my next report to show you how the route I had to follow from our jetbridge in pier C to the bus station. According to Google Maps, a bit more than 1.5km. One mile! I disembarked a 6:56 p.m. and got to the bus station at 7:25. half an hour. Of course, I was limping. But anyway…
…I strongly advice you come to SCL with plenty of time if you ever come around here. Distances are long.
Luckily, I have a week before me in which I'll be able to recover from my painful heel (which didn't happen and I had to visit the doctor and now I'm wearing gel heel pads) at auntie Cecilia's place.
Inflation took the ticket price to 2000 CLP already. (2.5 USD) This country is crumbling!!
Thanks for reading! Never invite me for a walk. Thanks
It is too bad that SKY have reduced the BOB options, but they still have some fresh options at least. I've seen this happen with several carriers, and the reason is generally that there isn't enough demand for a large variety or options and there ends up being wasted food. I get that, but it would be nice if carriers with BOB would offer a pre-order option for hot items, that way those of us that like to order hot food can do so and there is no waste! This is the case for several Asian LCCs and would be nice to have here in the Western Hemisphere. Alaska are the only ones that have this option in the Americas as far as I know. Iberia (and soon Lufthansa) also have the option to pre-order in Europe, but it's only cold options. Still it's good to have the capability of pre-ordering to make sure to get what you want, but also have BOB options on board because often times people don't know ahead of time if they'll be hungry (except if a flight is right during a meal time). So really the ideal scenario is a mix of pre-order and buy-on-board.
Wow! What a difference with the very white mountains I saw just a few months ago there! We also have a similar term in French "neiges eternelles" and sadly it's a term that will no longer have any meaning as it keeps getting warmer and warmer. I'm sure it's the same in Chile, but many ski stations in Europe, that aren't at the very highest altitudes, have been having to close down for the past few years (and many permanently) due to lack of snow below the highest peaks in the Alps and Pyrenees.
Madness! It's so far. I figured all the SKY planes I saw there were INTL flights, but maybe not?
That is a crazy long and nonsensical walk to get to transportation landside. I guess you can't go out from the International Arrivals, which would be closer because then you'd have to go through immigration, which can't happen on a National flight. How crazy that SKY didn't have enough room in the Domestic Terminal--you'd think there'd be plenty of space since the opening of the INTL terminal!
Thanks for sharing!
That's exactly what I thought when I was there, that they could have let us out through international arrivals, but there was this problem of how would we skip all the controls. I wonder if they could provide an alternative exit? I'll point this out to them. Hahah. Like they care ?
Esa caminata para salir de scl está demente!