Review of Sky Airline flight from Valdivia to Santiago in Economy

Stormy weather in the news - and in my heart - these days.

After more than 20 years living in Valdivia - working as a secondary school teacher and living a quiet life with my mother, our cats and our dogs - my world was suddenly turned upside down by my mother's religious homophobic intolerance, to the point that I decided to cut ties with everything, to quit my job, and to go and settle down in the town where I spent the first seven years of my life, Pelequén, some 115km south of Santiago.

One year after our crisis, my mother and I are in good terms again, and I came to Valdivia to stay with her some days, mainly to pack and ship some belongings and to check on my cat, Rucio (the other three are hers) and my dog, Klaus, who will be moving with me as soon as I have an adequate place for them.

Now it's time to bid farewell to Valdivia and little Pichoy airport (ZAL) one last time. Who knows when I'll come back.

at zal

ZAL has the advantage of being located just a few meters from a main road.

You can use public transport to get from Valdivia to ZAL for as little as 1000 CLP (1.2 USD)

The access to ZAL is lined with trees that bloom beautifully in springtime.

I'm not the only one using public transport, you see?

Just be warned that the weather in this area is rainy most of the year. I was lucky I didn't get a free shower today.

Please don't feed wild animals in this airport. I'm wondering what wild animals they are talking about. I have never seen any around here. In the picture you see three examples of Chilean wild animals - a culpeo fox (which stays away from inhabited areas like the area around ZAL); a pudú (the world's smallest deer, an endagered species that avoids human contact and can be found only in isolated places); and what seems to be a huiña cat. Hm. That one could be found around here, I guess, but I never seen one.

When I enter the main hall, people are already queuing to go through the security checkpoint.

For some unknown reason, ZAL is administered by the government. This means poor maintenance and a terrible lack of services. There used to be a restaurant up there. Not anymore. Don't go hungry at ZAL. You'll have to make do with some cookies.

You can see JetSmat's small counter in the corner. They stopped flying to Valdivia, except in high season. Weird, since they are flying to other less frequent tourist destinations even in low season. In fact, I'll be flying with them to Foz de Iguaçu in September!

Goodbye, little ZAL, aka Pichoy airport. Thanks for being there whenever I needed FR points to achieve silver status. ?

A familiar face! Johnathan - the guy who bought my house in Valdivia - is working his shift at the security checkpoint today. We became good friends. People usually become friends when they have a common enemy. Ours was the realtor. ?

I make it to the busy waiting room after getting my backpack searched. I was carrying a bottle of insecticidal soap. Long story.

I wonder… Oh! CC-AZR is about to land!

And here he is. Is it me, or did somebody really take the time to give it a polish??

You bet I'll miss the rainy, windy weather of Valdivia. But not very often.

the flight

I didn't want to pay for a window seat this time, It was pointless since the weather is cloudy in winter and I could see nothing outside. I was randomly assigned to seat 17B. However, I'm happy to see that the door is about to be closed and nobody has yet taken the seat on my left…

…or the seat on my right. And this means…

…WINDOW SEAT!  ?

One for Tinder ?

You're right. I'm not very successful on Tinder. ?

Pushback right on time. Even being an LCC, Sky is very punctual.

We taxi next to this area that has been cleaned of vegetation. When I saw this area on my inbound flight I thought "Great! They must be going to enlarge the terminal building at last."

However, Johnathan told me that it's just new parking spaces that are being built here. There are plans to enlarge the terminal, but nobody knows when that will happen.

We sit at the tip of the runway for a minute.

The nothofagus trees are still dormant. They used to make up the native forest that covered this land completely. You can't find primary native forest in the area anymore.

And up we go. If there's a pilot among you, I'd really appreciate it if you could tell me why some flights take off so steeply. Is it because of the wind?

The thing is, we dart to the clouds and in seconds we are flying above them.

But there's a lot of turbulence. So much so, that the BOB service gets cancelled. And I was so hungry! Whatever. We are shaken from side to side and up and down for several minutes. Everyone is "en misa" ("in the Catholic mass" = very quiet)

The whole road looks like this. Down there, it's raining cats and dogs. there will be serious flooding in the next days in central Chile, something we had not seen in decades.

Without anything to see - or to eat - I just close my eyes, recline my seat, and take a little nap.

When I wake up, the sun is setting behind the Cordillera de la Costa and the sea.

Descending over Santiago from the south takes a long time…

…because we have to make a U-turn. The city stretches towards the mountains.

When people look at a map, they think that we spend our time going up and down hills here, Nope. The valleys are flat, with some isolated hills sprinkled here and there, called "cerros islas" (island hills). Some have been turned into nice parks, like Cerro Santa Lucía and Cerro San Cristóbal.

And here we are. On time.

wheelchair problems again

I walked a lot last summer, and I hurt my left heel. I'm much better now, but you walk a lot at SCL since they opened Terminal 2, so in my last arrival at SCL I decided to reserve a wheelchair when I purchased my ticket with Sky. However, the wheelchair was not waiting for me when I arrived.

The FA in that flight told me that I didn't need to reserve a wheelchair during the purchase process, because the very FAs could ask for one on arrival. That's why I approached a FA when I boarded this flight and told her that I would need a wheelchair. She replied "We have nothing to do with wheelchairs. You have to ask THE GROUND STAFF." I felt homicidal for a second, and then went to sit in silence.

But then I remembered that SCL had been announcing improvements to their service for people with reduced mobility after lots of complaints on the issue. So I checked the airport's website and found that you can reserve a wheelchair with them.

The only problem is that this must be done at least 48 hours in advance, and here I was tapping on my cellphone as quickly as possible before I had to go to plane mode.

But I did it anyway, just in case.

Barely five minutes later - as I was going to set my cellphone to plane mode - I get a message from SCL telling me that my request was accepted and a wheelchair would be waiting for me at the plane's door.

Weeee!!! I couldn't be happier.

However… at least three people leave in wheelchairs while I am left there, standing on my own while the plane is being cleaned for the next flight.

I start to feel a little rain cloud forming over my head, but I can see that some ladies are checking their cellphones. Yes! They are wondering what happened to my wheelchair. In the end, one of them tells me that there must have been some confusion because of how late I had made the request, but that she can take me. We walk to where the wheelchairs are (just some meters) and we set off.

Actually, I feel a little sorry for her, so short, pushing this fat guy in a wheelchair.

I try to make some small talk, but the poor girl is a bit short of breath.

Panting, actually. Good time for a selfie. ?

I must confess that I'm getting used to this. The world looks bigger form here.

She takes me along the outside of Terminal 1…

…and I ask her to drop me outside door 6. I can walk on my own from here to the bis station, where a Centropuerto bus will take me to Pajaritos metro station, which is my advice if you're not taking a transfer.

And that was it! The beginning of a new stage.

Where am I going to live now?

Mini tourism bonus - Pelequén

Pelequén is the hometown of my family on my father's side. My dad's father settled down, bought a house and raised a family here when he migrated from Spain in the early 20th century. I still have a letter that he sent to his mother in 1911, telling her that he had found a job and had food and a place to live. He was 17 years old. Sadly, even though he made quite a fortune - squandered by his children - he never saw his family again. I read some of his mother's letters. She missed him so much.

Pelequén is in the so-called Central Valley. It's a beautiful place in springtime, though summers are getting warmer and warmer. But it's still enjoyable most of the time.

I love riding my bike from town to town when I have to do an errand or just for fun, listening to the birds, watching the mountains and the fields. It's really lovely.

Being here has been a healing experience.

Thanks for reading! ?