Its my party - SFO-JFK-LIM-SCL-IPC-SCL-MAD-TLS-LGW//LHR-BUD-LHR-JFK-SFO
 

If you live long enough you get to have a 60th Birthday. Having met the first criteria of not dying first mine is arriving. Having had prior experiences that led me to believe it might never arrive I decide to explore places that only a few years ago (before FlyerTalk) it seemed that I’d never have the opportunity to see. The places happen to also be on my list of places to visit prior to dying.

It has been a number of years since I posted a trip report here on FT but the other day dhammer53 posted a link to one of my old ones so I thought that it might just be appropriate to take some time and write another one once again. Having a 3 week trip am sure that there will be plenty of time to bore each and every one of you with the musings of an old man.

We, my better half and I, have booked a pair of oneworld awards that will take us to SCL-IPC-TLS-BUD and home. 140kAAdvantage points each in C – not a bad bargain IMO. And in Santiago and Budapest we will be exchanging *points for our hotel stays. No *woods on Rapa Nui or in Toulouse but all in all it seems like what the neighbors would call a “trip of a lifetime” and what I would call my big trip for 2007 or even the big trip for this half of 2007. All in all there are some good things to say about always being on vacation and with FlyerTalk added into the equation it ensures that one doesn’t have to be limited to one trip of a lifetime even though philosophically speaking each trip is essentially once in a lifetime and really can’t be duplicated again. Read along and digress with me as much as it seems that I will.

Statistically speaking we will fly 11 segments on this trip for a total of 27,834 miles and I’ll add one new airline flown, LAN Chile, and 5 new airports, LIM, SCL, IPC, TLS and BUD to my existing numbers for new totals of 44 airlines and 70 airports. Also will visit two new countries, Chile and Hungary, for a new total of 33 countries visited. In addition we will participate in another FT DO in Toulouse which includes a visit to an Airbus facility and a tour of the new 380 along with some technology that isn’t quite as old as I, that is to say the Concorde and a dinner in a castle.

And the best statistic will be that sometime during this thread I will probably do my 3000th post on FlyerTalk. For some reason I have a feeling that it will happen 7 years, 2 months and 20 days after my join date. :)

Prelude - Why go on such a trip without doing another just before?
As some you might know/remember my son was injured in Iraq back in December and has been recuperating at Scofield Barracks in Hawaii. The Mission The ways things work out the best time for me to go see how his recovery is coming along is April 4-10. Means I arrive back at SFO just shy 5 hours prior to leaving for SCL. Sure there have been others who regularly fly KOA-LAX-SFO-JKF-LIM-SCL or something similar so what the heck it sounds doable. 10581 miles, two redeyes (one in coach) in 32 hours.

If I had knew about this unplanned visit to Hawaii prior to booking the b’day trip I would have included it in for no additional mileage. As it is by redepositing the first award and attempting to include Hawaii into the trip would ensure that some segments might not have availability on the dates that I now want and hence not be bookable. IPC will be one segment for sure. So I book an open-jaw economy award on AA for 35K SFO-HNL//KOA-LAX-SFO and my son and I get Aloha Airline tickets for $24 each way from Oahu to the big island, one for me and a return for him as he will have be returning to Oahu and continuing his recuperation and physical therapy at Trippler Medical Center.

SFO-HNL - AA39 – Seat 20A exit row - 763. It has been awhile since I’ve flown this far in coach but lots of others do it and don’t seem to get serious cases of psychotic behavior, pneumonia, paranoia, apoplexy or the most important of all impotence and IRRC having flown many miles in coach during my non-elite status years none of those afflicted me. All-in all I survive. For those who were interested they showed a movie which I did not watch and they offered some buy on board meal stuff which I did not purchase. Just did what I normally do on flights, sleep and read some sci-fi.

Spend the first two nights out in the western part of Oahu at the Makaha Resort in Waianae. Have been to Wakiki and the north of the island decided to visit a different part of the island. Also from Scofield Barracks it is about the same amount of travel time to either the north or Wakiki or Waianae

The Makaho is now owned by Fairmont resorts but was 2 or 3 reincarnations ago a Sheraton. I manage to get it for $67 a night on PL. This is one laid back place. They have a top notch golf course attached to the hotel but I do not consider myself old enough to play golf yet so am not interested. For those who also are interested in some night life it just isn’t going to happen. But if you are interested in nearby nearly deserted beaches that according to my son just might be some of the best on Oahu than the MR is the place.

What would be a magic111 report without some tastes? And the first shall be a taste of Hawaii. Hawaiian drive-ins abound in the western part of Oahu. For myself what I desire is to eat what the locals eat and for the Hawaiians it seems something like Chicken Katsu, a type of breaded fried chicken, along with two scoops of rice and two scoops of macaroni salad is one of the staples. Another day might be Loco Moco, a culinary delight of rice, gravy and a couple of fried eggs on top. For some reason I got to calling it Loco Mojo. Depending on the location most dishes run about $5-7. YMMV

HNL-Hilo – Aloha 238 – Open seating ala southwest - The flight is less than an hour and I will only get a short nap. The flight attendants take care of service on this very short flight by only offering coke or diet coke already poured. Take it or leave it. When she is returning from the rear she offers me a second one so as not to have to carry it all the way up to the front galley as it appears that some pax decided to leave it.

Upon arrival at the open-air Hilo airport we get a rental car and drive the mile or so from the airport to the city. Our hotel, the Seaside, seems to be directly under the flight path of the runway that is being used and we watch planes land only a couple of hundred feet above our heads. This is fine until the next morning when the prevailing winds change and flights take off directly above the hotel ensuring that we do not sleep in.

The Seaside is located across the road from a lagoon that is populated with some locals who consider it the local swimming hole. In the lobby are two marks, one at about waist level and the other at eye level marking where tsunamis have reached in the past. Our rooms are on the first floor at lobby level and thankfully it is not necessary for a 3rd mark to be placed during our stay.

The highlight of Hilo seems to be located about a half a mile away The most photographed banyan tree in%2

Congrats, Jim ... 60???

Do tell. ;)

Excellent report so far, magic111! I look forward to the rest of it over the next few weeks!:)

Early day at the beach? :D Back yet?

oops seems like my edit didn't go through and my timed internet connection ended before I could check it. I have been on Rapa Nui and even though there are internet cafes it seems that there was so much to see and do that we just did not go to the internet cafe during open hours.

Am now back in Santiago for the night and heading for Toulouse tomorrow. The final post on this series is still about 3 days behind.

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The highlight of Hilo seems to be located about a half a mile away The most photographed banyan tree in the world, the one planted by Babe Ruth in 1932. Sure enough the next morning while we are drinking some coffee underneath the tree reading the sign a busload of Japanese tourists alight and cumulatively take several hundred photos ensuring that the record will be maintained for at least another day.

After the coffee we begin the drive from Hilo to Waikiola via Volcano. We both decide not to stop at the national park at the volcano but to continue along the road to the black sand beach at Painu where it is nesting season for the hawk-beak turtles. We easily see a dozen or so turtles up to about 3 feet long on the rocks or in ankle deep water and walk out to get a closer look. To be honest it’s the largest congregation of turtles that my eyes have seen in the wild.

From the black sand beach we turn north and drive for a couple of hours to Waikiola crossing a number of recent lava flows from the last century. It is sunny along the coast but cloudy to the east and the mountains. The weather will stay the same during the rest of the stay ensuring that we’ll not see the summits of Mauna Lei or Mauna Kea this visit.

I have booked two nights in a two bedroom condo at the HGVC at Waikiola for the open-season rate of $110 per night. Many here on FT don’t believe that owning a timeshare is a good investment but when I’m able to get places like this for prices like this it just seems like a good deal. YMMV

We lounge around a spending most of our time swimming in the Kanaemoohuu Bay. Low impact exercise is my son’s level for therapy at this time so he swims several hundred yards across the bay and back.

Sunday I take my son to KOA as he only had a 3 day pass and needs to be back for another appointment with his therapist on Monday morning. Watching him walk off with a slight limp and remembering that only a couple of months ago he was laid up and on morphine I wonder if he is going to improve to such an extent that he will be sent back to his unit in Iraq prior to the units return. Seems his brigade is one that has had their tour lengthened by the lame duck.

KOA-LAX AA31– Seat 10F exit row 757. Another day lounging around and suddenly it is time to head for the airport and my red-eye flight home. OK I do remember the movie was Charlotte’s Web as they showed the highlights early in the flight prior to my going to sleep. Don’t remember if they had “buy on” board as I was asleep prior to service.

One good thing about seat 10F is there is no seat 9F in front just the emergency exit door. Stick my legs straight out and ponder for a moment if one day I really will have to open the emergency exit door. It appears that much like wondering about the 3rd tsunami mark wondering about opening EE doors on this flight will not happen but maybe too much wondering causes something else.

For the 2nd trip in a row, last month on a flight from ORD-NRT, I’m on a flight that has a request on the loudspeakers for a doctor on board. OK this wakes me up because the last time I heard this request we diverted to ANC. Mentally reviewing geography in my head it appears that unless we have to return the California coast would be the nearest destination. According to my watch we are about 90 minutes out from KOA and a return will put a serious crimp in my b’day trip which is suppose to begin 4 hours and 40 minutes after my arrival at SFO. Already we have had some serious changes on how my luggage exchange is going to take place as my better half managed to run into a deer the day before while traveling between Sonoma and Petaluma.

One of the aggravating things about running into a deer with a vehicle is that the vehicle gets all smashed up and the deer just runs off as if seemingly nothing happens. Obviously what has happened to the deer is just going to happen sometime later. It is another digression but my better half claims that this is the first of 3 bad things that will happen for her on my b’day trip. #2 and #3 will come a day or two later.

Back to the AA 31 where in the midst of my worry once again sleep overtakes me. Wake up as the plane begins its descent and shortly the pilot comes on and announces that we have begun our descent to LAX. Hooray. The purser comes on the speaker and requests that we all stay seated as paramedics will be boarding for the medical emergency and will than let the crew know when we will be allowed to deplane.

I open my shade and look out the window and all that can be seen is moonlight reflecting off the ocean and what appears to one of the Santa Catalina Islands. In all my years of flying and I recall at least 50 or so flights to/from/through LAX never has the plane taken off or landed to the east. Wonder if this is because of the medical emergency. This being FT someone who hasn’t gotten bored silly by reading this far will hopefully know the answer because when we were on the ground I could see the lights for flights that were landing normally to the west.

Eventually they get the sick guy off and we deplane. The guy walked off under his own power and generally appeared to have nothing more than a big hangover, probably complained hoping that he would get an upgrade. Hehehe, hasta la vista baby.

Deplane and head up for the Admirals Club. Seems that even though I’m on a domestic flight in coach later today will have an international departure on a oneworld carrier and that means potentially Flagship Lounge. No problem as soon as the dragon understands what I’m saying my admittance begins and the odyssey of getting a boarding pass begins.

Hand my passport and itinerary over to the angel in the lounge and while she is getting my boarding passes for me I head off to take a shower. Return and she says that she was unable to get my onward boarding pass from JFK but hands me my SFO-JFK. I put it away without checking it. Must not be fully refreshed from the shower as one of the things learned in FT101 says double check ones documents.

A quick flight up to SFO where the only thing worthwhile noting is that upon landing the pilot tries to put the undercarriage through the bottom of the fuselage. Hits so hard my back seems to be out of place. Maybe I should begin a compensation email. Quickly hop out to the BART station and boogie on over to Oakland where my daughter meets me and I exchange my small Hawaiian luggage for my larger already packed 3-week trip luggage. Back on BART to SFO remembering that this trip is necessary because Jerrie whacked Bambi’s mother the day before, doesn’t have a reliably drivable vehicle and has to take the Sonoma County Airporter to SFO from home.

Get to check in and decide that my luggage is too expanded for the overheads and will check it in. Get to the agent and find that the boarding pass that I had gotten at the LAX FL is actually my wife’s. We have a laugh about the fact that “to err is human to really muck up you need a computer.” She gives me my new boarding pass for JFK-SFO, claims she can not get the onward passes and without once again checking it I head for the TSA and the admirals’ club airside.

After clearing the security carnival and just before entering the club I pull out the pass and look to see that once again it is Jerrie’s!! Now everyone who is reading this and has some dependency on the security to make everything hunky-dory is probably in a conniption over the fact that even though more than a trillion dollars has been spent the magic111 terrorist has managed to slip through the screening process without a valid boarding pass. What a waste. As my good buddy would say, “talk to the hand.”

Get in to the sanctuary of the club prior to the potential shutting down of the airport and once again go through the process of getting a boarding pass. Lo and behold by entering magic111 correctly and not entering Jerrie the little old printer prints out all my boarding passes all the way to SCL. “To err is human to really muck up requires a computer” and I can remember when we got our first phone and B&W TV as a child.

SFO-JFK - AA000 – Seat 2A – 763 Wake up and the nuts are already out. Doesn’t everyone fall asleep while the plane is taxied around the airport? OK maybe having only slept a couple of hours the night before on the flight from KOA. The movie according to Jerrie was the Pursuit of Happiness starring Will Smith.

“The View From the Top” menu which would probably get a few votes in the “water” photo contest is a choice of Miso Chicken accompanied by a Tomato-Basil Potato Salad or a Warm Roast Beef Sandwich topped with Provolone Cheese served with a Salad and Dressing of your choice. Yummy. Both come with a Bread Basket and Chocolate Ice Cream with Blackberry Sauce topped with White Chocolate and Raspberry Brulee Squares which magic skips :o and I take the Fruit and Cheese. Upon arrival the freshly baked on board chocolate chip cookies are offered.

Despite the fact the cabin heating system doesn’t work properly and it is freezing on the plane the flight is uneventful.

JFK-LIM-SCL – LA00 – Seat2A – 767 – Somehow transferring from terminal 8/9 to terminal 4 we miss the fact that the Lan Chile lounge is not located airside. By the time we get to the gate and inquire where it is we have only about 25 minutes until boarding begins. We choose not to go back through the trillion dollar security system. Also points out that perhaps not knowing where the lounge was I should have asked on FT.

I also ask the young lady at the gate on whether or not our luggage has made the transfer from AA and I learn a valuable lesson about the Chilean psyche. Ok my better half is one-quarter Chilean and she never tells a white lie. She just tells me something that she believes that will make me feel good hearing. Our luggage will arrive in Santiago at our hotel about 30 hours after we do. All in all the GA made the right decision as she has no idea if I’m one of those whiners that will go ballistic upon hearing such (what do they call it – devastating, nightmare, disastrous, etc. etc.) news. People it is only baggage and replaceable. In fact we get to have an adventure shopping for needed items in a Santiago department store. Everything important is in our carryons anyway. YMMV

Lan Chile is in the midst of refurbishing the interiors of the aircraft. For this flight we get one that has not been refurbished yet. Seats are much like business in an AA 777 except the seat controls are power operated. PTV comes out of the center armrest and there are several choices on movies but not OD. Having slept for sometime coming across the country I’m not sleeping yet and during the meal service watch a movie. “Night at the Museum” When we finally get to Easter Island a few days later Jerrie and I say “want gum dum-dum” the first few times we see a moai.

As a young child last century I recall seeing pictures of my father being initiated into the Society of Neptune. Know that it is a lot more common in this day and age for travelers to cross the equator, and this is not my first time either. Just don’t understand why they don’t make an acknowledgement when you bump over the line. ) Maybe it was just a big thing on naval ships in my father’s time to break the monotony of sea duty. Quien sabes?

Jerrie has some Salmon on the flight and I have some fresh pasta with vegetables in a white wine sauce. Snacks are offered during the night on the flight but neither of us partakes. In the morning we land in Lima for 50 minutes. Just enough time for half the plane to unload and reload with not quite as many passengers and we take off for the remainder of the flight to SCL. For breakfast we each have a cheese omelet, fresh fruit, cereal and yogurt. The flight attendant tries to give me a café con leche but I insist that it be café solo. Eventually he gives in and I get my coffee without any additives. Coming up to finishing my 60th year of life and still can’t figure out why anyone would want to ruin a fine drink such as coffee by putting something else in it. Of course we all know that Starbucks are doing quite well selling their concoctions and the magic111 chain of coffee shops was not a successful venture. Just goes to show you that “People are Strange.”

Arrive at SCL get in the line to pay the $100 reciprocity fee and then go to the luggage carousel for what reason I can’t comprehend. Oh that’s right it isn’t permissible to go straight to the lost luggage desk. One must first pretend like the airline has gotten the luggage delivered with you. Manage to get an agent who with my minimal Spanish and her minimal English we are able to communicate. After finally remembering that the luggage is all Jerrie’s name, know one has forgotten the odyssey of getting the boarding pass already we pass go collect the information and head for ground transportation after declaring this to be the 2nd of Jerrie’s pitfalls, remember Bambi’s mother.

It is about a 15-20 minute drive in a taxi (about $20) for the trip to Santiago. There is a big blue bus for about $5 to the main bus station in Santiago but after traveling for over 32 hours I’m not in the mood to save a few dollars.

Arrive at the Sheraton Santiago where we are asked if we are really paying for the room on points and than promptly receive the room keys. I ask about the Platinum amenities and Juan or Pablo or whatever his name was inquires if I’m Platinum. I show him my card. We than get a upgrade to a 2-room suite, no admittance to the lounge and to be honest I do not know if they even have one. But we do receive complimentary breakfasts.

I ask if it possible to get a toothbrush. Eventually I ask several times for a toothbrush, end up buying one and when the guest service manager ends up sending us a copy of Neruda’s writings as an apology. Nice gesture IMO. Also get the asked for toothbrush but had already bought one.

After unpacking are carryon luggage we are ready to head out to buy some things like another shirt or two and some underwear to carry us over until LA gets around to getting us our luggage delivered from New York. The concierge directs us to the Macy’s of Santiago, that is to say the Paris department store, about a ten minute walk, where I find everything I need in about 2 minutes and Jerrie takes somewhat longer. During that time I ponder the mystery of why men’s underwear is made differently in every country. Does anyone know if that is the same for women?

Enough about clothing as the time has arrived for a Taste of Chile. First of all a lomo saltaldo in a freshly baked roll better known as a churrasco. A latin style steak sandwich with onion and tomato. I have the modern Chilean version with avocado. For a few dollars it will fill me up to the point where I don’t have dinner but do have a cafe and some pastel de naranja, orange cake, in the evening.

The next morning at the Sheraton breakfast buffet it is the standard around the world and there is nothing that is noticeable to me as distinctly Chilean except the ubiquitous café con leche. We do a self guided walking tour of downtown and than return to the hotel for a rest prior to dinner. The concierge has directed us to a very typical Chilean restaurant that is within walking distance of the hotel. Will tip her extra as it means we will not have to deal with the doorman and his taxi mafia.

We walk over to the restaurant, “Divertimiento.” The Divertimeinto is located just in the entrance of a mountain park behind the Sheraton and has an extensive Chilean menu. We start with what turns out to be the best empanadas that I have ever had. The place has 3 kinds; cheese, carne and seafood. We opt for the seafood. Light flakey crust and a mince with onions, raisons, and hardboiled egg. Jerrie suggests we skip the rest of the meal and order empanadas but we have already ordered. I have rabbit in a dijon sauce and she has a Pastel de choclo. A casserole with meat and poultry covered with creamed corn. In addition she also has a Chilean cabernet sauvignon which she also attests to be very good.

For desert we get the sampler and the four offerings include some flan, papaya & raspberries in a syrup, a berry meringue and cooked peaches with sweet corn. The walk back to our hotel helps to burn off some of the calories.

The next day we take off for Vina del Mar and Valparaiso where we have a lunch of where we have a lunch of some local white fish cooked in a wine sauce. In addition we have some ice cream that is made from fruit only available in the local area. Will try to look up the name of the fruit when I have some decent on line time available. Have patience everyone I’m actually writing this is word several days after the fact on a flight.

We move over to the 4Points on a paid stay as I need a stay credit and the price is right, $99 for the night. The 4points is located a mile or so from the Sheraton in the midst of the Provedencia area of Santiago. Ask the young man at the desk where there is a good place to get a typical Chilean hotdog. He sends us to Schlopdog about 5 blocks away.

It is 930pm and we have to wait for a table as this also seems to be a local drinking place where patrons order towers of beer to supplement the hotdogs. We order what is considered the local favorite a hotdog on a bun smothered with fresh chopped tomatoes and everything except the bun smothered in guacamole. It is difficult to eat but an interesting combination of tastes. Can’t wait to bet to Sweden where hotdogs are served with mash potatoes and shrimp salad. Yummy.

SCL-IPC – LA841 – Seat2A – 767 - This is one of LA 767s that has the refurbished seats and they are sweet. A 15 inch monitor with movies, old TV programs, audio, games all on demand, and the flight map. There may be about 70 movie choices I Watch the pilot episode of CSI during dinner and than listen to Carmen by Bizet, Acts 1-4 in their entirety. The earphones are noise cancelling that look like Bose but only say Lan Chile on them. Seat goes almost entirely flat, has a back massager in it and when flat the outer armrest drops down even with the seat which allows me to easily roll over and sleep on my side, which if you have been following along know that I will do.

For breakfast we have the toasted ham and cheese sandwich which is common all over Latin American. Everyone who has been there knows exactly what I’m talking about, one that has had the bread smashed flat at the meat and cheese. The name eludes me at the moment. Fruit, cereal, yogurt round out the meal and we get a couple of small sandwiches prior to the landing

Easter Island, Isla de Pacua or Rapa Nui is located in the South Pacific near no other land mass. We arrive and circle the island to line up for our landing. The island is shaped like an equilateral triangle about 12 miles to the side. The runway traverses the island coast to coast near one corner. Since it is the longest runway in the area it is also designated as one of the space shuttle’s emergency landing strips. Plenty of length for the 767 and having an airport fire department with 3 state of the art fire trucks it seems that they will be prepared for any emergency

With a permanent population under 4000 persons it seems at least 5% of the population mobilizes for the daily flight from Santiago. Ground crews, ticketing, security, tour greeters, taxies, concessionaires, refueling, airport fire department and others all done very efficiently. Since the fiasco of our bags on the last flight maybe the word has gotten out as the efficient baggage handlers manage to have the magic bags out as the very first ones. Don’t think it has ever happen before and really don’t expect it to happen again.

Hopefully Jerri is in one piece
 

The car was destroyed, Bambi limped off, and Jerri is well??

Both times in my lifetime that I got Bambi, it did not survive. Hitting one at over 90mph north of Klamath Falls reduces it survivability. Fortunately it landed in the windshield directly in front of me. The car was drivable, but vision was slightly blurred. The closest windshield was in Reno.

Happy B'Day. I assume that we will not see you in SCL as we are due there in a month.

I really did want to post my 3K post today in this thread but things don't always work out the way we want them to.

If anyone who is reading this thread is heading for Toulouse in the next few days and has a Nikon D80 camera and can bring the cable so that I can transfer photos to my computer it will be a great. It appears my professional photographer only brought the cable for the Nikon 8800 and they do not use the same memory cards.

Since I could not post photos of the star and the performers at the traditional Rapa Nui birthday party last night we will end with my 60th Birthday post being 2999 on FlyerTalk which IMHO is the world's greatest frequent flyer bulletin board in the world. YMMV

A very enjoyable read so far. ^

It only took about 20 minutes until I got to the good part highlighted above. ;) Save some room for fsf in Brooklyn. magic111 will once again be joining the dhammer53 Brooklyn Reality Tour as we eat our way through Brooklyn New York. If you click on the shameless link below, it will direct you to magic's trip report from his first Brooklyn Tour.

Regards to the photographer. Hope she's ok.

dh

She was only doing 55 mph and ended up with a hanging bumper and a grill in the radiator. Internal injuries for Bambi´s mom.

And you are correct about meeting up on this trip as we are at SCL at the moment on our way to TLS via MAD. we both travel enough that maybe one day in the future are paths will cross again.

And stop the presses one day late this is the magic111 3K post from the Neruda lounge.