Blog 1: Antarctica, South America and Warracknabeal

11th November 2023

Hi there! Dr Juan here (you can call me Juanathan). The blog template says introduce yourself first, so hey, let's talk about me.

I've been a bit secretive about this trip to South America, because it's kind of been an on again off again kind of empanada. But as it turns out, here I am in Peru, so probably time I spilled the refried beans.

In the beginning

It all began with a regular zoom catchup with my ex-Accenture mates back in about July. Turned out one of them, Nanette, was driving from Cusco down to Santiago in October, and needed a second driver and navigator. So I checked with the fam, applied for the position, and was accepted. My fam wasn't able to join me due to work commitments, so I thought just do it, Juanathan.

I bought my non-refundable airfare and we started planning. There are a heap of awesome sights in Peru alone, especially around Cusco, and I quickly became obsessed with seeing some of them. Not just Machu Picchu, but one of the other lonelier remnants of the Incans more about that in later blogs). Together Nanette and I built a pretty amazing plan that covered Peru, Bolivia and Chile on the drive down to Santiago.

Boot camp

A lot of the plan involved trekking at altitude so I got my runners on and got as fit as I could. I climbed the 1000 steps in the Dandenongs before dawn at weekends and entertained everyone at home with my circuit training:

An unexpected turn of events

Then Nanette's mum got very sick and sadly passed away, so Nanette returned home. The drive was off.

I was left with a non-refundable fare and a tremendous amount of wasted fitness so I decided, with the support of the fam, to go it alone. I put together a Boys Own Adventure involving quad bikes, epic trekking, four days in a Bolivian desert, a hot air balloon ride over a volcano at San Pedro, some quiet time in a house in a Chilean forest; a heap of stuff. Just wait till you see the pics.

And so finally the big day arrived

I flew LATAM direct from Melbourne, leaving at 12.30pm on the 11 November and arriving in Santiago an hour earlier on the same day, at 11.30am (any Americans reading this, leave now, this discussion involves time zones) 

I flew business class because I'm a doctor (the whole reason I became a doctor), but I have to say while LATAM is good and the service was ok, the plane was pretty basic - a well-worn seat that didn't recline fully to a flat bed. Also, fairly average food.  The flight attendants were quite attentive, but when I asked one of them for advice on how to transit to my Lima flight at Santiago, she literally told me to go into the terminal and look for flights to 'LIMA'.

The checkin at Tulla though was excellent, as we discovered our nephew's partner Gianni at the checkin desk (Gianni is Australian now, but originally from Peru).

That's correct, we know everyone.

After take-off I was entertained for an hour by the Flight tracker; as we headed down to the Antarctic on the way to South America, the tracker seemed to think we all needed to remember where Warracknabeal is (see below).

Turns out my request for a window seat on the south side so I could see Antartica was a waste of time, we passed by the closest point at night time.  Also, we didn't go near it, to be honest. But thanks for the effort in getting the seat, Claudia@Worldwide Travel.

Arrival

When dawn broke it was massively cloudy below and I thought I was going to miss the Andes as we descended into Santiago.  I was wrong. I soon saw this:

How awesome is that?  

I'd arrived in this amazing continent. Apparently the tallest mountain in the Andes is visible from Santiago, even though it's in Argentina, which shows you how thin Chile is. In my experience most chillies are pretty thin though.

After a quick stopover I followed the flight attendant's advice and got myself to Lima.

We were out over the sea for nearly three hours, which I hadn't expected, and Peru at first looked pretty barren. That changed when Lima started emerging from the mists:

Lima was warm; tropical even. It looked nice, I'd like to go back sometime and see it.

Anyways

Pretty soon I was in the air one more time for a 1 hour flight to Cusco. And wow, what a city, but that's enough for one blog, according to the template. You'll need to see my next blog for pics and observations of awesome Cusco. Join me in the blogs that follow for an account my epic journey through Peru, Bolivia and Chile. I can promise you awesome photos, and some great yarns.