Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 18 – Santiago can be found here.
We slept abysmally last night, constantly awakened by various flashes of light and subterranean rumblings coming from the Ritz’s air conditioning system. The pressure of making it through another busy travel day didn’t help either.
We were up at 5 am this morning, and proceeded downstairs for a thoroughly mediocre hotel breakfast. I’ve had some mediocre breakfasts before, but this one should be taught as a textbook example.
Eggs served in stylish containers that are in no way heated? Check.
Terrible and inexplicable flow between stations? Check.
Croissants that are at once too soft and too stale? Check.
No labelling between butter, margarine and mystery spread? Check.
Toaster that does not adequately heat the bread but launches it onto the floor? Check.
The staff did their best and brought out a pot of mint tea made-to-order for our daughter, but this was more of a systemic issue. It just feels like the Ritz is cutting corners. The whole experience was deeply underwhelming.
(No photos as it would have been deeply unfair to all the other poor souls also trying to make their way through a crowded breakfast.)
In any case, we soon wrapped and headed upstairs to finish packing.
Our checked bags had been taken from outside our door at 11 pm the night before, but we still had a sense of dread regarding our carry-ons – Silversea had told us that we could bring whatever quantity and size of liquids we want, apart from aerosol sprays. But we questioned how that would work when we were flying out through a public airport.
There was nothing for it but to pack up and head downstairs for our 6:50 am shuttle to the airport.
Silversea’s portion continued to tick over smoothly – their reps quickly loaded bus 3, and then our bus soon pulled up.
Our number was called, our bags stowed and we were on the road moments later.
Dawn reaches Santiago
I then realized that I had screwed up. Again.
Readers of this blog may recall a certain trip to Calgary when I’d forgotten to remove my inaptly-named “safety” razorblades and sunscreen from my carry-on baggage, and the calamity that resulted when this was discovered by security.
Well, gentle reader, I did it again. Somehow my brain conflated “you can bring liquids” with “you can bring razorblades”.
And that’s how I found myself rooting through my luggage outside the Santiago airport, pulling out boxes of razorblades and hucking them into the garbage before I reached airport security.
Urged along by the Silversea reps, we then marched through the labyrinthine maze of belted corridors that wound their way toward security. Perhaps it was our imagination, but the warnings regarding liquids seemed to be getting larger and more aggressive as we moved on.
Our faith in Silversa’s assurance regarding liquids was being tested, and we found ourselves making whispered contingency plans as we hefted the bags onto the belt.
The scanner operator paused. He frowned. And he called over another agent for further support – for the gentleman ahead of us, who seemed to have packed an spray deodederant of some sort. We – and our hefty bags of full size liquids – were fine.
We’d been at the Santiago airport just a week earlier, so we knew the lay of the land – we took the kids over to an indoor playground, and I went off for a brief forage (and to buy new, security-friendly razors).
I managed to track down some expensive-but-delicious jamon y queso croissants:
US$6.50 per croissant, but at least they heated them up for us
We soon headed off to our gate, where we found another playground – this one a maze!
Then we boarded our flight – chartered entirely by Silversea, though we believe they were also giving a lift to some of the birders from Tauck who were on their way to Patagonia. Off to Punta Arenas!
I won the charter flight lottery and ended up with a free seat between myself and one other passenger – with my wife and kids were on the other side of the aisle.
The fight was close to three hours, and I managed to sleep close to an hour and a half. (It’s a sad state of affairs when I have an easier time sleeping on the plane than at the Ritz.)
I woke in time for a boxed lunch:
The chicken was a bit dry and chewey, but the desserts were very good. I’d still say it was in the top 50% of airport meals.
At first I thought my seatmate was joking when he asked for champagne, but sure enough – they had some prosecco!
My son discovered something in the tiny upper compartment of the seat in front of him – apparently, a young girl had left her eReader there. The flight attendants were grateful, as they had been looking everywhere for it after the previous flight. (A strange place to leave an eReader – though in the girl’s defence, the compartment was marked “for literature only.” Ha.)
Soon after we finished lunch, we began our descent into Punta Arenas:
There was a wicked cross-wind that caused some steep drops and a bouncy landing, but we made it – or so we thought. Once we were shepherded to the gate, we learned our 2:30 pm flight to Puerto Williams was delayed by at least 2 hours (perhaps longer) due to mechanical issues.
But what can you do? Except order a pizza.
And then a second pizza. (And then a third, because they burned the second one.)
The Silversea reps distributed meal vouchers, but they could only be used for the furthest restaurant – so we shelled out a few bucks to get what we wanted instead. (We could have also used the vouchers for drinks, coffee, etc. but decided to pass when we saw the line.)
The reps also came along to offer a boxed snack, as well as ice creams:
At 4:30 pm we were shepherded into a private room to enjoy a small tipple (and perhaps to prepare for pre-boarding):
I heard at least three champagne corks pop in the twenty minutes we were here, so we were certainly making full use of the amenities.
We then hopped aboard the Antarctic Adventure flight to Puerto Williams:
So yes, the delay was a pain but Silversea handled it well.
Just a quick hop to Puerto Williams – barely enough time to take off and land:
We touched down just before 6 pm, and found the Wind waiting for us:
A short bus ride, and we were ushered aboard in a very luxurious whirlwind – our bags carried, hot towels, a welcome drink, some passport checks, credit card hold, pick up our room keys and then off to Panorama lounge for the world’s fastest muster drill.
It appears that ours are the only children aboard – not terribly surprising – but the crew are already treating them like royalty.
We dropped bags in our rooms, then headed up to La Terrazza for dinner. We had a beautiful view of Puerto Williams out the stern:
My wife had the gnocchi for dinner:
I had the swordfish:
And the kids had pasta:
Then for dessert, my daughter had tiramisu:
And my son had the chocolate torte:
It was a classic Silversea dinner with friendly, exceptional service. It’s good to be back.
We then retired to our rooms to watch us cast off from the pier:
And meet the pilot boat:
I could feel a gentle thrum beneath my feet as water began to slip along the Wind’s hull.
Our 40 day cruise was underway.
Continue reading Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 20 – Silver Wind, Falkland Islands.