Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 2 can be found here.
I awoke to a strange sound this morning – my own alarm.
This is not how it typically goes on these trips. My alarm is meant as a kind of failsafe, in case everyone manages to sleep an obscene amount of time. It is essentially a reminder to check that our children haven’t smothered themselves in their sleep.
But I checked – they hadn’t. They were simply deep, deep asleep.
Indeed, it appeared that we’d all managed that most difficult of feats – getting a good night’s sleep the same day we arrived after a long plane flight.
(Though it helps that – timezone-wise – Santiago is a mere two hours ahead of Toronto.)
I tried making coffee in the room, but managed to overflow their tiny little Cafe Britt cups by having the effrontery to push the ‘large coffee’ button on the machine:
Not pictured – all the coffee pouring everywhere
I left in advance of the rest of the family, and enjoyed a leisurely coffee in the lobby bar while writing. The others soon came downstairs, and we ordered breakfast:
My son and I had the scrambled eggs with toast:
My wife had the poached eggs and avocado:
And our very fortunate daughter ordered the chocolate and hazelnut croissant:
Having spent almost a full day here, we took a moment to reflect on the Sheraton Santiago. It’s perhaps not as polished as the more upscale chains like the Mandarin Oriental and the Ritz-Carleton, nor is it as authentic as a local, independent hotel. But between its low cost, convenient location, and familiar food offerings it represents a ‘just right’ approach that works well for short transits and acclimatization.
With breakfast done, we returned to the pool to lounge and swim for a while – and for the kids to work on their ‘analog’ homework. It feels like we’re getting close to getting a grip on remote schooling, but we wanted to get a bit further ahead given that we’ll be completely out of contact during our six nights at EcoCamp Patagonia.
Speaking of which, our final itinerary arrived from Concept Chile so we needed to check it over to confirm all the details were correct. (One small correction – it should be two junior suites in Puerto Natales, and not one – but they mention two bed configurations, so we thought we’d be fine. Famous last words…)
Lunchtime arrived, and we opted to simply order a couple of pizzas to our pavillion – which was roughly 1/3 the price of going back to the buffet:
It was way too much food, even for four people – we left more than half a pizza behind. But as our hotel fridge is already bursting with the previous night’s pizza, it didn’t make sense to take any back with us.
Back to the lobby bar for blogging, a beverage, and to finish the last of today’s homework – and to stumble across a sign for today’s conference:
We are all desperate to find out what kind of investigators they are. Private eyes? Police? Federal investigators? The graphics on the sign look like molecules – could they be forensic investigators? The potential for speculation was endless.
But it had to end eventually, particularly since it was time for a bit of Dungeons & Dragons. Today we start The Curse of Strahd.
D&D is a great travel activity for kids and adults alike – it fires up many of the same circuits as video games, but requires much more imagination, creativity and mathematics. While advanced games can be complicated, the starter sets are very accessible.
I’d also strongly recommend listening to actual-play podcats like Not Another D&D Podcast to get a sense of how games can play out, and how combat and the various checks are done. (Though please bear in mind that these are professional actors playing, and that you do not need to do improv or special voices to enjoy D&D.)
Once the kids had finally reached the village of Barovia – after an ambush by 8 swarms of bats – we set down the dice for the night and headed off to dinner.
Feeling properly acclimatized, we opted to (gasp) leave the hotel for once. The highest-rated restaurant on this side of the river is the Divertimento Chileno, so that’s where we decided to go.
Before we left, we asked the concierge whether the area was safe in the evening. His reply – and I quote: “In the evening? Yes! It’s fine. There are parks, and playgrounds. But at night? No.”
Early dinner it is, then.
While the main street was busy with people and cars, there were still some calm little oases:
The side streets were even quieter – and had some beautiful homes.
After a 15 minute walk, we reached the Teleférico Santiago (gondola) – in the Santiago Metropolitan Park, where the restaurant is located. The largest urban park in Chile and one of the largest in the world, Teleférico is made up of lands contributed by four different communities: Providencia, Vitacura, Recoleta and Huechuraba.
We were tempted to take one of the gondolas, but the heat dissuaded us. Although we’ll be back in a another area of Santiago later this trip, we expect it to be just as hot – and busy with other activities. We return to Santiago in November, however, so perhaps then.
We carried on to Divertimento Chileno.
My wife had the lamb stew with gnocchi:
I had the crispy fish with mashed potatoes:
My son had the spaghetti bolognese:
And my daughter had the tenderloin:
We thought it would come with french fries, but accidentally ordered rice instead. Oops.
The food was absolutely delicious – one of the best meals we’ve had in quite a while.
Unfortunately, it was interrupted by an unexpected call from Concept Chile – apparently due to ongoing renovations, we would be unable to stay at Hotel Indigo. Instead we’d be moving to what I initially thought was going to be a Ramada, but is actually the Remota Patagonia Lodge.
Ordinarly we’d be thrilled with the upgrade, but Remota is, well, remoter. So the housekeeping we had planned – like an initial round of laundry, and shopping for a few last minute supplies – would be considerably more difficult.
We checked in with our travel agent to see if she had any further details about this sudden change, and were informed that the parent company – VIP Journeys – had been in touch to say that the cancellation was due to unexpected renovations following a sudden weather event.
There was a lot of back and forth – Would we prefer to be in town at a less-fancy hotel? Would they still be able to guarantee adjacent rooms? We finally asked to keep our booking at Remota with the understanding that they will take care of some of our laundry. We’ll see what tomorrow brings – even planning has its limits, sometimes.
Given that it’s peak travel season right now – and that our flights have been shifted earlier several times and all other flights are completely full – we’re hoping they can find reasonable accommodations. In our experience, last minute changes = bad news, but we’ll just have to see.
Besides, it was time to head to the poolside bar to do a bit of writing and finish up the post you’re currently reading.
Continue reading Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 4.