Blog Post 16 - Guam to Chile Final Recap

October 16, 2024

Seabourn Pursuit entered the small harbor at San Antonio, Chile at 1700 PM, while the expedition crew was screening the video of our last 20 days from Papeete to San Antonio.  We were free to leave the ship, but not formally disembark until the morning.  Our bags were mostly packed (the bags must be outside the door of the suite between 2000 and 2300) so we had a final dinner in the Restaurant with the gang of five, myself, Miriam, Julie, Glenda and Scott.  Following dinner we finished up the packing and put the checked bags outside the door for pickup by the crew.

The voyage video for the second half of the trip may be found at:

https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/playback/1020701499/rendition/1080p/file.mp4?loc=external&signature=bfcf3790e4eea81d062b16270797d7a99ef8ffd8686189e8e3d9f484d68bb2d8

 

October 17, 2024 – Disembarkation Day

Waking up early, we took the final showers on board and headed to the Colonnade for a leisurely breakfast before leaving the Seabourn Pursuit for the last time at 0845.  Our vehicle was waiting outside the port cruise terminal and by 0915 we were headed to Santiago.  Arriving at the Ritz-Carlton shortly before 1100, we checked in, but the rooms were not yet ready, so we were invited to the club lounge (our rooms had club access) and relaxed with coffee and snacks.  Patrick contacted Juan Castro, his classmate from the 1986 Stanford Sloan Fellows class and agreed to meet later in the afternoon, with a drive and then dinner at Juan’s house.

The tallest building in South America is in Santiago

There is lots of street art

The sidewalks are clean, no graffiti or garbage

Local farmers selling produce on the sidewalks

More street art

All went to plan, and after a drive into the foothills of the Andes, we had dinner at Juan’s house.  The pleasant evening was spent in conversation catching up since we last saw Juan in Santiago in 2015.  After dinner we returned to the hotel for some much needed rest without the ship moving under us.

Courtyard at Juan’s house

My classmate, Juan Castro

October 18, 2024 – Santiago

This morning Patrick and Julie walked to Juan’s office several blocks from the hotel and visited for several hours before returning to the hotel.  In late afternoon we all met at a local restaurant, borrowing the hotel wheelchair so Miriam could go with us.  The weather was pleasant so we took a table outside on the sidewalk underneath shade trees and enjoyed a simple local dinner.

Dinner outdoors at Tip Y Tap restaurant

October 19, 2025 – Santiago to JFK

We had booked a tour of the Santa Rita Winery for this morning, with a private car for transportation.  Santa Rita is located about 25 miles SW of Santiago, but with the heavy traffic the drive took about one hour.  Arriving at the winery we were glad we had borrowed a wheelchair from the hotel, so Miriam could experience the entire tour, which was about 2 miles of total walking through the park-like grounds of the winery founded in 1850.  Santa Rita has some 10,000 hectares under cultivation, with most varietals and blends represented.  The tasting in an undergound cellar was great, with 5 premium wines and  individual cheese platters, in a beautiful setting.  We then returned to the hotel for a late lunch and headed to the airport at 1800 PM.

Tasting room at Santa Rita

Some of the underground cellars

The private chapel built in 1880

Parklike grounds

Spectacular Trees

Old wine presses still in use today

Old winemaking equipment on display

Getting ready for our tour at Santa Rita Winery

Once at Santiago Airport, we found Latam was not prepared for “wheelchair” access, and it took some negotiations before Latam came up with one.  Even so, Miriam had a long walk from the curb to the Latam check-in gate.  Fortunately, we had not packed her collapsible  walker.  After the wheelchair arrived, we put the walker it its bag and checked it though to Seattle.  We were then shuttled by a Latam representative to a “mobility assistance” holding area and told it was going to be 30-60 minutes before they would have anyone to escort Miriam through immigration and security.  That was not acceptable to us or the Latam representative, but the mobility assistance representative then said if Miriam could drive an electric wheelchair, we could go by ourselves.  The Latam rep helped us, pulling one of our carryon bags and escorting us. Miriam quickly learned she could drive the wheelchair and soon we were through immigration, security and into a beautiful, well equipped Latam Premium Lounge.  Miriam and I actually beat Julie through that process by about 5 minutes.

Latam Lounge

Bar in the lounge

Unique lighting fixtures in lounge

After a several hour wait in the Premium Latam lounge, with great food and drinks, we then “drove” to the gate where, for some reason, every passenger was subjected to additional screening and hand searches of all carry-ons.  Any liquids found were confiscated, fortunately we had none.  Even water purchased inside security was confiscated, so we think there was some sort of advance security concerns.  Miriam was able to drive her wheelchair right to the door of the Boeing 787 where one of the flight attendants helped here to her seat, Row 1 in Business Class.

Our flight, Latam 532, backed away from the gate on time at 2255 local time, and after a lengthy taxi, we were airborne and on our way for the 10 ½ hour overnight flight to JFK.  The Boeing 787 had a very old business class, with lay-flat seats, but pretty uncomfortable compared to the more modern “pod” configurations.  Service was attentive, but not much English was spoken, and our Spanish is primitive.  The food was mediocre, but the Chilean and Argentine wine was good.  Pillows and duvets were provided and we all managed to get some sleep, but again, the lay flat seats were not that great, being a little short for Patrick.  About 2 hours from touchdown, breakfast was served, again mediocre, with coffee that tasted like bad instant brews.

October 20, 2024

Landing 20 minutes early was a waste, just prior to 0800 AM, we taxied all around JFK waiting for an open gate at Terminal 4.  However, there was a wheelchair and driver waiting for Miriam, and with all of us having Global Entry, we breezed through immigration and customs, our bags all came out quickly and we rechecked them outside customs and immigration. Alaska Airlines uses Terminal 7, so using the Airtrans took only about 30 minutes.  We had to check back in at Alaska and go back though security, where our TSA PreCheck smoothed the process.  Alaska Airlines has a very nice lounge just past TSA security and we enjoyed a better breakfast than on the Latam flight before we boarded our flight to Seattle, which departed on-time at 1145 AM for the 6 ½ hour flight to Seattle.

Our flight was on an almost new Boeing 737-900 Max, it smelled just like a new car.  The pre-ordered food (including ice cream for dessert) was better than Latam, and we enjoyed lunch shortly after reaching cruising altitude.

Landing at Seattle 15 minutes early, Miriam was the first one off, assisted by the flight attendant, right into a waiting wheelchair.  Going to Baggage Claim, we met our driver and within 10 minutes we had all our luggage and headed to the car.  Traffic was not that heavy, and we were home about 1600, having covered more than 24,000 miles since we departed Seattle on September 4.