Vina del Mar, Sao Paulo and Rio...then home!

Since we were in Santiago Rich and I decided we wanted to rent a car and drive to Vina del Mar on Chile's coast. We both have always heard of it, but never visited it in our extensive travels. So we hopped in a car and took off through the rolling hills below the Andes to the Chilean coast right through Chile's wine country. First we drove through Valparaiso which is a very intersting city architecturally, but not enough to stop the car and wander. We continued about 2 miles northeast to Valparaiso which is modern and built up with tall condo units. We parked the car, walked along the beach and then down the boardwalk and ended up at a seafood restaurant. I'm not a huge fan of seafood, so I opted for the interesting crab lasagna.

Vina del Mar, Chile

After dinner we decided to drive back to Santiago for a quick rest before going out. As we headed into Valparaiso Olivia Newton-John's song "Hopelessly Devoted to You" piped in on the radio and Rich and I turned into total geeks and sang along to it (watch the video if you dare)! Later that evening we went out to Bunker, Santiago's premier nightclub only open on Friday's and Saturday's full of Chile's sexy men and women. The club starts out with hot tranny acts, male dancers, and other great stage acts then ends up playing great music until 5am. And yes, we left at 5am to get a decent rest before heading to the airport at noon for a 2pm flight.




We arrived at Santiago airport about 1 1/2 hour early. When flying in LAN Chile business class you actually have separate immigration and baggage screening lanes from coach passengers which took less than a total of 2 minutes for both! AMAZING! After 20 minutes in LAN's lounge we were notified the flight would be 3 hours late so we were given vouchers for lunch and had a horrible one at Ruby Tuesday's...gross! Anyway, we did take off in enough time to see the Andes at sunset which was even more beautiful than our daytime landing. 3 1/2 hours later and we landed in Sao Paulo. Rich's friends picked us up and took us into town and on to Danger a trashy nightclub in old downtown Sao Paulo. After about an hour we got bored, left, and continued on at Blue Space. We had quite a busy day so we went home early since we were suppose to drive to Rio the next day.

LAN Chile's Operations at Santiago Airport

Flying Over the Andes (the snow is reflecting the sun to the clouds)

LAN's Business Class. (I just can't fly coach anymore with how much I fly)

After waking up a bit late and then being scared to death to drive to Rio by our friends I decided that maybe we should fly to Rio and back. Since it is only a 45 minute flight I decided to book the cheapest airline possible to save our budget a bit: Ocean Air. We decided to stay one more day in Sao Paulo since we stayed one day longer in Santiago and decided to fly to Rio instead of driving to Rio saving us 8 hours or so. We spent the rainy day just lounging, going to Congonhas airport to buy the tickets, and then heading back to Blue Space. Blue Space puts on a cool drag show on Sunday but then the club shuts down pretty quickly after around midnight (I guess people in Sao Paulo take the work week seriously).

Blue Space in Sao Paulo....woo hoo!

With Friend at Blue Space. Below Right, a Proper Brazilian Breakfast

The next day we flew on the former American Airlines Fokker 100 that Ocean Air bought, but never changed the interior making the plane an obvious American Airlines antiquity. Taking off between the tall buildings of downtown Sao Paulo and then landing at Rio's Santos de Monte airport circling down around Pao de Azucar is quite an experience, especially in an aircraft American Airlines decided to retire! At least Ocean Air provides a sufficient hot meal (chicken pot pie on the out bound and bow tie pasta with meat sauce on the return).

Ocean Air's Fokker 100, which they now call an MK28. Anyone see the similarity with American Airline's 1980's era upholstery? (Oh, and minus the food and especially the cream puff!)

Rio is stuck in the 1970's, but hey, you gotta love it. There is no other place on this planet that is more amazing than sitting on Ipanema Beach surrounded by beautiful mountains that are surrounded by clouds. After landing we drove to the beach and had a nice 2 hours of relaxing sun. The next day was rainy all day so we just did some work and rested. Later that night we went out to Le Boy to have a few drinks and check out the boys. The next day was sunny and beautiful so we got 2 more hours out of Ipanema Beach before heading back to the airport in tank tops, havaianas, and dusted with sand. A quick 45 minute flight and we were back in Sao Paulo where we went to our friends' place, showered, changed, and then a large ice storm hit as we were out the door for dinner. After a quick dinner we drove out to Gaurulhos airport for our overnight flight to Miami. Only 2 days home and we took off to LA for business so here I am now....