Hola amigos!
Hope all is well and you have been enjoying the summer. It's time for me to start gearing up for the next TR and a return to South America. Hopefully if all goes well, I'll be headed down to Chile from the 8th of August to the 2nd September. I'm going to start the blog now, so I can post updates and weather reports here, prior to heading down. It seemed like a good idea to start the blog today, as Nevados de Chillan just opened for the season. It's been 3 years since I was last there due the Pandemic and I can't wait to go back. I love heading down to South America for 3 weeks in the summer, beating the heat and getting away from all the pollen (I get hay-fever pretty badly....)
I booked my flights the other day and airfares are definitely up since last time I flew there. I'm flying from Denver-Houston-Santiago-Concepcion. Prices have really been fluctuating; they were steady around $1,600 a couple of months ago and then they started to rise. The highest price was around $2,900+ (with United/LATAM) and then they came down to $2,100, when I got mine. I could have gotten them for $1,800 if I wanted to fly back via Bogota, but I didn't fancy that. It's a lot to pay but that's the price of international travel right now.
It seems like the whole of the Southern Hemisphere has been getting good snow. Chile/Argentina started getting the snowfalls first a couple of months ago, then Australia got a big dump to get their season started at the beginning of June, then NZ got hammered and now South America has been getting good snow. I think even South Africa is having a good start. Hopefully it keeps going and we have great conditions for the time we travel there.
All I have to do now is recover from my mountain bike crash in the DH park at Granby Ranch on the 23rd June and I'll be good to go. I messed up on a jump and landed on the flats on my ribs and crushed my right arm/hand. The ribs are still pretty sore (no broken bones, just strained cartilage which has been very uncomfortable) but my right pinky finger was broken. I'll find out on Tuesday if I have to have surgery on it but I'm still hoping to be able to ski. Everyday I feel a bit better and I would hope that in a couple of weeks, I'll be good to go.
I was close to going last summer, when Chile was on the verge of re-opening for international tourism, but they kept pushing the re-opening back 2-weeks at a time and eventually the border did not re-open at all. If you recall, I started the 2020 blog but never got any further than early weather reports...... This summer, the borders are open and restrictions for travel are workable. The only requirements are fill out an online travel affidavit 24 to 48 hours prior to departure and show that you have travel insurance with at least $30k medical coverage. You might be tested at random for COVID on arrival (recommended to do a rapid test prior to departure therefore) and it's also recommended to apply only for the Mobility Pass, which is basically a digital readout of your COVID vaccination records with a scannable QRF code on it.
You need to show that for entry into indoor public places such as restaurants, bars, cinema, buses, individual domestic flights in Chile. It's not mandatory to obtain the Mobility Pass, but is recommended to have it if you want to avoid any complications and have a decent experience. I applied for mine on Thursday, so hopefully I will have it by Monday as the processing time has now been sped up to only 48 business hours..... it used to be at least a month. I'm onto it very early so there should be no complications in obtaining it hopefully.
So that's it for now. I'll post some weather updates (currently snowing hard in Nevados de Chillan with heavy snow in the forecast until the 6th, then another wave for 3 or 4 days starting on the 11th July. Things are shaping up nicely. Fingers crossed we keep moving forward.....
- Matt
Hope all is well and you have been enjoying the summer. It's time for me to start gearing up for the next TR and a return to South America. Hopefully if all goes well, I'll be headed down to Chile from the 8th of August to the 2nd September. I'm going to start the blog now, so I can post updates and weather reports here, prior to heading down. It seemed like a good idea to start the blog today, as Nevados de Chillan just opened for the season. It's been 3 years since I was last there due the Pandemic and I can't wait to go back. I love heading down to South America for 3 weeks in the summer, beating the heat and getting away from all the pollen (I get hay-fever pretty badly....)
I booked my flights the other day and airfares are definitely up since last time I flew there. I'm flying from Denver-Houston-Santiago-Concepcion. Prices have really been fluctuating; they were steady around $1,600 a couple of months ago and then they started to rise. The highest price was around $2,900+ (with United/LATAM) and then they came down to $2,100, when I got mine. I could have gotten them for $1,800 if I wanted to fly back via Bogota, but I didn't fancy that. It's a lot to pay but that's the price of international travel right now.
It seems like the whole of the Southern Hemisphere has been getting good snow. Chile/Argentina started getting the snowfalls first a couple of months ago, then Australia got a big dump to get their season started at the beginning of June, then NZ got hammered and now South America has been getting good snow. I think even South Africa is having a good start. Hopefully it keeps going and we have great conditions for the time we travel there.
All I have to do now is recover from my mountain bike crash in the DH park at Granby Ranch on the 23rd June and I'll be good to go. I messed up on a jump and landed on the flats on my ribs and crushed my right arm/hand. The ribs are still pretty sore (no broken bones, just strained cartilage which has been very uncomfortable) but my right pinky finger was broken. I'll find out on Tuesday if I have to have surgery on it but I'm still hoping to be able to ski. Everyday I feel a bit better and I would hope that in a couple of weeks, I'll be good to go.
I was close to going last summer, when Chile was on the verge of re-opening for international tourism, but they kept pushing the re-opening back 2-weeks at a time and eventually the border did not re-open at all. If you recall, I started the 2020 blog but never got any further than early weather reports...... This summer, the borders are open and restrictions for travel are workable. The only requirements are fill out an online travel affidavit 24 to 48 hours prior to departure and show that you have travel insurance with at least $30k medical coverage. You might be tested at random for COVID on arrival (recommended to do a rapid test prior to departure therefore) and it's also recommended to apply only for the Mobility Pass, which is basically a digital readout of your COVID vaccination records with a scannable QRF code on it.
You need to show that for entry into indoor public places such as restaurants, bars, cinema, buses, individual domestic flights in Chile. It's not mandatory to obtain the Mobility Pass, but is recommended to have it if you want to avoid any complications and have a decent experience. I applied for mine on Thursday, so hopefully I will have it by Monday as the processing time has now been sped up to only 48 business hours..... it used to be at least a month. I'm onto it very early so there should be no complications in obtaining it hopefully.
So that's it for now. I'll post some weather updates (currently snowing hard in Nevados de Chillan with heavy snow in the forecast until the 6th, then another wave for 3 or 4 days starting on the 11th July. Things are shaping up nicely. Fingers crossed we keep moving forward.....
- Matt
