So this will be an overview of the trip so far. We flew from JFK in New York City nonstop to SCL Santiago Chile on January 5.
We stayed one night in Santiago and then flew the next day to Balmaceda via Puerto Montt. That was the black line on the map. We were then driven to Coyhaique where we stayed a week at the lodge. Then we flew to Puerto Montt (the red line) where we drove to Puerto Varas and saw Lake LLanquihue and all the volcanos with Isabel (except when it was cloudy!). We then flew back to Santiago and drove northwest to Valparaiso which is on the coast. Then we will fly to Easter Island. I will keep the rest secret for now!
Santiago is inland and surrounded by mountains. There are three major tunnels between the interior of Santiago and the outskirts. Smog gets progressively worse as you near the city center.
As we say good bye to Puerto Montt, I will give you a little more Chilean history. Chile was declared independent from Spain in 1818. The government felt that it was important to exert sovereignty over the south of Chile and 212 German colonists came to Lake LLanquihue to farm. It is interesting to note that what you and I consider middle Chile, is considered South Chile to Chileans. Further south, where the Fjords and Patagonia are was not colonized until the middle area was established, and was already considered the South! Confused? I am. Just remember Patagonia is south of south Chile.
Good bye Lake LLanquihue! Good bye Volcano Orsono!
Hello clouds!
The clouds lifted the further north we flew. You can see the Andes again.
A closer view of some of the volcanoes. The one on the left already blew its top off and a glacier sits in the cone. You can tell the volcano is inactive as you can see the glacier.
When we landed I found out that the large group with us on the plane was an Alumni group from Harvard. Even though they went to Harvard, they had to board the bus with us to go to the terminal.
JP, (Juan Pablo, who was our guide earlier during our stay in Santiago) and our driver picked up and drove us to Valparaiso. It took about a 90 minute drive from the airport. Did you know that there are 5 Valparaiso’s in the world? Valparaiso is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Valparaíso is also the third largest metropolitan area in the country. Before the Panama Canal was created, the city was a major port for those traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The city is known for its funiculars, graffiti, cobblestone streets, and colorful clifftop homes. There is lots of graffiti here, the city has not banned spray cans yet. Valparaíso is in the process of installing street cameras in hopes of decreasing the amount of graffiti.
There are beautiful murals all over.
After winding through many narrow streets and hills we arrived at our hotel. You can see how narrow and steep some of the streets are.
Hotel Palacio Astoreca hotelpalacioastoreca.cl will be our hotel for the next few days. Steve and I have been enjoying our stays at these smaller boutique hotels as opposed to the many hundred room hotels. These smaller hotels are all quite unique. Our hotel has only 24 rooms. The entrance to the hotel is near the front of the uppermost van in the picture.
The hotel was damaged in an earthquake about ten years ago. The inside has been renovated and it has a quite modern style. I don’t really know how to describe the outer architectural style.
This is a reception area off the lobby. The reception desk is off to the left.
There was a lovely library in the hotel and Steve climbed the movable stairs to get a couple of books. He now knows many facts about Picasso.
Our room was on the third floor. Thankfully there was an elevator! We were assigned room #17. It was the receptionist’s favorite room. We liked it too!
Steve examining the rooms before our bags got unpacked and spoiled the pristine room.
This was another view of the bed. For some strange unexplained reason there was a strange wooden frame around the side of the bed. It made it very difficult to get in and out of the bed. Steve considered this an “unfriendly bed”.
The bath with a waterfall shower head.
Hmm, should we see if this leads to the outside?
It does! Steve is a good sport and imitates an exhausted traveler lying on the chaise lounge. Now I must tell you that some of these clever posed pictures are not Steve’s ideas, but mine. He takes great pictures of his fingers so I have to direct him in the poses that I want commemorated. He is a good husband and plays along with me, I think that I will keep him.
Here is one of the views from our patio. Con Con on the top left, Reñaca a little to the right. Vina Del Mar is across the water above the large salmon building in the center of the picture. Valparaiso follows to the right and the bottom of the picture. Our room had a beautiful view of the bay, although I think all the views from the hotel were fabulous!
Let’s go to dinner at the hotel, shall we? We need to descend the spiral staircase to the restaurant on the first floor. (I hate spiral staircases!)
It’s 7:30, and we are ready for dinner. Most people in South America don’t eat dinner until 8 p.m. Your eyes are in focus, I am trying the blurred shot to soften the wrinkles in Steve’s face. Just kidding, I don’t know what went wrong!
A lovely Pisco Sour, the orange on the foam is a dash of bitters, which cuts the sweetness of the drink.
Our rolls couple, ready to be slathered with butter and eaten!
For his starter, Steve had the house special. Bacon foam, mashed potatoes, and Scallops topped with a saffron foam. It was ethereal!
My skinny knife for my beef entree.
I had the beef filet with gratin dauphinois potatoes, topped with a muleteer salad and pickled zucchini cubes. Steve had the salmon. I forgot to take a picture of it!
It’s years later, and I look at this menu, wishing I could have one of everything right now. However we were too full that night to order anything more. However, if the menu was prix fixe, no doubt I would have insisted that Steve and I each try something different and share! The pricing was in Chilean Pesos. Now 1000 pesos is equivalent to about $1.50.
The sun had set before I got a chance to take a picture of it glittering over the water. I sure didn’t miss the street signs, and utility poles! Does this win the prize of worst picture ever? No! It doesn’t have a finger in the view!
Back up to the room, I discover our special treat!
I love pistachio macaroons ! In fact, I love all macaroons!
Good night Valparaíso!
Have you enjoyed my trip so far?
Have you ever been on a college alumni travel tour?
One of my readers has, can she figure out how to reply to the question?
Her initials are JLB, in case she has not figured out the answer to question number 2!
Wish me luck on her answering question number 3! As she doesn’t read old blogs, I rate my chances slim to none.
Good morning! It is a beautiful day here. Back home In Poughkeepsie it is cold and rainy. At M and G’s home back home I think it is snowing! When we left the crocuses were just starting to peek their buds out of the ground.
Since I got a very bad result for my cholesterol levels the last time I was at the doctor’s, it is no eggs, but oatmeal for me. That and Lipitor are my new best friends. 
One of these days I will get up extra early, so that the fruit bowl looks a lot nicer. There were many non fishing spouses at breakfast today and they all wanted to know what the white speckled fruit was. My devoted blog followers would know the answer-it is Dragon fruit. So named because the outer part of the fruit looks like dragon scales. The
Did you know that fruit had protein in it? I didn’t.
Soon it was time for lunch. Here is M enjoying the view. The Club is in process of improving the view and have cut down a number of trees.
The chips have changed since last time. We had triangular chips when we were here in January. 
M and I each had the grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch. I had a glass of Rose. As it is Lent, M is abstaining from alcohol and Diet Coke.
I asked if there were any cookies after lunch, and we got some lovely mini banana muffins, and fresh fruit.
I had fun watching a little hermit crab walk across the patio, but have decided that although I found it interesting, I don’t think that the video was blog worthy.
Gazpacho shooters were passed around. Dinner might have been even more fun if they had vodka in them!
Next up were baby scallop tempura, with pickled ginger dipping sauce.
Our starter was Tuna Tataki, Chritophene salad, micro greens, wasabi kewpie and citrus soy. I don’t like wasabi, so it was a little bit too zingy for me!
We did get some home made chocolates, dusted with coconut for dessert.
Here is a picture of some of the pastries. Steve really likes the cinnamon buns. I really like the blueberry muffins. I often eat at least two each morning!
Here are my fried eggs. At home I usually have just cereal or biscotti. Every once in a while I swear off biscotti, as I think it’s pretty unhealthy to just drink coffee and eat four mini biscotti in the morning. Then I stop buying them. That lasts for about two months, and I decide to start buying them again. It’s a viscous cycle. My stomach fat says “No, No!” While my eye balls say “Yes, Yes!’
After a morning binge watching the Tidying Up series with Marie Kondo on Netflix I went upstairs to lunch. This trip we are staying on the lower level of the building. Last trip we were in the rooms above the great room. So it’s now upstairs to meals as opposed to downstairs to meals! As it was very windy today we didn’t eat ocean side. The breeze can be very strong some days on the veranda. When it’s windy we eat with a view of the parking lot and the bushes.
I decided to try the grilled cheese and tomato soup accompanied by a side salad for lunch. A joined me again and we found out how much we have in common. Both our husbands, fish which we don’t care to do. We would rather lay about and read. Although A is energetic enough to walk down to the beach. I prefer to just look down from the veranda and say “Hmm. Yes, a beach lies below. Nice to look at. Perhaps I will go visit it some day. But not today.” A and her husband J, are from Scotland. They came with another friend S. When they get going talking, I find it hard to understand what they are saying. But it is so much fun listening to their accents. I wonder if they find my American accent amusing. I hope so. It would be horrible if they found it grating to their ears!
In December 2017, I did go to Nancy’s in Sandy Point, for lunch. It wasn’t for me. This was inside the bar. 
The outside didn’t look much better! 
I asked if there were any cookies or ice cream for dessert at lunch. We hit the jackpot with ice cream bars. Not as good as a Dove Bar, but refreshing just the same. 
Steve went fishing with Dana, the lone female guide on Abaco. Here she is holding a 25 pound barracuda that Steve caught. Although it was the biggest fish of the day, Steve didn’t get head of the table as only the largest bonefish counts to get that honor. He caught 2 bonefish, both too small to take the honors. Steve has sat at the head of the table many times, so he wasn’t disappointed. 
Our first canapé of the evening was quail eggs with celery salt. I was nervous eating them last year for the first time, but they are very tasty. 
Next up were salt cod fritters with a dipping sauce. 
Our first course was a beet salad. They used to offer a beet salad with lots of greens and feta cheese at lunch. I will have to ask Jason, the chef, if it can be put back in rotations. 
I had the Osso Bucco for my entree. Not as good as mine, but at least I didn’t have to cook or clean. 
Dessert was a pavlova with raspberries, mango coulis and chantilly cream. The recommend wine was $150 per bottle, so we passed on a dessert wine. We usually drink about 3/4 of a bottle each night. I have half a glass and Steve drinks the rest. On previous trips I would get a bottle of rose to drink at lunch for the week. However since I am on so many drugs trying to cure my scratching, I am not drinking at lunch. Now that I think about it, if I were in a drunken haze, perhaps I would ignore the urge to scratch.
We finally got our after dinner chocolates tonight. Jason the chef has been quite stingy in sending them out with the after dinner tea and coffee! Steve should have picked the truffle on the left, as it had no coconut on it, and Steve hates coconut!
Another day, another view of the breakfast sideboard. 
Breakfast today was two eggs, but I went outside of my comfort range and had them poached! Instead of an English muffin, I just had a slice of bread toasted. Watch out, I am beginning to walk on the wild side! 
Another lunch by myself, but the table was placed at an angle. Staff must have sensed that I was going to be adventurous for the day! 
More yummy chips, salsa, and sour cream. For some reason no guacamole. 
I had the chicken Caesar salad again. 
Surprise, surprise I also ordered fries!
This is the view of another beautiful sunset that we had. 
First canapé was quail eggs. I didn’t have my reading glasses on and thought the dish had a brown dip in it. Instead it was celery salt! Quite the surprise. One of the guides raises quail for bird shooting and he sells some of the eggs. 
Here is the trio of Dutches County residents. No names, but his initials are TB. I am holding someone else’s drink as I don’t drink regular martinis! 
We also had beef tartare on toast. 
We had a small group at dinner tonight. Sometimes there are over 20 at dinner! The young man at the end was on his first bone fishing trip. As Max, the manager was off for the night, I filled in the spot as host/hostess for the evening. I sat at the other end of the table. LH was just accepted into William and Mary Law School, so we made a toast in his honor also! 
Our starter was grilled peaches and goat cheese. I love peaches and Steve doesn’t really care for fruit so I got to have a double portion of peaches! Yay! 
Steve and I both had the Osso Bucco. It was good but not as good as the Osso Bucco that I make! Steve says no one makes it as well as I do. I follow the Marcella Hazan recipe.
The evening’s dessert was pot au chocolate with tangerine creme fraiche. I prefer whipped cream, as I don’t like the sourness of creme fraiche.
Another day and another breakfast. I love this arrangement of melons and pineapple.
I decided that I would find out when low tide was and I would take a walk on the beach. 
The water was warm, and if I were a good swimmer I would have gone swimming. But alas, I was by myself, and I am not a strong swimmer, so instead I walked along the beach, looking for nonexistent shells. 
You can see how private the beach is. Only one house shares our stretch of shoreline. 
Then it was back up the hill, huffing and puffing as I went along. I am lazy and would rather not walk back up the hill, so I rarely go down to the beach when we stay here. I prefer to just look at it once in awhile and then continue my reading a book from the stack of romance novels that I brought with me on vacation. 
As everyone else was off fishing, the table was set up for just me. Ipad, book and view in hand I enjoyed my lunch. 
Lunch was grilled chicken, greens, vegetables and Chinese cellophane noodles. 
A proper size cup of cappuccino and a leftover mini banana muffin for dessert. 
First of the two canapés was conch fritters with a dipping sauce. 
This was followed by hummus on a cracker. 
We were served crab and pumpkin bisque as our starter. 
Steve and I both had the mahi mahi with vegetables. It was Jason, the chef’s night off and the breakfast cook made dinner. 
Dessert was Tiramisu. It was very sweet and I couldn’t finish all of it. 
Steve decided to hunt for permit today at Sandy Point. He saw four, but the fish did not take his fly. Permit are notoriously hard to catch. They are hard fighters and can weigh over 25 pounds! Steve caught two bonefish for the day. This is a picture of one of last years fish, that I had posted on instagram. Steve looks like a bank robber here, he is just trying to prevent sun damage.
Every once in a while i would do a lap up the stairs, or around the deck of the building. 
Part of the prednisone protocol is to avoid sunlight, so no suntanning for me. Since I enjoy sitting and reading it was not too much of a hardship. I remind myself that I will be able to sit outside and enjoy the pool other days.
At four I went to the pool for a dip. Hoping the chlorine in the cool pool would soothe me skin. I actually stayed in the pool for a good 30 minutes. It felt absolutely wonderful.
I was probably giving everyone the willies with the intensity of my twitching.
After awhile I went back to the room, here is a picture of one of the lovely flowers by the pool. A little bit of spring, for those back home in the northeast! Steve did catch a fish while I was reading, his first ever Triggerfish. I posted a picture yesterday of one. 
Here is our room. We always seems to stay in room number 4. We were once upstairs, but I was a grumpy grunts and got pissed at Steve as I thought he was ignoring me, so we don’t stay there anymore. Plus, those two rooms are in great demand, they are only available when occupancy levels are low. Steve does not like it when there are a lot of guests, he is quite possessive of the place and thinks it is his. That’s what happens when you come in December and there are fewer guests!
This was our plane, it was little and a bit noisy, but it got us to Marsh Harbour. When we landed, it was pouring again, and Steve’s clothes got a little wet through his duffle bag. I have one of those big plastic suitcases and my clothes remained nice and dry! 
This is room number four, the other rooms downstairs all look similar, some have twin beds, and some have kings.
This is not Steve, it’s a picture I found on the internet, but that’s similar to what he caught, but Steve’s was a little smaller.
We woke up to our last beautiful sunrise from our Villa. Then it was off to breakfast at Madi. I had the chocolate waffle again, and Steve had an omelette.
I tried to take a picture of the pool area just like the professional ones. With this angle you would think that I had one too many Mimosa’s! That was one thing that Como didn’t have that Gili did, champagne at breakfast. I have noticed in my travels that the further north you travel the earlier the drinking starts. When my darling daughter and I went to Scandinavia with her dance group I took detailed notes on the drinking. In Denmark I observed drinking at lunch. In Iceland the drinking was at breakfast!
Here is Steve giving me a worried look. He knows that I have plotting and scheming on my mind. I had noticed this couple at the resort. She was the most beautiful guest there. He was interesting. I had already told her that I thought she was quite beautiful. She reminded me of Megan Markle, but I knew that was impossible as he was no Prince Harry. Steve remarked to me “Are you pretending to take my picture?”
Well yes, I was. He reminded me of a movie star, I couldn’t remember who. Bradley something or other? I texted my girlfriends back home. They snorted back NO!
Scruffy beard was correct as was head angle. However ears stuck out too much. Oh well, maybe we’ll run into a movie star on our next vacation. We did run into Anthony Daniels who played C3PO from Star Wars in South America, however he was gone before I realized who he was!
After breakfast we went to the gym and then back to our villa for the final packing.
Goodbye fancier villas that we didn’t stay in .
Packing all done, and final lounging under our sala we returned to Thia for lunch. This time I got the breadsticks without Steve’s fingers in the picture. 
Steve had the burger and fries. He told me to “Hurry up and take the picture” as he hates cold fries. As a result the picture was a little shaky.
I requested the Caesar salad with grilled fish and traditional dressing. I got the Green Goddess Avocado instead.
Now after lunch we went to pay our bill. Here is Reception totaling the damage. Ouch!
Steve admired the wall decorations. They were wood.
Here is Steve asking if I am done yet. “It’s time to go!”
Here we are with S and A. One last picture before we go home. The two of them were very lucky it was our last day together. I didn’t get a chance to ask all my questions.
Here I am on the speed boat, holding the Birkin! S didn’t even ask me to wash my hands first! It took her 5 years on the list to get one! Lucky S!
Here is the staff waving us goodbye! Please come back again and spend your money with us!
I grabbed the front seat. I wanted to see everything!
Here we all are on the plane. Steve looking happy, first leg of trip to commence. A is going me that look, “See if you can behave!”
This map gives you an idea where The Maldives are located. Tourism is a big industry here! All the resorts have to have at least 50% of their employees as Maldivians.
Unfortunately or fortunately for S and A their flight on Emirates was to depart before ours. After hugs goodbye, and a stern “Behave” from A, Steve and I waited in the lounge.
After two hours of waiting we got in the shuttle to head to the main airport.
I found it amazing how close the airport was to the ocean. This is on the access road.
Goodbye Male! That white building on the right is a cruise ship, not a building!
That must be A and S’s airplane! I am sure they are sitting in first class!
Here we are in the scrum waiting to go through the luggage x-ray. That must be a surfboard in the orange and black bag.
Now that’s what I call no line!
This was the lounge for business and first class. I only had a bottle of water. No reason to try some food and get ill on the way home. Smart I am!
Finally our flight was called for boarding!
A refreshing lemony mint drink with cool towel before lift off!
This would be the flight path for our trip to Qatar. We would leave around 8:20 and arrive in Male at 11:40 local time (really 1:40 Male time. I don’t even want to think what time it was Como time, that was an hour different from Male time.
Here is one of the flight attendants in one of their four wardrobe changes. I noticed their suitcases in JFK, they were really big!
These are only a few of the named atolls in The Maldives!
I had a glass of tea with my warm nuts.
I wanted to eat lightly during this long trip. I had the lentil soup.
The Arab Mezze plate.
Followed by the pasta. I only ate one. Too gloppy for me!
I even only had two bites of the dessert!
Almost there! A and S are probably in their own beds in Dubai, after going through their mail!
Steve noted this about the flight map. It would show the direction of Mecca, for those who wanted to pray.
We finally landed in Doha. This airport was hopping, even at 1 in the morning!
Not sure what this was. Ah yes, breakfast. Scrambled eggs with chives. After a 10 hours flying you really don’t know what is going on.
Almost home! Look at all that ice on the JFK approach!
After an exceptionally long drive (never land at JFK during morning rush hour), we finally made it home. This is our side yard.