Back to Chile - photo dump

Not seeing much travel here lately so here's my latest, nothing too dangerous or extreme but maybe a little bit exotic

I am pretty well settled back into my 28/28 rotation down in Trinidad & Tobago, with lots of fishing and spearfishing and other things one does in the Caribbean, even got my old apartment back. Then a utility operator asked if I could train up some Spanairds back in Chile on the Super Puma. I said no, I wanted some time at home with the wife, they offered more money and I said no again, and then they offered to fly her down too! Stopped over in Bogota for a bit, but no photos. Otherwise, top notch hotel suites, fancy SUV rentals, all paid for with a fair bit of flying (I gave a complete groundschool for the type, lots of flight training, and check rides for all the candidates). Nice little paid holiday!

Last day in Trinidad before Canada, get the wife and head to Chile. Blue Lizard lotion works great for the sun but leaves you looking pretty pasty.

Local lad made me a speargun out of local teak. It's HUGE but is the standard down here. handles well underwater

Bit of range time, Trinidad & Tobago recently rated as the 6th most criminal country in the world, so....

You probably heard of the oil barge that sank off Tobago not long ago. Flew right over it on a medevac just before i left last tour.

Fresh coconut water most every morning

Wife and a couple of the lads first night in Concepcion, Chile. There were another 4 trainees apart from these guys

First training flight

Long line training

Plaza de Armas of Santiago. Seconds after this shot, a hysterical woman ran up to my wife and in English warned her the place was extremely dangerous and to hold her purse tighter to her body, completely freaking out my wife. I think I'm pretty experienced in far more dangerous places, and am quite aware of my surroundings. I have a good sense of where to watch my back, and honest, I was watching around, but did not feel even slightly threatened walking around downtown, but my wife was toast after that.

Managed to convince her to walk around for a few hours nevertheless, as if someone would fuck with me.... (It was middle of the day). She did not enjoy the rest of the day unfortunately.

So back to our suite at the Hilton downtown, and from there day trips to vineyards, plus up into the mountains one day. No more downtown....

Hit some local beaches, we fought some big forest fires in the region last year

Ate soooooooo good the entire two weeks

There's a big hill centre of Santiago with a statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the city, a must see via cable car (so we were told). We hiked the 2 miles to the cable car to find it closed, so elected to climb it on foot. Hiked over 15 miles that day, with some good vertical. This local drink, Mote con huesillo, gave a bit of energy for the hike back to our hotel.