I have my mind set to go back to South America again ever since last perfect visit in July 01. Just after Brazil won the World Cup 2002, I was overjoyed and excited everyday counting down to my big trip! Originally plan to go on United via Miami, but the cost and time consuming is unbearable, and at the same time Aerolineas Argentinas have a nice special fare, so I took full advantage of it, and have truly some unforgettable experience on it, the unique trans-south polar route, from Oceania to South America.

5/July AR1183 Sydney SYD-Auckland AKL-Buenos Aires EZE
A340-211 LV-ZPJ

Flight was all full from Sydney to NZ, due to the low fare AR offers, and after AKL only half the passengers continue to Buenos Aires. Most of the pax were Spanish speaking, made me looks like a complete stranger there. Service was very good in my opinions from a South American airline, they kept gave me drinks, and lots of snack for pax at the galley during the long flight. The dark South Pacific crossing took about 9hours and saw only bright stars in the sky. A beautiful sunrise woke me up just before we reach the southern tip of South America--Tierra Del Fuego! We crossed the strait, Punta Arenas-Chile and the Andes! (see picture) Very few clouds obstructed the view, allow us to see/take a very good picture of it. It was remarkably special and beautiful looking down from 40000 feet. The plane continue flown above Rio Gallegoes and after that all we saw was the flat farming ground until Buenos Aires. We landed 20 minutes ahead!

5/July AR1142 Buenos Aires EZE --Sao Paulo GRU
B747-287B LV-MLR

This is my first time in 3 years have the chance to re-fly a B747-200B, the flight continue to Rome, Italy with a immediate stop at Sao Paulo. When I boarded the plane among the first few passengers, The whole plane was in darkness I never saw before, Aerolineas put all the window shed down, and with little light in the cabin. The plane also smells like just came back after long storage! The short took off performance was truly remarkable on the respectable B742! We have less than 100 pax and the back section of the Jumbo was all empty! 2:30 hrs flight to Sao Paulo passing Uruguay and SouthWest Brazil.
 

6/July-7/July

Went spotting in Sao Paulo, met spotter Alexandre Polati and Daniel Spat, they took me to the hill at the end of Runway 09s in GRU. It is very good because it gave you a tower view to take pictures of planes rotation off the grey tarmac runway, I don't think many places in the world have this kind of spot offer to plane spotters--one of the reason I chose Sao Paulo in my trip! Sunday 7/July was very cloudy, I went to Congonhas--their domesitc airport, TAM was very big there and so as GOL is growing fast.
 

8/July RG8757 Sao Paulo GRU -- Rio de Janeiro GIG
B777-2Q8/ER PP-VRA

A 35 minute flight became 3 hours because of the delay, Varig seems in a very cost cutting shape, they combined 4 flights in the moring to Rio onto my B777 flight resulted the delay, we have about 200 pax on board, I guess if they don't combine the flight, all the MD11 and B763 will only have 40 pax on each plane to Rio. Sao Paulo GRU terminal is more like a dump, one of the worst airport terminal I have visited, small and crowded. More unbelivable thing is they have a glass door separate the even and odd number gates, the gate opener only open then from 7am, my flights origianlly plan to leave 0625 morning time (delayed to 0830 anyway) and due to it is a Int'l flight contiunation sector, some passenger are waiting in the transit lounge and others like myself are waiting in another area separate by the glass in another area. I wondered if the plane ever leaves on time, how they get all pax waiting on one side of the glass door to the other side to board the plane??? Witnessed some one despartely complainted to a Varig agent, but the agent couldn't give a stuff, just say "wait here and don't worry, only 1 plane will take you all to Rio today!"

The B777 was very unclean when I boarded the plane, Varig didn't clean the plane at all after arrival from London about 1.5 hrs ago, garbage, used blanket and headset on the floor everywhere, and unbeliably not even a drink was served on the whole flight. I gave Varig 0 out of 5 (also with old/fat/ugly/unattentive FAs)!! But they do have 5 channel PTV at back of every seat in all classes. The plane is named "Otto Meyer". One of the most important aviation guy from Brazil. If Varig continue doing this, no wonder people think it may go broke in less than 1 year!

8/July-11July

Rio de Janeiro --relaxing , plane spotting, sightseeing the Corcovado, Sugar Loaf and passed through the most beautiful beaches in the world--Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon...weather was not good as I expected this time in Rio, lots of low pressure and front there. For the first time in many trips, I started to doubt whether the whole trip is going to be wasted. Home stayed at Leonardo Oliveria's Condo, his father cook really nice Brazilian Grill-BBQ beef fillet! Food was incredible in Brazil, for about 10AUD, you can have all you can eat grilled meat (mainly beef--rump steak, sirloin...), salmon and salads in good restaurant, and those Brazilian guys cook really good! No wonder lots of American just eat day and night non-stop in their steak houses.

11 July AR1257 Rio de Janeiro GIG-Buenos Aires EZE
B737-236(A) LV-ZTD

Flight was very good, the leg room is awesome on Aerolineas B737, I think it is a 38 pitch! Good food too! a 3hr 15 minutes flight was top in all ways, also the plane didn't seem too old, it was built in 1985 only.
 

12 July--14 July Plane spotting in SUNNY Buenos Aires Aeroparque and Ezeiza of course! Buenos Aires is one of the most beautiful metropolitan I visited, it have the name "Paris" of the Americas, I think Paris is "Buenos Aires" of Europe now! :)

Saw quite good action in Aeroparque, LAPA was renamed to ARG, and also about to rename again to AIRG! (incredible!) , only 1 LAPA B73G was flying and spotted. Austral have B732 and MD81 to Southern part of the country and Aerolineas is the biggest operator with mainly B732s. Also have some smaller operator like AeroVIP Jetstreams and Dinar DC-9-40s.

14/July RG8640 Buenos Aires EZE -- Santiago SCL
MD-11 PP-VPP

PP-VPP will be very familiar with spotters, it WAS the Varig World Cup color adopted on their MD11. Anyway, loads of people already knew how crazy I am about the MD11 "Climb performance" for such a big jet! This leg was a 1 hour 35 minutes flight and only half loaded resulted in center 4 seaters all empty out. Only myself sat in the middle section because all the Chileans took all the window seats, and they certainly knew something....

Here is the reason they did that......Ahhhhhhhhhhh the Andes so close to the MD11!

Approaching Santiago is an unforgettable experience for me! Both side of windows allow you come very close to the Cordillers de Los Andes or Cordillers de Los Costa. The airport and its sole runway is located between the flat ground of 2 mountain ranges! The MD11 arrived in top shape, what a flight with about 100 pax only, full lunch served, thumbs up to Varig this time. (not their B777 flight :p)

14/July--16/July

Santiago Airport spotting, there aren't much to do in Santiago, the city seems polluted and because of the mountains surroundings, the smog and haze is high all time there, I was quite lucky not having too much problem there. Remember to learn some Spanish, it will be very useful, even a 5 star hotel reeption have lots of trouble to communicate in English. They cannot understand words like 'Buffet?', 'I want well done on my beef", 'any phone messages?'.....

16/July LA535 Santiago SCL -- Buenos Aires EZE
A340-313x CC-CQE

It is a totally brand new plane, everything is new and fresh inside the cabin, again a 1 hour 50 min. flight with full meal service and about 100POB with every seat back have PTVs and remote control. Lan Chile seems like improved heaps from what I heard form others. I have a pleasant ride.
 

17/July AR1182  Buenos Aires EZE -- Auckland AKL -- Sydney SYD
A340-211 LV-ZPO

Arrived Ezeiza at 8pm for the 1159pm transpolar flight back to SYD, acknowledged the plane have problem with maintainance in Aerolineas Technical area, not flying tonight, so Aerolineas put all pax into a 4 star but seems a 2.5 star hotel with dinner and breakfast. Lots of guys arrive from Lima, Peru that moring at 5am, and waiting at transit zone till 8pm found out their flight is not going, hence a little "Revolution" happened in the airport. Went to the hotel,  with 100 people waiting to check in! Checked in without any names or info given, 5 minutes later I was in the room, Aerolineas was kind enough to give each Pax 3 minutes free long distance call. The next morning woke up at 0545 by the hotel morning call, at 630am, still dark outside, all the long waited pax went back to the airport. You can imagine there were lots of hassles, and the crowdness and tense was high! The plane finally took off at 9am in Ezeiza. It was a good daylight flight, flying southwards towards Rio Gallegoes, then cross the Andes just south of Bariloche and Calafate, to Chile, over Puntas Arenas and Tierra del Fuego, there we began the South Pacific Crossing and Transpolar route. About 10 hrs later arrive in Auckland. Lots of Spanish speaking lady have language problem to exchange money in Auckland airport created a fuss there, with some body joked to tell them to join the "RSL" when arrive in Australia. Lots of funny cultural shock happended in AKL waiting lounge. We also have Chilian famous Soccer team "Colo Colo" travellling with us, to play a International Invitation game in Melbourne, with Leads United.

After 1 hour 45 minutes on the ground, LV-ZPO took off for final destination, Sydney. Much help from a tail wind, the A340 made the journey in only 2 hours 55 minutes. Arrived on Rwy34L with later realized Bruce Sheperd 'plane geeked' my plane arrivals. Bloody late and embarassing!
 
 

For the whole trip, I would like to sincrely thank all the people help me in their kindness and out of every possible way. I enjoyed the South American trip, and especially the South Pacific Crossing flight tremendously! Will be back again next year!
 

Sam Chui

Sydney 23/July.

Now here are some pure action plane photos (taken at Sao Paulo, Rio, Buenos Aires and Santiago)for aviation enthuasists!