A class trip
Back in 2013, my 11th grade students and their parents invited me to their class trip to Brazil. That's how I spent a whole week in Balneário Camboriú, some kilometers north of Florianópolis… for free!!
We flew on a chartered Sky Airline flight that was taking several groups of students to their holidays in Brazil. Sky Airline is the second largest airline in Chile, and the only one that has been able to stand up to LAN/LATAM for more than a decade.
I didn't make any research about Sky Airline at the time, so I was completely unaware that only one year earlier they had been the subject of an investigation after a series of incidents that almost ended in a tragedy. More info in my other H2 report.
Well, ignorance is bliss, they say, so I was absolutely concentrated on enjoying my trip.
At SCL
Our group of students and accompanying parents and teachers arrive at Santiago airport (SCL) at around 5:30 in the morning. The airport is packed with students from different schools starting their end-of-year trips. We will share our plane with two other groups travelling, like us, to Camboriú.
We are sleepy after a long bus ride from Valdivia, 835km south of Santiago. But everybody is excited and in a wonderful mood. Check-in starts early, around 5:30, so we all are ready to go airside long before departure time.
We board happily and on time…
…and take many group pictures like this one. I love the plane's interior with its shades of gray (they are not 50!) Not long before this trip, Sky had renewed their fleet completely. They replaced their old B737s with A319s and A320s. So everything looks like new. The seats are slim, which makes the cabin look spacious in spite of being a full economy cabin.
The flight
We take off a little after 7:30 a.m.
The kids are excited. (We all are!) This flight is a first for some of them. Raimundo keeps tampering with the overhead panel.
In a matter of minutes we are flying over the Andes. We cross the mountains some 80km south of Santiago.
This lagoon, called Laguna del Diamante, is in Argentinian territory, inside the crater of an extinct volcano. (Thanks for the info, Wikipedia!)
Thirty minutes after take-off the inflight service begins. We are served a nice breakfast in beautiful green cups and trays made of solid plastic with the Sky Airline logo underneath… just like these!!
Er… I kept them with the FA's permission, of course. ;) If only she had smiled a little more… But, well, I guess she wasn't having a good day, or she didn't feel comfortable with young people.
The cabin during the flight.
All the kids are very well-behaved and the flight is a quiet one, but they just can't help laughing when the FA says Sky "Errrrline" over the PA system at the end of the flight. They start mocking her and she gets really annoyed.
We fly over the endless Argentinian pampa (plains)…
…and then over Buenos Aires and the Río de la Plata.
By the way, the name River Plate is a bad translation of Río de la Plata. Plata means silver, not plate. That's why the country is called Argentina, from Latin argentum (silver). Get it?
A close up on Palermo neighborhood. That airport is Aeroparque (AEP)
I am amazed at the width of Río de la Plata. It takes several minutes to cross it completely! Then we reach Uruguay…
…and the landscape turns greener and greener, and the rivers wider and wider as we reach the tropics.
Searching the Internet, I am delighted to find this register of our flight over this area.
The FA hands the immigration cards, which are in Portuguese and Spanish. Good thing that I take this photo. This is my only link to the flight information!
At around 10:30 a.m. we are reaching Florianópolis.
The suburbs:
The city and the bay:
And we touch down at FLN.
A (former) TAM is there to welcome us.
After deplaining we take the time for a last photograph with the plane that has brought us to this WONDERFUL land. How I love Brazil!!
Unfortunately, I don't have other pictures of FLN. (Good excuse for a new visit to Florianópolis!!) But I am able to get this one of the arrivals area, taken by one of the students. We are waiting to go through immigration.
Anyway, I think that Florianópolis is in serious need of a larger, more modern airport. FLN has many shortcomings, and it looks like a small, old, badly-kept bus station.
Tourism bonus - Balneário Camboriú and surroundings
Well, it's Brazil, you people!! It's PARADISE ON EARTH!! (I'm talking about nature here, of course. Not politics.) We visited soooo many places on this trip but, as a nature lover, my favorite ones were those where I could be in contact with it. Some of them were…
Portobello Island and its Jardim Ecológico:
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And Unipraias Park, accessible via a cable car with a superb view of Camboriú and its surroundings:
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Thanks for reading! :)
Hi!!
Nice flight on a chartered plane.
-It's nice how you were invited on a trip to brazil with your class. :)
-There were no pictures of the meal but I guess the trays and cup justified it ;).
-I can't stop laughing at the "Sky Errrlines" situation right there
-Nice tourist bonus
Thanks again and see you on your next reports
Glad to know you liked the report. :)
Indeed, this was my first experience as a form teacher. It was exhausting, but I loved working with the kids and their parents. They were extremely kind.
I'm the kind of passenger that leaves the plane carrying a sickness bag full of plastic cups and containers, cardboard boxes, napkins, and anything with the airline logo on it... anf the inflight magazine, too. Souvenirs!! :) Thank goodness I only fly economy all the time.
Thanks for this exotic report as usual! Beautiful views over the Andes. So I take it this is not a regularly scheduled route for Sky Airline? Is Florianopolis a popular place for class trips that several classes chartered the aircraft? Thanks for sharing!
Hi there!
That's right! H2 doesn't have any scheduled flights to Brazil. Their only international destinations to date are LIM and EZE. They will also be flying to Córdoba, Argentina, starting next July.
Indeed! Brazil is a favorite among Chilean students for their high school graduation trips. Other tropical destinations in the Caribbean are also popular holiday destinations, but they are a bit too expensive for student groups because of the distance.
You're very welcome! In fact, it's me who should say "thanks" and "congratulations" to the flight-report.com staff. You hit the nail on the head when you decided to set up this site! It's not only a source of practical information for travellers, but the reports take on more and more value as years pass. I wish I had had the Internet and a site like this back in the 1990s, when I made this wonderful trip to La Paz, Bolivia, on a 737-200 of the long-defunct defunct LanChile. I had such a great time, and things have changed so much since then!
I'll be adding more "exotic reports" later this year, from deep Patagonia, and from the Atacama desert. Stay tuned! :)
Hi there!
That's right! H2 doesn't have any scheduled flights to Brazil. Their only international destinations to date are LIM and EZE. They will also be flying to Córdoba, Argentina, starting next July.
Indeed! Brazil is a favorite among Chilean students for their high school graduation trips. Other tropical destinations in the Caribbean are also popular holiday destinations, but they are a bit too expensive for student groups because of the distance.
You're very welcome! In fact, it's me who should say "thanks" and "congratulations" to the flight-report.com staff. You hit the nail on the head when you decided to set up this site! It's not only a source of practical information for travellers, but the reports take on more and more value as years pass. I wish I had had the Internet and a site like this back in the 1990s, when I made this wonderful trip to La Paz, Bolivia, on a 737-200 of the long-defunct defunct LanChile. I had such a great time, and things have changed so much since then!
I'll be adding more "exotic reports" later this year, from deep Patagonia, and from the Atacama desert. Stay tuned! :)