Well…I write this 3+ years after we took the trip. The memories are not as fresh as they once were. But, I have notes and pictures. That should be enough to give a general idea of the trip.
As you may (or may not) recall, our 2017 trips were supposed to be Portugal/Spain in the spring, Charleston in the summer, and TBD for the remainder. Buying our house changed that. Portugal/Spain became a long weekend in New York. Charleston stayed the same. Nothing else was planned, but I wanted to fit something in. In the fall, we found award availability in early December and made the call to spend a week between Chile and Argentina.
Why these destinations? I had been wanting to make it to South America for quite some time. Also, it is a relatively easy trip compared to Asia, Australia, etc. And our last 3 international trips had been Euro-focused, so changing it up was not a bad idea.
We found business flights in both directions for the two of us (James would be staying home with his grandparents for this one). There were a couple hotel options in Santiago, Chile – but we ended up in the Crowne Plaza. Points redemption was reasonable there, and the location was good as well.
In Buenos Aires, the options began and end at the Park Hyatt. We booked it with points through a friend who is a Globalist (formerly Diamond) member and received guest of honor benefits.
For some customary intro stuff before I get into the day-to-day…Argentina and Chile are long countries (top to bottom) separated by the Andes mountains. They are both Spanish speaking countries, and each had a more European feel than you might expect where we were – especially Buenos Aires. Size wise, the United States has about 3.5 times the area of Argentina and 13 times the are of Chile. Population – The US is about 7.5 times the size of Argentina and 13 times the size of Chile.