The Cast of Characters - Chile Balloon Tour 2011

Alfredo - Our event organizer. It was his job to line up our tour stops, find sponsors & keep them happy, arrange for crew & other support personnel,  make travel, hotel & restaurant arrangements, handle publicity, keep officials happy, keep us happy, etc, etc. WHEW!

Dominic - 
Our Balloonmeister. He made all the pilot and balloon shipping arrangements and handled our flight plans, briefings, and  met with the Chilean version of the FAA. He also handled the PR, giving interviews and entertaining the sponsors. His unmistakable laugh punctuated every conversation.

Jorge - Our videographer. His job was to get the shot and keep the camera rolling. He documented our flights, downtime, recreational activities, and every other conceivable moment. When not filming, he was happy to interpret, suggest activities, arrange for laundry, money exchange, or any other way he could help out. He was a sweetheart (just ask Wendy).

Rodrigo on two phones

Rodrigo - Our Interpreter, Tour Manager, and 'Go To' guy for virtually every need. Do you need a truck, crew, fuel, a fan?... call Rodrigo. Are you ill and need medicine?.. talk to Rodrigo. Need to know where to buy something, call a taxi, get money exchanged, need a good deal on a tour...etc, etc, etc. He was everyone's new best friend and did an unbelievable job.I have no idea how he kept such a great attitude throughout the trip - considering all the demands & requests constantly headed his way, but he always had a smile and kept his cool.

 
Rosanna - Rodgrigo's mom. She helped him in keeping all of the team's needs met for a part of the trip, and was the first person to meet me when I arrived. She has a warm heart and a ready smile, and David was smitten with her.

 Tony - One of 'The Brits.' He was often the life of the party, whipping up fantastic Gin & Tonics and breaking into spontaneous dancing at the least expected moments. He is a great pilot & his advice was appreciated by all.

 Two of our Crew, Pilar and Monica. (I am not getting the names right, sorry). They were invaluable in interpreting our passenger briefings, and were willing to take on any task. They joined us for a flight with a landing at about 20MPH, and took it all in stride pretty well (sore knees and all!).







Sarah & Nick - Part of the British team. Sarah seemed to be a key organizer for the Brits, and even for us, suggesting and arranging side trips. When you wanted to get the group together for something, you started with Sarah. Nick has a quick wit and took our 40-mile day trip over jarring dirt roads to see "eight bloody flamingos" with good humor. Sarah's great humor & teasing kept us all laughing. We immediately felt as ease with Nick & Sarah.  









Bill - Another member of the British group (although he lives in Ireland), Bill was the diplomat, making suggestions when needed and representing all the pilots when things weren't going as smooth as possible. I appreciated his dry wit, even when it took me a minute to catch it.



Justin - Our Northern California Counterpart. His youth, exuberance, humor, and energy was endless. He changed the tour by obtaining three coolers and keeping them loaded with beer and water - it had been a missing piece and we immediately slipped into tailgate mode after flights from that point on.

Ryan - Justin's friend & crew from Northern California, and our designated toastmaster. He is simultaneously passionate and laid back. He had a deep appreciation for the experience and the emerging friendships, and brought the significance of it to our attention so we all could appreciate our experience and the rare moments. Friendly, sensitive and kind, the type of guy you quickly feel at ease around. 





Will - Dominic's friend and crew. Will knows no strangers and was engaged in conversation endlessly with everyone. The taxi driver, waitress, flight attendant, and passersby. He must've taken thousands of pictures of everyone he met and everything we did.






Our Southern California Buddies, Dan & Wendy. I'm not sure we would've made the trip without them. Wendy was an instant hit with everyone, the heart of the group. Her homeopathic remedies for anything that ailed us earned her the nickname of 'The Witch Doctor.' (She also answered to 'Wanda' and 'Linda' by the end of the trip) She is tenderhearted for stray dogs and fed them every chance she got. The Brits gave her a box of dog bones - the best gift she could've asked for. Wendy was best friends with everyone & was in tears at saying goodbye.

Danny, a traditionally picky eater, was up for the adventure and ate things he would never otherwise try. He was a great sport. He is particular about his equipment, but kept his cool as his equipment took quite a beating getting off & on the truck. His sarcastic sense of humor kept us all laughing.

 

 "Daby" & me.

I have left out many folks & will add them as I sort through pictures. Richard, Steve, 'Gadget Man,' Fransisco, Pancho..... I have not forgotten you, I have just run out of steam for the moment.

(Editorial Disclaimer: I met most of these folks barely two weeks ago. I may have them all wrong, but these were my impressions)

From the summer weather in Chile we returned home to this weather forecast:

Rain...snow and slight chance of thunderstorms. Patchy dense fog. Precipitation may be heavy at times. Visibility one quarter mile or less at times. Lows 18 to 28 above 6000 feet to 29 to 39 below 6000 feet. Snow accumulation of 12 to 20 inches. Snow level 5500 feet. Winds south 30 to 40 mph with gusts to 55 mph...becoming 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph overnight.

I guess I will put away the flip-flops and get out the snow shovel :(

wendy update

We just got home & have not had internet or phone for the last week, so I will be updating our adventures to catch up. Here is the last update from Wendy (AKA Wanda, Linda, and 'The witch doctor')

OLA!
I know it's been awhile since you've heard from us but either we have been flying, eating, or sleeping.  We are in Valdivia now, either flying in Valdivia or Rio Bueno.  Rio Bueno is our favorite spot so far.  The area reminds us of Wisconsin or Minnesota.  There aren't roads every mile like a lot of places in the states.  Sometimes you drive miles to find a road.  This makes chasing the balloon real challenging.  In Rio Bueno Danny flew the Mayor and he really liked it.  It was a fast flight.  We went back to Rio Bueno to have lunch, either go fishing or river rafting, and flying from the park for an evening flight.  They like to cram a lot into our days.   River rafting was chosen over fly fishing because it was so windy.  The Mayor was there to host the event.  There were more pilots than spaces in the boats so I volunteered to stay back.  I had a cold so the cold river and getting wet didn't sound good to me.  Danny  also stayed back because he couldn't let me be a bigger martyr than he is.  The Mayor drove us around his City and took us to his office.  Mayors here are full time positions and pay a min. of $6,000 a month. He had to step out for a minute so we seized the opportunity to take turns sitting in his chair and taking pictures.  When he returned we told him we gave his secretary a raise.  He had a sense of humor.  By the way all this was done thru an interpreter which gets rather cumbersome after awhile.  When we finished with all our Mayor duties we led a fleet of trucks to the countryside to pick up our pilot friends who were cold and wet.
Tomorrow we leave Valdivia and will spend most of the day traveling to Calama.  We'll be staying in San Pedro, about an hour away.  This will be our last location before going home. 
Here are a few of the things that are different here................ coffee is very strong, if you ask for cream, you get something that is way thicker than whipping cream.  On the breakfast buffet they have hot milk for coffee or drinking.  (The same at all the hotels) .  A normal breakfast is sliced ham and cheese, toast, coffee, fruit.  They eat a lot of fruit cocktail.  Don't understand why when every kind of fruit is grown here.  Most of our hotels have had several layers of thick blankets.  Can't figure that out either......its summer here.  They drive very fast and usually leave about 1 foot between their vehicle and a pedestrian or a dog.  It's pretty scary until you get used to it.  The hotel keys are attached to a piece of wood.  Some are bigger than others. 
Well that's all for now, it's midnight and Danny has been sleeping for a long time now.
Hugs,
Danny and Wendy

The pilot group is blending together well. Last evening we all landed (very fast) in adjacent fields near a farmhouse. We never saw the farmer, but as our chase crews caught up with us we gathered in a barnyard with the cows and a spontaneous tailgate broke out with gin and tonic and local Chilean beer.

Our crew, Pilar and Monica

Crew group foto

The local crew kids seem to be mostly college students from the area and they go off on their own after flights most of the time, so it was fun to hang out with them a little more. I have found the Chilean people are warm and friendly. They greet you with a warm hug and peck on the cheek, and are very proud of their culture and country.

The crew is very anxious to please us and jumps in to help in an instant. I would like to take them all home!! The girls were great instructors for our tethers & flights, explaining procedures and safety to our passengers. They caught on quickly and were absolutely wonderful.

We had crew flights Thursday evening, no sponsors to fly. Our crew loved the flight but were a little wide-eyed at the 20 MPH landing. A few bumps & bruises, but we were all okay. Thank goodness for the open fields!!

Mornning in Valdivia

Danny Boy in Valdivia

Headed to the river

 We flew across the city and the river, then returned to land in a park.

Playing tag with the marine layer

This morning our passengers were from CNN Chile, Mauricio and Carolina.

Carolina & Maricio from CNN Chile

 Our crew is learning the ropes and were right on it all morning. We had our budding crew chief, Pillar, translated the balloonists prayer for our passengers.

Wendy Update

OLA!!
Boy have we been busy.  If we are not ballooning, or eating we are trying to catch a quick nap.  We are in Los Andes, about an hour north of Santiago.  This is our third day here, it's a town of about 70,000.  This is our 4th hotel......getting good at packing. 

We have been in Los Andes for two nights now............tonight will be our last night.  Our interpreter is the tourism director for this City.  The balloons have flown 3 times now.  We've also done a few glows at the Park.  This morning there were hundreds of people at the park to see us at 7 am.  In these small towns (this one is 70,000)  there is very little crime or other police type issues. We can leave our equipment laying on the ground at the park and come back in an hour or two and nothing has been touched.  There was only one time we were watchful for ourselves  and that was in Valparaiso, when we were staying in Vina Del Mar.  We were in a shopping area and there were a lot of police, some with police dogs, and a  lot of security people at the stores.  One of the venders that I bought a souvenir from (didn't speak English) motioned to me that someone would be looking at my rings.  I turned my ring around so the diamonds were in my palm and she said NO.  She motioned with a knife my finger would be cut off to get the rings.  Well now, I respected that information right away.  I took my rings off and Danny put them in his pocket.  So, like I said, that was the only time we didn't feel safe. 

So today after flying was "interesting".  Danny and David (a California friend) both landed in a field behind a housing development.  There was an old guy on a  tractor there who didn't seem to mind our presence.  We packed up both balloons and headed out the way we came in .  The organizer of the "Chili Balloon Tour" was our chase crew and truck.  He's a nice guy and down to earth. We got to the gate and it was closed with an angry man standing there. (David's truck and chase crew evidently got to the gate before the angry farmer showed up.  We were maybe 1 minute behind him.  The tour organizer talked to the man in Spanish but you could tell they were  both getting VERY angry. Then the farmer ordered the gate locked, and his employees responded right away.  So now, that's a fine fix to be in.  By the way referring to the paragraph above we weren't actually really afraid.  We knew we would be rescued.  And in about 10 minutes a lady official of the City along with a big guy arrived and after some apologizing from the City, the farmer ordered the gate unlocked.  Ahhhhhh freedom at last.  It was a weird feeling.  By the way, that's the first time I have seen grapes laying in the sun waiting to be raisins.  That farmer would have been really ticked at us if he knew we had snagged a bunch of grapes to snack on.  During that flight, Danny got to relive our early days of flying in Illinois.  There was a field of corn just past the tassle stage and he flew (as we used to) right at the top of the corn.  For those of you that are not balloon people, that's a fun challenge to maintain an exact height like that.

It's summer here and the main crop is Grapes.  Danny says it's really beautiful from the air to see the vineyards, hay and corn fields.  I haven't had the opportunity to fly with him yet.  We've been trying to fly sponsors and other people the event assigns to us.  After we fly in Valdivia, we will go to northern Chile to fly the Valley of the Moon.  This part of the trip is just a treat for the pilots, no sponsors to fly.  I figure I'll get in the air with Danny then. 

Boy this email is turning into a book

Our European counterparts are here.  They fit right in this group.  They are all English, and live in England except for one who lives in Ireland. 

Tomorrow we leave for Valdivia.............. south of Santiago.  According to the map it's a pretty large city.  I believe that is where we will see the President of Chile.  I think (there's a lot of that) they fly us to Valdivia because it is so far south. 

This morning after the balloons launched and before we left for the chase, two young women came up to me and asked if they could have their picture taken with me.  I agreed and we took the picture.  One of the girls spoke excellent English and it turns out she was an English major from Los Andes just finishing her Masters.  Why the picture?  We're kind of getting used to our "Rock Star" status.  That's the Chilean label not ours.  They view us as celebrities, especially in the smaller towns.  

One last observation:  there has only been one hotel out of 4 that had washcloths.  (the nice one in Vina Del Mar) We asked one of the interpreters and he said it's just a custom.  They wash with their hands.  So we found a little store that had what looks like small dish towels and bought ourselves each a wash cloth.

Must go now..........have to go to the park again.  We'll fly if we can.  If not we'll try to stand the balloons up.

Chou!
Danny and Wendy

Free Flight in Rio Bueno

Looking back at our launch site

From Los Andes we took a flight to Valdivia, where we will stay for the whole week. The planning here is either non-existent or loose, and to enjoy the adventure we have to adjust to going with the flow.










We arrived at the airport without our tickets and not sure about whether our luggage was going on the plane or with the balloons. Alfredo and Rodrigo managed to get it all arranged & we arrived at our hotel and headed out to Rio Bueno (good river).

I was anxious to get my first free-flight in Chile and David deferred to being my crew chief. It is no small task to find out who is our crew and what truck will be chasing us, so we delay our afternoon flight until we got it figured out.

Wide open country

 We finally launched close to 8:00 PM with our eager but novice crew in pursuit. The landscape is beautiful, with trees and crops - wide open for landings if you can avoid the mass of power lines & trees. We had a 30 min flight at 18 MPH & skidded into an alfalfa field to the amazement of the landowner.

Good River (Rio Bueno)

Landowner relations in Rio Bueno

 Our awesome crew was there within two minutes, unlike some others whose chase crews that didn't show up at all.