Wow - what a great start to our trip! Just cross my fingers and hope the next 32 days are just as smooth! (Somehow I doubt it). Chari took us up to the station at 7am (yes, I've been up since 4am - who needs an alarm?) and the train was on time and a super express! We were at Central by 9am! Then the train out to the airport - all good! The opal card helps make everything run smoothly - no lining up at the ticket machine, searching for change, hoping to get change! Just tap on and go! We were surprised to find they already had the checkin open for our flight. It's 12 years since we last flew business class, and things have changed a little. We had a comfy seated area to fill out our green departure forms, and then we had express passes to take us through a different immigration and security section that we'd never seen before. I had to take my shoes off because I alarmed the security thing! Must be the new old-lady orthotics! But my knee doesn't hurt and that's what matters! We had minimal duty free shopping on our way out - we have another international flight after this one and Tom doesn't trust them to not confiscate any liquids. So we just made our way up to the Business Lounge! I was hoping for a lovely sandwich, but they were still catering to breakfast, so I had to make do with sausages, mushrooms and eggs! With champagne! So..... This is the start of another adventure! Well, this Business Class is very nice - the personal service ("Mr Watt, would you like full cream or lite milk in your muesli?"), linen napery, the real cutlery, fine china, glassware, pyjamas, champagne, cognac, cheese platter, ladies and gents toiletry bags, the real towels to dry your hands, lay flat beds ...... It's just wonderful. I could get used to it. During the flight over I watched the movies Pride; The Best of Me (based on a Nicholas Sparks book) and This is Where I Leave You. All were great. During our flight we crossed the international date line, so we landed in Santiago before we left Sydney! Our approach to Santiago was surrounded by snow capped mountains - very picturesque. We had a 3 hour wait for our next flight. No Business Class lounge. We'll be back in this airport in 4 weeks! We had some time to wait in Santiago and met a man from Maroochydore who is also doing our tour. The lady sitting next to me in the lounge was taking her aged mum back to Lima. The two of them have been living in Perth for twenty years but the mum wants to go home to die. How sad. We then flew up to Lima, after having what seemed like a bus tour of the airport runways, boarding an international flight up the stairs out in the middle of the airport. On this flight we had the tastiest, tenderest steak we've had in a long time - I can see where they get their reputation for first class beef!