Abroad

South America Comes

A Little Nearer

One of the most rewarding continents and yet one of the most difficult to get at from the South Pacific resi

dent’s point of view, is South

America, although tieawise it is not as difficult now as it was a

couple of years ago before the

Dutch Mails pioneered a new round-the-world route which took in Callao (port of Lima, in

Peru ).

THE 23,000-ton Willem Ruys makes four round-the-world trips a year, calling at Callao after Sydney and Wellington, NZ, and before passing through the Panama Canal to Miami (or New York), Bermuda and Southampton.

It is quite a simple proposition to break the journey at Callao, spend three months in various of the South American countries and re turn to Lima to pick the vessel up on her next call.

The Sydney-Southampton first class fare on Willem Ruys is from £A3OO and tourist is from £AIS4, with discounts for return bookings (via Suez) and as these things go, and in view of its unusual route, it is good value for money.

The one item on the debit side

of this particular voyage is the long sea haul from Wellington to Callao without sight of land. This might be pleasant enough if the company concerned could be persuaded to head for the tropics once leaving Wellington. But that doesn’t happen.

If you prefer to fly to South America, this is easy enough although from the South Pacific it still amounts to the long way around, and that is expensive.

The projected Santiago-Sydney air service that they were talking about as far back as 1957 has come to nothing; neither has the service from Santiago to Papeete via Easter Island.

The airstrip on Easter Island is, as far as we know, still in the talk ing stage, although international airlines —including BOAC—are still interested in it, in an academic way.

The only way to fly to South America from this part of the world at present is to use one of the normal airline routes to the United States and then take it from there.

Of probable interest to such tourists are the 90-days excursion rates Pan American Airways are currently offering to South Ameri can tourist centres from both the east and west coasts of the United States.

These excursions, if you don’t mind using the older pistoned engined aircraft like DC7s, can cost as little as $450 tourist-class return New York-Rio de Janeiro. The New York-Buenos Aires jet excursion round trip tourist-class is $550. The Los Angeles-Buenos Aires excursion roundtrip is $6B7 —and there are a dozen other combinations of the same theme, all saving some hundreds of dollars.

However, for residents in the South Pacific, Pan American can quote for other travel plans that may be even more interesting. Their round-the-world ticket, Australia back to Australia (or Fiji back to Fiji) is priced at £A564/16/- tourist and £ABB3 first-class.

This covers the usual Pacific route from Sydney to Los Angeles, then over the Pole, or through New York, to London (or other Euro pean capital), returning to Sydney via the Middle East.

At the moment, PAA has to use another carrier from Bangkok to Sydney, but landing rights to com plete this link in their round-the world services have been granted.

If the tourist wants to add that diversion to South America to this round-the-world plan, he does so from Los Angeles.

From LA the route is Mexico City, Guatemala, Panama, Bogota (Colombia), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Lima, La Paz (Bolivia) Antofagasta (Chile). Santiago, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Luis (Brazil), Cayenne, (Fr.

Kuiana), Trinidad, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Kingston (Jamaica) and New York.

In New York, of course, you take up your round-the-world journey.