This will be a follow-up on my post from yesterday speculating on the routes to be used for legs 2, 3, and 4. This is going to have a lot of detail in airline schedules, so if that bores you tune out. For leg 2 from Quito to each of the three Atacama desert cities, there are these possibilities for flying, all but two involving an overnight flight from Quito through Santiago:
QUITO to ARICA
departs 1805 through Lima and Santiago arriving 1050
departs 2145 through Santiago arriving 1320
QUITO to IQUIQUE
departs 2145 through Santiago arriving 1045 or 1135
departs 0740 through Panama City (?? 1000 miles north) and Santiago arriving 0045 next day
departs 1805 through Lima and Santa Cruz Bolivia arriving 0550
QUITO to ANTOFAGASTA
departs 2145 through Santiago arriving 0925 or 1015
departs 1805 through Lima and Santiago arriving 0845
For leg 3, all reasonable flights go through Santiago (although it is posiible to get to Punta Arenas through Puerto Montt, Argentina). There are 4 flights per day from Santiago to Punta Arenas:
depart 1110 arrive 1430
depart 1240 arrive 1700
depart 2030 arrive 2350
depart 2355 arrive 0315 next day
The flights that connect to those are:
From ARICA - depart 0725 arrive 1120, depart 1400 arrive 1720, depart 1850 arrive 2210
From IQUIQUE - depart 0700 arrive 0900, depart 0810 arrive 1110, depart 1500 arrive 1720, depart 2000 arrive 2210
From ANTOFAGASTA - depart 0830 arrive 1020, depart 0925 arrive 1110, depart 1430 arrive 1615, depart 2110 arrive 2255
I expect leg 4 to involve a trip from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia. LAN 997 takes only 50 minutes but is available once at 1400 on Monday, Wenesday and Saturday in that direction.
I also decided to take a crack at leg 5, which I expect to be from Ushuaia to Maputo Mozambique (Note: I disagree with those who think there is going to be another pit stop in South Africa). Here there are basically two choices and only one makes any sense. the non-sensical one involves getting the direct flight to Maputo from Lisbon, Portugal. The problem is the extra 5000 or so miles in each direction to get up to Lisbon and back down. It takes an extra day according to flights schedules. The smarter approach is to take South Africa Airways flight 206 out of Sao Paulo Brazil nonstop to Johannesburg South Africa. It connects there with Mozambique Airlines, with a second morning arrival in Maputo at 940am. The flights out of Ushuaia are a 2136 departure on Aerolineas Argentinas to Buenos Aires, a transfer between terminals in Buenos Aires, then a wide assortment of choices to fly to Sao Paulo to get SAA206.
The first test of some of my transportation theories will come on Feb. 25 when episode 2 will air (if it isn't preempted by the Oscars).