Jaunted

View LAN's Must-See South America routes in a larger map
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· From Guayaquil, Ecuador (GYE) to the Galapagos Islands (GPS)
LAN flight number(s): XL 1551
LAN aircraft used: Airbus A320
Flight length: 2 hours
Why it's awesome: You're flying and it's all ocean...ocean...ocean and then BOOM, the dots of lush greenery that makes up the archipelago of the Galapagos Islands. The airport at Baltra is closest to the National Park, and landing here while gawking out the window is likely to give you the chills that come from true exploration.

· From Miami, Florida (MIA) to Bogota, Colombia (BOG)
LAN flight number(s): LA 3503
LAN aircraft used: Airbus A320
Flight length: 3.7 hours
Why it's awesome: Leaving Miami, you hit the Caribbean quickly and then, on a clear day, it's a hop over Cuba and down into the green of South America. Over Colombia, the ground is flower factories—thousands of them—plus the Amazon plain.

· From Santiago, Chile (SCL) to Punta Arenas, Chile (PUQ)
LAN flight number(s): LA 97, LA 81
LAN aircraft used: Airbus A320
Flight length: 2.50 hours
Why it's awesome: We don't have to tell you about the excellent scenery around Patagonia, but when you go way, way down to Punta Arenas, your flight will pass over the third largest ice cap in the world, after Antarctica and Greenland. Down there, it's still the Ice Age.

· From Santiago, Chile (SCL) to Buenos Aires, Argentina (AEP)
LAN flight number(s): LA 439, LA 461, LA 451
LAN aircraft used: Airbus A320 or Airbus A318
Flight length: 1.30 hours
Why it's awesome: According to Marcelo, this route does the very cool thing of coming close to "touch" Aconcagua, the highest mountain peak in the Americas at 22,841 feet. It's part of the Andes, so flying this way means you'll have flat terrain for a moment, then the spike of Aconcagua, then flat terrain again, like a strong beat on a heart rate monitor.

· From Buenos Aires, Argentina (AEP) to Iguazu Falls, Argentina (IGR)
LAN flight number(s): DSM 4026
LAN aircraft used: Airbus A320
Flight length: 1.25 hours
Why it's awesome: From Buenos Aires, you get the view of the metropolis before heading up into the dense forest. Then, all of a sudden, a column of mist on the horizon. This column, shooting up into the air, is the mist above Iguazu Falls, very visible from an airplane.

[Photo: Jaunted on Instagram]