Skydive Andes Paracaidismo en Chile

PROS: Location is fantastic, you can see the Pacific to the west and the Andes to the East. Their Black Hawk Caravan is fast and has benches. I went in summer when the weather was great. Jumps were $25,000 each (currently about 25GBP/ 33USD) which is pretty good. Staff were generally very friendly (Max was very welcoming and the pilot Rodriguez was super helpful and chatty, and gave a great orientation from the air). Registration was easy thanks to Babo and Jorge and I was quickly introduced to another wingsuiter and we were left to crack on with whatever we wanted. Café serves good food, especially breakfast! People were friendly and I was grateful for the effort some of the local jumpers put in to be welcoming- big plus! Great scenery around the place, and nice villages nearby. Judging purely on jumps and friendliness, jumping here is awesome!

CONS: Communication beforehand was poor. No reply to email. Whatsapped and asked specifically which dates the DZ would be open, and despite getting a short but clear answer, I drove over an hour and a half to find the DZ closed when I was told it would be open. A total waste of a day on holiday! Sounds below like other people also had poor communication. On the jumping days, there were SO many tandems that fun-jumping became not very fun. One day there were 21 lifts and I only got 2 jumps despite waiting from 9am. It was after lunch before I got the first jump and one instructor I spoke to had already done 5 tandems. Local jumpers were also complaining. In mitigation, this was after Xmas, so perhaps a lot of people had received tandems for presents, but even so, fun jumpers were definitely pushed to the side. There's no wifi (a real pain if you're using a foreign phone). No accommodation and nearest cash point is in the next village (20 mins), but there are some local hostels around. Basically, bring a book, because you'll be sitting around a lot.

Conclusion: If you're Europe based, it's worth taking your kit if you're heading to Chile anyway, especially given its 1-1.5hrs to the capital and the scenery is great. However, remember that it is a local DZ/ tandem centre, so it's not worth planning a whole trip to the southern hemisphere for, because you just won't get the jumps in to make it worth the effort- stick to Algarve, Empuria etc. If it just sorted out the waiting times and prior communication it would be a 5-star DZ for sure. I'd like to emphasize that the people I met were really cool, friendly and welcoming, and I'd go again if I was in town.

Went there without any preregistration or anything.
From the first second on i met somebody it was a "just like home" feeling. After inspecting my gear, some papaer stuff and a good explanation of their landing pattern and behaviour in the air i was ready to go. Really stressfree and everybody was super helpful.

The plane is a caravan. Pretty fast consider the temperatures. (30°C and above)

The landing are is HUGE!! It is splitted by staff and other jumpers. But still really really big!!!

Find somebody to jump with is no problem. Everybody is more than happy to jump with you. A lot of highly skilled people over there!

All in all: whenever you have a chance to go there, do it!! This dropzone is absolute worth a visit!!!!

I had a blast... :D

I spent 3 days in this DZ. The staff is very helpful and friendly. This is mainly due to the DT of the zone Bubba, super fun, and professional guy.
Landing zone is super large, so no big issue. Facilities are great. Pool, cafeteria, we had asado at night. Packing is very quick.
Note that this is a very windy DZ. Was several times on hold for students.

When visiting their website, I noticed there is no decent information about this zone, services or how to get there. This is the general feeling of the whole experience.
After trying to call their phone a couple times - with no response - I decided to try a secondary mobile number, where I talked to Fabian, very briefly as he would tell me to text him instead.
When texting, I was completely ignored most of the time, I would send several messages, he would read them (as I received confirmed read check on my side) but totally ignore them or sometimes answer partially one out of five questions I would pose. Repeating the question or trying to kindly ask for someone else's contact did not result in any response either.

To get there you must go to Estacion Central, and get a bus called Rutabus 78 and ask the driver to help you jump out in a side road restaurant in the middle of nowhere called Barbarella. There is no sign or instructions from there. You gotta trust your location skills to figure out where the zone is by google map (if you are lucky enough to get some signal there), cross the highway at road level and walk yourself through some crop fields (it is as bad as it reads...) to get there.

Once there, forget about feeling welcome. Even there nobody knows nothing and keep pushing you to each other like you are a burden and they are doing you a huge favor when assisting you.

After facing all the weird faces I could get when they realized I was a foreigner, they insisted I would not be allowed to jump solo unless I would take a coaching/checking jump with another instructor, but when I agreed to that, they said they couldn't help me because there were no instructors available and blamed me for not getting in touch with them before (which I tried to do for one week of no responses and being ignored).

The only actual decent help I could get was from the brazilian pilot Bruna Ploner, which was very kind to try to convince one instructor to help me and also explained me all the technical details about the zone.

Their equipment is good but there is only one skydiving company there (Skydive Andes itself), and the monopoly won't let them face it as a business so they really lack the willing to help others.
There is only one airplane and depending on the day, very few athletes. If there is not enough people to fill a plane, the area shuts down. The day I went there were merely 3 launches all day and then they announced it would be shutdown due to lack of athletes for the day.

Unless you really must for some greater force jump here, I would advice you to don't. Skydiving should be a fun and happy activity but that's not what you will find here. If you insist, get ready to deal with bad mood and bring an extra supply of patience.

I'm a solo jumper. This drop zone is a charm once you are there and sky diving is going on. It's just hard to find, if you are not from around there and there's no information about which days there is sky diving going on. In case you are going to jump there: Friday the manifest is there from around 2pm and once enough sky divers are there, the first load is going, which was around 4pm when I was there. Saturday and Sundays are quite croweded, the rest of the week there's no sky diving.

Before getting there, I tried to reach these guys via email and even tried a spanish translation via google translate, which should be understandable, even if it's not perfect. I only got one mail back not even answering a single of my questions just saying something like "we looking forward to meeting you" and that's it. When I got to Chile I send another few emails to ask these questions, but none of them ever got responded.

So I just took the chance and drove there with my rental car on a Thursday. The Canadian Pilot was the only one there showing me around and telling me everything I needed to know.

Be careful when renting equipment. It's quite solid and they have AADs. On my fourth jump I had a cut away, because of what seemed to be a packing mistake (line throwover). I didn't pack the parachute my self, but let it handle an experienced packer. There's no insurance, so anything lost when you have a cut away, you will have to pay in full. Luckily with some help we found the missing free bag on the second day in the crop field next to the drop zone, so I had to pay nothing.

The staff is very nice and helpful. Some do speak english, like Macarena at the manifest.

The plane is an experimental one, built out of a kit. You will have to sign a 5 page liability waiver, which also has information about the plane, so you know what you are up to.

Nice little dz set around the mountains. They were very good with information when I emailed, and when I turned up were very professional and friendly. Good DZ orientation and brief. Plenty of kit to hire, in various sizes. Canteen and bunk house. They even tried to move me up the manifest as I was only there for one day (which they did) plenty of free flyers more than happy for you to jump with them too. Perfect

Very unpolite person, so cold..And if you jump one day time it's ok, but if you wanna jump again you have to pay 250.000 pesos for a club card where you don't no about that more 150.000 pesos for year...It's not a true jump club like every part of world. IT'S NOT A GOLF CLUB...

This is a great drop zone, with 7,5 hectares of green grass and a good packing area. You can jump waching the pacifico and andes at the same time. close to the Capital, Santiago, have a good weather during almost all year round. the people is friendly and the instructors have a ton of experience.

if you are in Chile this is the dropzone you must be.

"Los Cuatro Diablos" airfield in Chiñihue, Chile, better known as Skydive Andes is one awesome DZ. The people are very friendly and accommodating. It has a beautiful grass strip runway with no other traffic around. Close to Santiago and the beaches it provides for some amazing sunset jumps, with the sun setting on the Pacific and the Andean Mountain ranges seemingly lit on fire towards the east. They've got plenty of gear to rent if need be. Their jump ship has got one of the coolest paint jobs around too... If you are ever in Chile you've got to hit these guys up! They've got a great thing going down there.

Well the best dropzone in south america.
Good vibes, incredible view, excellent plane (very good pilot), very close to Santiago....what else can I say.
Fairly new facilities, good food!!!!
I think very soon we will hear about this place more often . Locals are very friendly and dropzone management will help you in knowing the place and with any safety question you might have. It is not very crowded yet. It is more like a small well manage operation, than a big industrial dropzone, so you might feel like in the old times, with a manifest writen on a white board, and that kid of staff.
If you come to south america, you have to stop by this place.

The drop zone is amazing!!! The scenery is breath taking, and while you’re on the plane you can see the Andes, the city and the coast, that’s just priceless.
Plus Chile has so much to offer, that this destination should be a must in your travel list!

Es un DZ increíble, gente muy simpática y el nivel es muy bueno. Puedes hacer freefly o lo que quieras y siempre hay gente para saltar contigo. El manifest maneja todo muy bien y muy rápido, puedes saltar todo lo que quieras, además es muy buena onda. el avión es una bala y más encima tiene puerta, te vas conversando tranquilamente y en 10 minutos ya estas saltando. Mucha comida, saltos. Todo perfecto.

Sky dive andes has only been open 3 months so it does not have many jumpers yet ( only seven loads on a saturday). In time this drop zone will be one of the largest in Chile. It is the cleanest drop zone I have ever been to. Perfectly aligned bright green bushes seperate the landing area from the main building. It is like a tropical get away in the middle of chile, only 40 minutes from santiago.
Everything is very new and clean; the buildings, the packing area, the bathrooms, the on site resturant with cheap prices for a burger or anticucho or beer.
The owner Julio is extreamily helpful and kind. There were only about 8 regular fun jumpers there, but all were awsome and helpful towards me, a fairly new person in the sport.

In good time once more people find out about this drop zone it will be fabulous...

el club es muy lindo me impresiono la pista entera de pasto es perfecta....
el avión turbohelice sube muy rápido a 14.000 ft.

increible lo amigable de la gente del club, muy amistosos, el lugar es tremendo de bonito y tiene la mejor vista desde 18.000 pies...se ve todo el oceano pacifico por el oeste y por el otro lado toda la cordillera de los andes...incluso en un dia despejado se ve hasta el Aconcagua en el lado Argentino.....increible saltar en esta DZ.

July 2008: Chiñihue is now one of the best dropzones in South America. New turboprop airplane [Comp Air 8: 11 minutes to 13000 with 6 skydivers, "oxygen jumps" available to 18,000], and professional management by full-time professional skydivers (Skydive Andes) make this friendly club a top choice for skydiving in South America. Beautiful country location a short 45 minute drive from Santiago (on the way to the beach), with easy access to the nearby Andes mountains. Close to beaches, mountains, city. Transportation & accommodations readily available for any budget. Website at http://www.SkydiveAndes.cl or call Julio, cell phone +56.9.9129.5519.