Dec. 24. Christmas Eve. Coquimbo, Chili. 60, cloudy.
Our tour today started at 8:45. It was mostly panoramic of this beautiful area. The Coquimbo/La Serena area had a population of about 500K, but it is a very popular tourist spot, particularly for tourists from Argentina. During the summer, from 20 Dec. to mid March some 1M tourist visit the area. Although where we are docked at the not so high end, commercial side of the bay, the other side of the huge bay has 5 miles of beautiful beaches, casinos, high end hotels, restaurants and shopping. Our tour took us to 3 scenic photo stops, as well as shopping time at a market. Fortunately the market had a supermarket, in additional to all the traditional booths of local wares. Our ships boutique had almost completely run out of sundries, and we were in need of a few essentials like toothpaste! So, we were able to stock up at the supermarket. Between the photo stops and the shopping the tour was 3 hours, which was just right! Unfortunately it remained cloudy and cool. We really haven’t seen much sun for several days. Back at the ship, we had lunch at our cold weather table, under the heaters with L&O. They went off to exercise and we went off for naps! I should mention that the Executive Chef is German and the GM is also is fluent in German, so Harty has gotten friendly with both. He sees one or the other daily, so gets the inside scoop on what is going on. On the Brazilian visa issue, the cruise lines and the airlines are working together to pressure the government to do something, as the visas are not forthcoming.
According to the GM, our worst case scenario is the ship will just have to skip Brazil. That would be a shame, to miss Rio, in particular, also a shame for Brazil to miss out on all this tourism. It had been cloudy all day, but the clouds lifted at 5pm, just in time to watch a beautiful sail-away from the Observation Lounge. We ate in CR with L,O and G having the German traditional Christmas Goose. We all also topped the meal with the French traditional Bouche de Noel. After dinner we went to the Christmas show put on by the cruise director and production cast. It was cute and good.
Dec. 25. Merry Christmas. San Antonio, Chili. Dense fog am, partly cloudy 72 pm.
San Antonio is a commercial port and the gateway to Santiago, the capital of Chili, and also a gateway to the wine regions of Chili. We were supposed to dock at 9am, but the visibility was zero so the port was closed. We just treaded water outside the port until 11:30when it cleared to 2 miles of visibility and they opened the port. It was 1pm by the time we were docked and the ship cleared with authorities. Most of the tours were 7-8 hours long so got canceled. Ours was to a vineyard for a tour and tasting. It was just to be 4 hours, so not canceled, but with the iffy weather and the prospect of not getting back til 5-6pm, we canceled. We hung by the pool with L&O sipping champagne and/or Bloody Mary’s for a while. We looked into taking a shuttle to town, but being Christmas, rumor had it practically nothing was open.
So, after sipping, George napped and I walked the deck for an hour. Actually the weather was quite nice for that. We met for cocktails then had the traditional Christmas Day dinner ( turkey with all the fixings) in CR. We all went to most of the pianist/singer show.
Dec. 26. At Sea. Seas 10’ (It’s getting rougher) . Sunny, 60 and breezy.
We had breakfast in CR, then on the lecture about Democracy. We went up to the pool deck and grabbed our “winter”table under the heaters and with blankets. Actually it is beautiful out with clear skies and glistening white caps. We lingered over lunch with Bloody Mary’s and retreated to our rooms mid-afternoon. George and I are now feeling fine but Harty is coming down with whatever we had. Update on the Brazil visa situation: I got an email last night that I needed to re-upload my bank statement and itinerary. In the process of doing that, I confirmed that George’s application has been accepted…with the exact same bank statement and itinerary files that they are not accepting for mine! We met for cocktails, as usual and had dinner in the French restaurant, Chartreuse.
We got a table all the way in the back at the windows looking back at out wake. It was quite beautiful as the sun didn’t set until 9:30, and was glistening on the waves. After dinner Harty and George, still not feeling up to par, crashed. I stayed up, wrapped up on our balcony and watched the sun set into the pacific, while sipping champagne.
Dec. 27. Puerto Montt, Chili. Sunny, 70.
Puerto Montt is pretty far up a very protected bay/fjord which the captain had said we would enter around 2am, at which point the seas would be much calmer. All of that was true. We woke up coming into the port, with our first view of the Andes, with 2 snow capped mountains framing the port from a distance. We are tendered in this port. Our tour today was Petrohue Falls and Puerto Vargas. It was our best tour so far, partially due to the spectacular weather ; cloudless Carolina blue sky, and 70 degrees with a light breeze, in an area where it rains 285 days a year. We really lucked out there, and also with our excellent guide. After tendering in, we drove 1:15 to the first National Park of Chili.
The ride was beautiful mostly along the shore of Chili’s largest lake, that is entirely in Chili. It must have been 10 miles or more wide, and the road was flanked on either side by the snow capped mountains. At the incredibly well maintained and clean, clean, clean park, we walked a wheelchair friendly trail for 10 -15 mins. with several overlooks down to the falls. We had about an hour to enjoy this scenery, then back to the bus for the scenic ride back to Puerto Varas, City of Roses, which it literally was! This small city on the bank of the lake it a charming town with shops, hotels cafes, bars etc. We had 45 min. to explore the rose bush lined streets and shops. We had left at 9am and didn’t get back to the ship until 2:30, so quick grabbed a beer and a bit of lunch by the pool. It was warm enough for us to sit at our “summer” table.
2025-02-08