Welcome to Chile! La Serena (Coquimbo) Fri, 12/20/13

Our Golden Princess eased into Coquimbo Harbor 7ish Friday morning for the day.  Seasonal (summer) low clouds shrouded the scene, something we're used to seeing by now, which gave way around noon to clear skies and warm temps.  Coquimbo spans the entire area around the harbor, advancing straight into the hills, surprising us with its size.  We docked snug against the colorful city.  

A gray morning into Chile.

Eye-catching zigzag walk up the hill (but not for us!).

It appears the Princess has rammed into Coquimbo!
No, we're just moored at the foot of the city. 

Steep and richly colored.  That's Coquimbo

* * * * *

But our day is to be spent in La Serena, several kilometers east of Coquimbo.  Princess has shuttles operating between the ship and La Serena Square located in the city center.  La Serena is the regional capital of Norte Chile, and we've heard it is a charming city and well worth the visit.  Off we went on an explore.  Sue and Adel were with us initially, but we lost them somewhere along the way!

Court of Justice bldg -- love the architectural style.

The churches of La Serena are distinguished by many styles of belfries,

which led to the city being nicknamed, "City of the Belfries."

Street entertainment -- these guys were good!

Always, every city, with Christmas coming,
street vendors are out with their local handicrafts.

Christmas wrapping paper is a popular item.
Pick the paper and they'll wrap your package on the spot.

The Archaeological Museum had an extensive collection of artifacts left behind by Chile's indigenous cultures.  It wasn't expensive, obviously had "guard dogs," and was interesting. The big drawback?  No bilingual signs on any of the collections.  (Those dogs don't move; people just walk around them.)

This giant Easter Island statue (called moai) is 12 feet tall,
and this is the real deal, not a replica.

Skeletal remains from an Inca temple located 6300 meters (over 20,000')
above sea level in Chile's Elqui Valley. 

OK.  So, we walked and walked around this lovely city and then chanced upon a tempting outdoor cafe. This lady served up two very fine cups of coffee!  Nice to get off the feet for a few minutes and watch the people walk by.

Aboard ship at the end of our day here in Norte Chile, we thought we heard music while walking to dinner and saw a crowd of passengers at the ship's rail.  A street band had come to serenade us, bid us farewell, and played - of all songs - "Auld Lang Syne!"  What a nice gesture and a great send-off.

* * * * *

This would be our last night aboard the Golden Princess.  Tomorrow morning, we disembark in Valparaiso, Chile.  We have had a superb 17-day cruise, enjoying every moment, from the entertainment to the food, new friends and laughter, the warm pools and relaxing moments poolside (some snoozing going on here!), fantastic sea life - fishies, whales, sea turtles, dolphins, frigates and boobies (birds, not people!), etc., the cities we've visited and the excursions we're taken... all of it was delightful.  One of the best parts for us was simply standing on our balcony overlooking the vast, ever-changing ocean, appreciating each moment and our great good fortune to be where we are today.

Baked Alaska on Parade by the junior waiters (Mauricio at our table) is a shipboard tradition.  Everyone cheers, hoots, and waves their napkins, as encouragement to each waiter.  Then, the dessert is cut and served at each table.  Bursting at the seams, we bid our guys a fond farewell.  It's been grand!

So:  Tomorrow (mañana) we are on our own (babes in the woods?), boarding a jet in Santiago aimed at Punta Arenas, located at the bottom of the world, and a whole new adventure!  Bring it on! 

Headin' South... South America, that is. Wed/Thurs, Dec 18/19

We have two relaxing days at sea before reaching our next destination:  La Serena (Coquimbo), in northern Chile.  After Tuesday's dinner, we enjoyed gazing at December's Full Cold Moon while walking the Promenade Deck, tho the evening didn't feel cold to us; windy, yes!  We look windblown in the second photo.

Wednesday dawned cool and overcast, with singular shafts of sunlight piercing the ocean. The water temp is up to 71 degrees again.  Each morning we have a Princess Patter in our cabin mailbox. Today's Patter announced a time change for tonite. We set our clocks forward one hour last nite. Figured it must be a typo. While pondering this outside our cabin, Captain Wilson (!!) was making his way aft in our passageway. We stopped him and I asked him if it was a mistake. "No," came his affable reply. "But," I responded, "we set our clocks forward last nite; it's four times already. What time zone will we be in with the next change?" He explained that technically it's the Greenland Time Zone (UTC-03:00), but in South America, it's simply called, "Santiago." We hadn't realized how far east we'd be while in Chile. Make for a bit of jet lag on the way home to California?

From our cabin:  Ethereal morning sun beams.

The morning's lecture was "All You Want to Know About Chile."  We believe every little bit of info we garner is going to help us get around Chile, since we'll be in the country for ten days.  For starters ... it's long and narrow:  The Republic of Chile stretches over 2.670 miles north to south, but only 217 miles at its widest point east to west.  We know it encompasses a remarkable variety of landscapes.  Their currency is the Chilean Peso (CLP), and 500 Pesos equals approximately one American dollar.  We'll be up in big numbers in no time!

This evening was the Captain's Farewell Party, with his farewell speech and cocktails in the Piazza. Jimmy and I got all gussied up for dinner. 

Corralled balloons, ready for The Drop. 

Enlarge this if you can. Guess which main course we picked!? 

This was my desert: Floating Islands.

 I thought they looked like floating eyeballs! I ate everyone.

After dinner stroll around the Promenade Deck as the sun sets.

Whee!  Balloon drop when the speech was finished!

 Music, dancing, and popping balloons.

Meanwhile, outside, the sun dropped - in quite spectacular fashion - into the ocean.

This is the Humboldt Current I mentioned previously, moving north from Antarctica cooling the West Coast of South America. Our last port-of-call touched on the Atacama Desert (the driest hot desert in the world).

Dessert on the 19th involved CHOCOLATE! We all indulged.

Raphael, me, Jimmy, and Mauricio. Wait staff with character! 

We never tire of the sunsets.  Nor the sunrises.  Grateful to see both.

Don't forget:  Set your clocks forward one hour.  We'll be in Santiago time, five hours forward of our Nevada City home (PST).  Tomorrow:  we set foot in Chile for the first time.  Yowza!

On with the Journey: South to Paracus, Peru -- Tues, Dec. 17th

Well, after an enforced hiatus, I'm back online.  When confronted with a roadblock, if I can't figure out a solution, maybe I'm not supposed to at that time.  Perhaps I'm just supposed to enjoy where I am, whatever I'm doing, and remember.  Notes help, but I didn't take many.  I have most of my memories upstairs, and I'll do my best to recount the journey as it unfolded.  I'll continue with blog posts till the end of our South American trip.  I believe I left off in Peru....

We began with a gray morning again, tho the sun shone by early afternoon. This destination was a mystery to most passengers. Looking at the photos below, you can probably see why. Princess uses three place names regarding this port-of-call: Pisco, San Martin, and Paracas. All we could see when we docked was a barren-looking desert. Okay, we understand that Pisco was flattened by a devastating earthquake in 2007 and hasn't been rebuilt; therefore, no tours or shuttles were offered to Pisco and no taxis parked at the dock. Princess offered two expensive tours, which Jimmy and I elected not to take, and both tours sold out early anyway. One tour was an Isles Ballestas Wildlife cruise. We didn't sign up for this as we planned to take a similar wildlife/penguin cruise later in Punta Arenas, Chile.

 

Buses lined up at Paracas Port like sardines in a can.
That's all we saw.

We learned that the reason for this stop was to pick up two busloads of passengers that departed our ship in Lima for the optional three-day Machu Picchu outing. (would've loved doing that, but - hoy! - talk about expensive!) Jimmy and I would've preferred an extra day in Costa Rica.

Poles alongside the road with no wires...?
All these photos were taken from the moving shuttle bus.

Bicyclists going nowhere?  No, they're riding to a fossil site miles away.
Hope they have plenty of water!

Princess did offer a shuttle service to the town of Paracas. We always visit a town if we can, so we paid our eight dollars each and hopped on the shuttle for the half-hour drive thru the dry Atacama Desert to tiny Paracas. It was either that or spend our day on the ship ... and who knows? We might find something intriguing ashore!

Our ship and these fishing boats look about the same size, but these small boats are much more colorful. Our ship is visible far left center, off in the distance.

We've discovered that public bathrooms are never easy to find in South America, but at this beautiful San Agustin Hotel we found relief. In the midst of not-much-at-all, was this gorgeous hotel with one of the world's longest swimming pools, complete with gulls. We enjoyed a cuppa delicioso coffee in their (deserted) open air dining room, and used their wifi, thank you very much. I guess the hotel must attract paying guests, but we saw no one ...?

 Loved reading this sign at poolside.
Translations aren't always easy (or accurate!

 The main draw of Paracas when the ship is in port is their outdoor market,
featuring locally made products ...

... such as this.

We were back aboard in mid-afternoon, as the ship would sail shortly after 4:30 for Coquimbo (La Serena), Chile. Oh boy -- Chile! Before we get there, however, we have to turn our clocks forward one more time. Another hour lost! Looking forward to our day tomorrow in Northern Chile.

Hola from Miraflores District, Lima, Peru, Monday, 12/16/13

Our ship remained in Lima overnight to carry out a routine "Inclining Test," whatever that may be.  A boon to passengers as it gives us another opportunity to see more city sights.  Our morning weather began gray, as has been the usual case lately.  Not cold, tho, and the day warmed up nicely.  Today's activities were a 180° from yesterday.  We hired a taxi to take us to the upscale Miraflores District of Lima, aka Miami Beach or Santa Monica!  Lots of high rise hotels and condos in this neck of the woods.  Our driver agreed to stay with us and ferry us around to various places of interest.

 Me and Jimmy and our friends and table mates, Sue and Adel, at our first stop near the ocean.  Palm trees and Bougainvillea line the streets.

 Now we're way up on that cliff overlooking the Pacific and peering straight down!

Native dresses mix with fashionistas.

West Peruvian Doves on the grassy grounds.

 Really nice park (and mall) at the top of the cliff.  We ate lunch at the mall.

Next:  Kennedy Park!! 
A tourist destination in Miraflores - who would've guessed Kennedy in Lima?

Kennedy Park is home to a herd of feral cats, obviously sleepy ones!

On to the Indian Market, aisle after aisle of stuff for sale.  We looked and looked but didn't buy.  I guess we're not very good consumers!  Or maybe we're picky.

Our next stop was La Huaca Pucllana, an historic adobe and clay pyramid (located in Miraflores), of the Lima Culture, a society which developed in the Peruvian Central Coast between the years of 200 AD and 700 AD. We didn't have time to take the tour, but we were staggered by the pyramid reconstruction, which has been ongoing for 30 years, with another 30 years to go!

A pyramid enclosed by the city.  (please enlarge photo)

 Imagine, brick by brick!!

West Peruvian Dove (center) with a nest in the fern at Huaca Pucllana.
They "wear" bright blue eyeglasses!

We had to be back aboard ship by 5 pm as our ship was sailing for San Martin (Pisco) Peru by 6 pm, but, honestly, we were done for the day. We'd been Out and About the entire day and our senses were overflowing, and our feet were crying.

These dessert concoctions were our reward for the thousands of steps we put in today.  Perhaps you'd like to see them, too:  Four different yummy plates for four people (one sugar-free).  Pretty, aren't they?  Delicious, too.  (oink-oink)

While we were eating dinner in the Canaletto dining room (or cannelloni, as I call it), the Golden Princess put out to sea again, heading south to San Martin (Pisco), Peru.  We've been warned, if I may use that word, that Pisco was destroyed by an earthquake a few years ago and is largely not rebuilt, so our ship won't be offering tours or trips to Pisco.  Rather, a shuttle will take us to Paracas if we want to go.  to be con'td.

A walk around the windy Promenade deck after all that food settles the stomach!  Ah, La Luna!  What a beautiful picture, reflected on the water ... it's mesmerizing.  Good nite, all, from Lima, Peru.