Antofagasta, Chile

Friday, January 20, 2012 – sea day

Did two exercise classes and walked for 2 miles and meditation class. Lovely day again. Warm sun and breezes. Some people are seeing the spouts from the whales but it is difficult to see the whales. They are heading south in the warm current of a strait so we should see a lot of them.

Mark Donoghue was the entertainer playing many instruments very well. Went in to see the movie Super 8 for about 10 minutes and left. Computer classes about photos and downloading. Enjoyed the paper airplane toss (you need to have fun, right?) but we did not win. Crashed and burned, shall we say…
Changed the clocks again an hour forward!

Saturday, January 21, 2012 – Antofagasta, Chile

We landed here in 1992 (via plane) on the way to the arid Atacama desert and really like this region. Dry, dry, high, high mountains surround the town stretched along the coast.
This is our first port of call in Chile. Antofagasta is the service center for the nitrate and copper industries in the area. There are approx. 300,000 residents and it is 800 miles north of Santiago.

We took the free shuttle to the main plaza in town and met up with another friend to use her Chilean money! We had not changed money yet so she had just enough to get all 3 of us out to the ruins of the silver mine, Huanchaca. The brick frames of the buildings are the only remaining walls and they are high above the city. The mine began in 1888, under a British-Bolivan-Chilean consortium and took four years to complete. The ore itself made a 500-km rail trip to arrive at the plant which could process 100 tons per day to produce 20 tons of silver monthly. The complex included workers’ housing, a church, hotel and shops but with the fall of silver in 1902, it closed. Casino hotels are in the area and it seems to be quite a nice area for tourists – we met a family of four adults who had driven their motorcycles for five days from Argentina, over the Andes, to vacation here. What fabulous scenery they must have driven through!! They were our “bank” as there was no place to change money until after 12PM! Nuts. The hotel could not change it. The casino did not open until 12. So they were kind enough to take our US dollars and give us $2 in Chilean pesos. Live and learn.

The public buses were nice and about ½ the size of our buses. Walked to the cathedral, the Torre Reloj, a Big Ben look-alike built by British community donations to honor Chile’s centenary, walked down the pedestrian street with its many shops, over to the fish market (Terminal Pesquero) where it smelled wonderful and everything looked so fresh and to the antique flea market and to the hotel to try for WiFi. No luck. Should have persevered as I spent hours on the internet on the ship costing me a small fortune but you do what you have to do! Small shops were by the ship and they were very strict about food being taken off the ship and even had us get off the bus to go through security with our purchases when we returned to the ship from town.

The sailout was fabulous. LONG city stretched along the coast line with a gorgeous sunset. Who wants to go to dinner with this scenery? The sun is setting now about 8:30PM as the days get longer the further south we travel. Love it.
Worked very late that night and up very early the next morning working out some travel issues.

Close by are the Tropic of Capricorn and many nitrate ghost towns.

Sunday, January 22, 2012 – at sea

Slept until 11:22 when the phone rang and some clients were in the hospital. Spent most of the day with them and with two other clients who are also not feeling well. I must have really needed that sleep this morning. It was beautiful hot day with clear skies – no clouds and very, very calm seas. Please pray the weather remains this way. Very little waves and the ship is pitching forward slowly and easily so it is not uncomfortable at all.

Had an Oktoberfest BBQ on the pool deck and they were all dressed in the Bavarian costumes; quite cute. Finally caught up on my diary writing in between visits to the hospital and staterooms. Gene is watching the football playoffs, as are quite a few others as the TVs at the bars are full. Had a P.E.O. get-together for ½ hour and there are at least five of us onboard – from FL, IA and OH. Dinner in the buffet and watched the singers and dancers perform – excellent show! “Dancing in the Stars”