A Quiet Week of Sailing

 

Today is January 27^th and we are anchored off the coast of Castro, Isla Grande de Chiloe, Chile.

We sailed into Arica, Chile on January 20.  Arica is only 11 miles south of the Peruvian boarder and was once a part of Peru.  Since 1545 the port has supported the Potosi Silver Mine, the largest in the world.  As such it was a crucial part of the Spanish Empire.  This area was a favorite haunt of the pirate Frances Drake.  Legend has it that Drake buried an estimated 10 billion dollars in gold and silver treasure in the area.  We didn’t find any.

The area around Arica is also known for the Lluta Geoglyphs and the Chinchorro mummies from the Andes and the Atacama which reputedly represent the world’s oldest mummified remains.

The Geoglyphs are a series of hillside drawings representing llamas and humans designed to be viewed from the sky.

We wandered down to the Museo Arqueologico de San Miguel de Azapa (Archaeological Museum) to see the mummies.  Noreen was able to commune with past Chinchorro spirits.

 

Back in the port we have a different type of commercial  fishing fleet.

These small one and two man boats fish with surface nets.  One of these boats may have been the source of the Man Overboard excitement I told you about in the last blog.

Panorama of the harbor.  You can see the desert goes right up to the water.

A continuation of the desert I wrote of in the last entry. This city, Arica, once went 14 years without rainfall.

They have a unique type of tree (I can’t remember or spell the name) that grows well over 100 feet tall.

General shots around town.

Guess who sponsor's the soccer stadium.

On January 23rd we pulled into the port of Coquimbo (La Serena), Chile.  This port is a natural harbor that has been the center of action over the centuries.  Now it is an industrial and shipping port and growing with tourism and resorts  I decided to do some diving.  Noreen spent a quiet day on the Prinsendam.

The fishing fleet in the harbor.  These are smaller than the boats we have seen in previous ports.  Here they use low pressure air compressors on the boats as a surface supply air line to a diver to gather clams, mussels, and other undersea food for local markets and resorts.

A famous landmark is the large hillside cross over looking the city.

You can go up to the cross bar.  Note the windows in the photo.

We are all familiar with tornado warning sirens.  This is a tsunami warning siren.

 The trip to the dive site.  This is a continuation of the desert I wrote about earlier.

My fellow divers.  The water temperature is 14^o C (~60F) at the surface and a bit colder at the bottom.  This means 7mil full wet suits with hood, gloves, and boots.  As I’m a warm water T-shirt diver I wasn’t very comfortable in this full outfit.  After some time in the water to check it out I sat out the dives.

These are Sea Urchins on the rock.  Step on one and you’ll have hard spins in your foot.  They are all over the world.  Note how clear the water is.

To get to our dive site we had to travel along the Pan-American Highway,  I t is a very nice road as you can see.

Valparaiso, Chile was our next top on January 23^rd.  Valparaiso is Chile’s busiest seaport and most visited city.  It is a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site due to it’s history and architecture. The city grew to prominence during the 19th century as a stopping off point for ships traveling between the Atlantic and pacific through the Straights of Magellan.  With the opening of the Panama Canal the city fell in importance but has staged a comeback with tourism due to it’s multicultural background. 

The city was built up from the sea into the surrounding steep hills.  With the difficulty of climbing the steep streets they built these people movers.  There is an official name for these but I forgot what it is.

An old shutdown people mover.

For those who followed our 2011 world cruise we remember the beautiful sail-ins in places like Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bora Bora, etc.  On this cruise most of our sail-ins have been into container ports.  This is an example of where we are docking in most ports.

Local Media waiting for clearance to tour the ship.  They filmed us coming down the gangway so we may have been on TV!!

We are also docking around the naval bases.

There was a ship in dry dock while we were there.

You may have noticed Noreen and I stayed close to the ship on this port.  We are both getting a cold so we’re taking it easy for a few days.  The weather is getting colder and soon we’ll have to break out our winter woolies.

Hope you enjoyed this entry. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update to January 19th

 

Today is January 19 and we are spending a day at sea.  I hope to transmit this when we can find a connection ashore.

Picking up from our last entry we transited the Panama Canal on January 12th.  This was our third full transit and it never gets old.  However, it doesn’t get different either so let me refer you to our last transit in 2011.  You can find it at  http://thegreatadventure01.blogspot.com/2011/01/first-few-days.html   Only the name of the ship is different.  You have to double click the pictures to get full size.  I think I fixed that problem this time.  The one change is the continuing work on the new, larger locks scheduled for completion in 2014….really expect 2015.  The new locks will accommodate over 90% of todays larger ships.  A disappointing note for fellow cruisers.  Currently the larger cruise ships repositioning between Alaska and Caribbean seasons have to travel around South America as they can’t fit in the current locks.  This provides a really good repositioning price for a cruise that usually runs about 45 days.  Those opportunities will be gone with the new locks.  They will still reposition but it will be through the new locks on cruises of about 20 days.  Double darn!

On the 13th we spent the day in Manata, Ecuador.  Manta is the largest seaport in Ecuador and the primary fishing industry.  We spent a quiet day just relaxing around the town.

Fishing fleet in the harbor.

Close-up of the boats.  Primary catch is Yellow Fin Tuna using nets.  The small boat on the stern is used to put out and work on the capture nets.

After two days at sea out next port was Lima, Peru on January 16 & 17.  We were in Lima in 2011 at the end of our Machu Picchu trip.  This time we took a ride through the city to the Indian Market.

Middle class single family home.  Note the metal fence in front with high voltage electric wire at the top.  The driveway fence area is raised for the car.

There is a lot of traffic.

A lot of the city has wide roads with ecological green space.

Many of the main roads have a bike trail down the middle.  These photos are for Mark Turner.

Bike path along side the road.

The Indian Market.  For some reason there were very few people at the market when we visited.  There were three primary types of stores.

Silver shops

Religious shops

Alpaca Shops

View of the walkways.

Noreen buying a leather Peruvian hat.

and conducting international negotiations.

Some general views around Lima.

On 18 January we visited General San Martin, Peru which is only a 235 kilometers miles from Lima.  It is located close to Pisco which is a major stepping off point for visits to the Nazca Lines.  We tried several ways to get to see the lines this trip but were unsuccessful.  We’ll be back in this area in 2014 and hope to make it to the Lines then.

This picture is a panorama of our docking area.  It is the part of the Atacama desert which runs down through Chile. It is caused by moisture in the atmosphere being stopped by the Andes.  The Atacama is the driest location on earth and has a width of about 125 miles, the distance between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains.

On the road into town showing the desert.

This is a resort town with a great beach and restaurant walkway.

A lot of Hostels.

I offered Noreen a chance to tour in the same type vehicle we used in India for those who remember the Tuc Tuc story.  This one even had windows.

Having had enough of that experience she choose the Inka Express.

You can’t argue with freshness when the chickens are kept on the roof of the restaurant….

Of course, sometime during the day Noreen had to visit with the locals.

I’ll close with some excitement this morning.  The ship alarm bells sounded at (8:36 AM, I looked at the clock) without the usual prior announcement of a drill.  The Officer of the Watch announced Man Overboard on the Starboard side.  Turns-out it wasn’t a passenger, the bridge lookout thought he had seen a man in the water. The ship executed a return to reciprocal course turn to return to the location of the sighting.  They also swung out the Rapid Response boat which is a hydro jet designed for quick deployment in these type situations.

We searched for about an hour in the area.  Of course with helpful passengers all over the ship with binoculars. Nothing was found and we sailed on.