Today is January 27th 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 14o 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 23rd. 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.
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