On South to Chile

One last day in Peru brought us to Matarani for a quick one day visit.. It was fun because it was a holiday and we went into town to the Festival and to watch a Parade with all sorts of Officials, Honorees, beautiful young women with long dresses and crowns, military groups, and even a group of the Port Workers marching. After a while we got hungry and thirsty so we stopped in a restaurant to try some local food. Everything that looked good on the menu, the waiter would shake his head and say NO. We thought that maybe they ran out of food because it was a holiday. But they did have great Pisco Sours and a huge batch of good hot french fries. All was not lost.

This has been an amazing trip so far. The days have been warm (not hot) with sunny to partly cloudy skies, and smooth sailing on our sea days or overnight trips. We never know what we will see while we are at sea. Dolphins, whales, small fishing boats, and huge container ships. It reminds me of when Don & I were sailing on Cloud 9 and we would see a faint light far away - we named them Diesel Belching Demons of the Dark. Now I think it is cool to see another ship on the horizon.

Chile is a long country with lots of smaller towns along the coast. Our first stop for two days was a lovely city called Arica. My first thought as we approached the container ship port was "look, there is the Texas flag, no, it is the North Carolina flag. Well, duh, we are arriving in Chile. " Really, at first glance it does look like them all.

The center street in town was filled with small individual vendors selling all sorts of things. Lots of old items - rusty locks, spoons and forks, small toys. I couldn't tell if they were antiques that had been found or just old. But the two of us were on a mission. We desperately needed a manicure & pedicure and we had heard of one that appeared to be neat, clean, and much cheaper than our "salon" on board. And, yes, we were successful. Processes were a little different, chairs and nail tables were not as comfortable and the purveyors spoke Spanish, not Vietnamese. But we enjoyed the difference, even if it did take 3 1/2 hours. The next day we went back into town for a longer look at a museum of history, and a store that had everything imported from China. Everyone bought little things that we realized we needed in our villa. I bought a small rubbermaid-like container to put cheese in for my late night snacks. Yes, I do have a mini-fridge in my room. It will hold A bottle of wine, 2 cans of diet coke (for my rum & cokes), and a small container of cheese. I'm happy. As we were departing Arica, the Captain came over the speaker to tell us that a musical group was coming to say good bye to us as we were leaving. Turns out we were the 1st cruise ship of the year. So we had dancers, music, a singer with a lovely voice, and a big wave from the band conductor as we sounded our horn and pulled away.

We had a short visit to a town that none of us could pronounce. Iquique.

Then two days at sea before we arrived in Valparizo which is about an hour away from Santiago. And is right at the beginning of the Chilean Wine Country. We spent our first day visiting 3 wineries and enjoyed 3 tastings. My kind of a day. Had some good wines and some not so good but it was fun to get out into the countryside. The nicest one reminded us all of the Napa Valley in California.

The Captain has alerted us to some wind and high seas over the next couple of days. So we will be slowing down and arriving in Puerto Montt on Thursday (my one month anniversary aboard the Odyssey). But we have lots of things going on while we are at sea. We will have a Mexican Train tournament beginning on Wednesday with 21 players (3 tables of 7 players each). The "buy-in" is $5/person. Then a couple of days later will be the 2nd round. I have no idea how all this works, but what else do I have to do? Great way to meet new people. The players who have been on the ship longer than I have, play according to some different rules, so I don't expect to stay in the tournament long. Thank you to my cruising friends, Paul & Julia, for the extra set of MT dominos that I hauled to the ship. All players were really excited that we now have 3 sets.

Our next excitement is "Cruising the Chilean Fjords" and then going thru the Straights of Magellan. Wonder what that is going to be like?