La Serena and Coquimbo, Chile

Monday, 18 March 2013

Our first stop was at Coquimbo and La Serena, Chile, a couple hundred miles up the coast from Valparaiso.  Coquimbo is the port town where the ship docks, and is of no particular interest.  La Serena is about 10 miles north of Coquimbo and is famous for it many old churches and its beaches (which we did not get to). 

We didn't book an excursion, since all we wanted to do was stroll around La Serena.  Our first order of business was getting from the dock in Coquimbo to La Serena.  I had read that there were frequent buses between the two towns and the fare ran about $1.  So we set off from the dock area to find the bus stop in Coquimbo.  This, of course, led us to a walk through most of Coquimbo--we would ask someone where the bus stop was, he/she would point us to a location, and when we got to the location there was no bus stop.  So we then asked a person at that location and he/she pointed to another location, etc.  After about 5 misdirection episodes we found ourselves standing near a line of taxis, along with another American couple who had apparently been following us, thinking we knew where we were going.  One of the taxi drivers offered us a ride for $20, which by this time we gladly accepted.  (More on this later).

Anyway, about 15 minutes later, we found ourselves in the main plaza in La Serena, and began wandering through the town, which was very pleasant.  Below are a few shots. 

Plaza de Armas in La Serena

Cathedral of La Serena on the Plaza de Armas

Window in La Serena Cathedral

Inside La Serena Cathedral

Pedestrian street in La Serena

Santo Domingo Church

The souvenir market in La Serena

Another view of the Cathedral and Plaza de Armas

Iglesia La Merced

After wandering around town for a couple of hours, we were ready to go back to Coquimbo.  Once again we headed for the location where buses and shared taxis was supposed to be, and this time we actually found it!  So, we got a shared taxi and went back to Coquimbo for $2, which was $18 less than we paid to get to La Serena.

A quick stop for churros near the dock in Coquimbo

By late afternoon we were back on the ship and headed for Arica.

A view of Coquimbo from the ship.

Next: Arica, Chile

Santiago, Valparaiso, and Vina del Mar

Sunday, 17 March 2013

The cruise was scheduled to depart late in the afternoon from Valparaiso, which is about 2 hours from Santiago.  Since we had most of the day to kill and we had seen pretty much all of Santiago, we booked a tour from Santiago to Valparaiso that dropped us off at the cruise port.  We made arrangements with the tour company to pick us up at 9:20 AM.  By the way, this is where we reaped one of the advantages of CruiseCritic.com that I referred to on the previous page.  We made arrangements with some other folks who we met on the website to share the transportation and tour, which dropped the price from about $100 per person to about $60.

Anyway, aAt 8:20, we were sitting in our underwear congratulating ourselves for being mostly packed an hour before we had to leave, when there was a knock on our door.  When I opened the door (after putting on clothes), the man at the door said that the tour company was here.  I said "But they're not supposed to be here until 9:20."  He said "It is 9:20."  To make a long story short, the Chilean government had arbitrarily decided not to go off daylight savings time (which ended the previous Monday), and apparently had not told American Airlines (who told us that the time in Santiago was the same as in Miami), nor had they told Apple, because my iPhone still said 8:20.  Suddenly I realized why the streets were emptying out at 9:00 the previous night.

So, we hustled down to the van and started making our way out of Santiago to Valparaiso.  As soon as we got out of the neighborhood, the Kalt curse struck.  For at least the third time in my travels, we ran into (so to speak) a marathon while trying to get out of a city.  

They were traveling much faster than we were

Eventually we worked out way out of the marathon, and headed to Valparaiso.  A lot of the area between Santiago and Valparaiso is occupied by vineyards, which made for some nice shots. 

Headed into the countryside

Vineyards near Valparaiso

At about 1:00, we reached Valparaiso, which is built on hills on the coast.  The center of the city has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Along the shoreline in Valparaiso

First view of our ship

On our arrival in Valparaiso, we took a (mostly) walking tour around town.

Plaza Sotomayor in Valparaiso

Tribunales de Justicia

There were a number of very large houses built in the late 19th century by some wealthy citizens.  Here are a couple.

Most of the houses in Valparaiso are brightly painted and there is art (or graffiti, depending on your perspective) on almost every blank space.

Hillside view in Valparaiso

After our tour of Valparaiso, we drove to Vina del Mar, which is a resort town about 10 miles north of Valparaiso.

Garden clock in Vina del Mar

Shoreline condos in Vina del Mar

Vina del Mar Casino

After a brief tour of Vina del Mar, we returned to Valparaiso to get on the ship.  The shots below are of Valparaiso from the ship.

The large building on the left is the Chilean legislative building.

That's a lot of reefers....

The ship itself was very nice and the passengers seemed pretty evenly divided among North Americans, Europeans, and South Americans.   We scored a nice cabin with a balcony, and spent most of our daylight hours on the ship in the Thallasotherapy pool, which is indoors and heated to about 100 degrees (a little lower than a hot tub, which they also had).  The best part is that the pool was adults only.  A less pleasant part was seeing some of the passengers in bathing suits.

Thalassotherapy Pool

Outdoor pool

Our cabin

Celebrity Theater

Out on our balcony

It turns out that Celebrity was having trouble filling some of their ships, so in February, they started offering all sorts of incentives including free (alcoholic) beverage packages. I had booked the cruise in November, so I assumed we were out of luck on that.  However, one of the folks on the CruiseCritic web site posted that they had contacted Celebrity and asked for the incentive retroactively, and Celebrity actually gave it to them.  With nothing to lose, I contacted Celebrity, and we got a free drink package.  What a deal!  To top it off, since this was our third cruise on Celebrity, we got a bottle of champagne in our room.

Anyway, I don't remember anything that happened that evening.

Next: La Serena and Coquimbo, Chile

Santiago

Friday, 15 March 2013

If you can sleep on a plane, the flight from Miami to Santiago is about as pleasant as an 8-hour flight can be, since, as the airline told us, there is no time change between the two cities.   So, we departed Miami at about midnight and arrived in Santiago at 8:00, according to the airline announcement and my iPhone.  Fortunately, I can sleep on a plane, so I was conscious when we landed.

Approaching Santiago

Approaching Santiago, even closer

Although we flew into Santiago, the ship leaves from Valparaiso, which is about a 90-minute drive away.  So, we had arranged to spend a couple of days in Santiago before getting on the ship.  We got a taxi at the airport and in about a half an hour we arrived at our home for the next two days--Hotel Serrano Centro in Santiago.  The hotel itself occupied 4 upper floors of an office building, and we got a 3 three room suite (3 very tiny rooms) for $80 a night.

I had read on several web sites that in South America and most of the third world, people would refuse to take U.S. currency unless it was virtually brand new.  Any bills with markings, creases, or tears would not be accepted.  Although I rarely had experienced this in my travels, I made sure that all of the cash I had was in good condition.  Apparently it wasn't in good enough condition for the receptionist at the hotel, and she refused to take about half the bills when we tried to pay cash for our room when we checked in.  Fortunately, we were able to convince her to take a credit card. 

Hotel Serrano Central (top floors of building)

The "living room" of our suite, such as it was.

The hotel was centrally located near the main part of the city (perhaps that's why they called it the Serrano "Central"), so as soon as we settled in, we went for a walk.  Santiago has a population of about 6 million, it has two main centers.  The historical/government center is where we were located, and there is a new business/finance center a few miles away.  The historical center could use some cleaning up, but it was still a nice place for a walk. 

Pedestrian street in Central Santiago

Plaza de Armas (the main square) and the Catedral de Santiago

Chess matches in the Plaza de Armas

Another view of the Plaza de Armas

Iglesia de San Francisco--the oldest building in Santiago (from 1622)

Inside Iglesia de San Francisco

After lunch, we wandered over to Cerro Santa Lucia (Santa Lucia Hill), which has a beautiful fountain at the foot, and a castle on top, which has really nice views of the city.

Fountain at Cerro Santa Lucia

At the foot of Cerro Santa Lucia

View of Santiago from the top of Cerro Santa Lucia

Dinner was at a restaurant near our hotel (wonderful food, inexpensive), and then we took a stroll through the neighborhood.  The neighborhood is called Barrio Paris-Londres, named after the two main streets (Paris and Londres (London)) in the area, and it consists mostly of buildings from the early 1900's.

Not typical Chilean transportation (it was from a wedding)

Tower of Iglesia de San Francisco

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Breakfast was at a cafe near the hotel, followed by a daytime walk through the neighborhood and a visit to Londres 38 (38 Londres Street), a building that served as an "interrogation center" during the Pinochet years.  There were rooms of exhibits about the nasty things that were done there, as well as memorials to over 100 people who disappeared during the Pinochet regime.

The House of Plastic Bags

A view of Barrio Paris-Londres

Londres 38

Plaque at the entrance to Londres 38

Later that morning we bought tickets for the hop-on hop-off bus that goes around Santiago.  They have these buses in most major cities and I recommend it as a good way to see the highlights of any city and figure out what you want to do.  Mainly, we used it to get to some of the more modern areas of the city.  One of the first stops was "Sanhattan" (get it?) which is where most of the big companies are located, followed by Los Condes, with more skyscrapers and shopping malls. 

Part of Sanhattan

Parque Arauco shopping mall in Los Condes

Gran Torre Santiago, the tallest building in South America

The Mapocho River runs through the middle of Santiago, but doesn't have much water

Another building, somewhere in Santiago

We got off the bus in the Bellavista neighborhood, near Cerro San Cristobal, the tallest point in Santiago. We were ready to take the tram up to the top, but we discovered that we had run out of cash.  So, we decided to eat lunch nearby (paying with a credit card) and then go find a nearby ATM.

Lunch in Bellavista

Calle Pio Nono in Bellavista

It turned out that there were no nearby ATMs, or more specifically, there were no nearby open ATMs.  It was Saturday, and not only were all of the banks closed, but all of the bank ATMs in Santiago were inside the banks.  We wound up walking about a mile and a half before we found an ATM in a subway station.  We got the cash, but by that time we had given up on going to the top of Cerro San Cristobal.

So, we got back on the bus and toured around some more, eventually arriving back in the old center of town, where most of the government buildings were. 

Ready to pick up protesters, but there weren't any.

The Presidential Palace (La Moneda Palace)

Some government buildings--the flag is as big as it looks.

They loves them some graffiti in Santiago

After a late afternoon rest, we headed back to the Plaza de Armas for some people watching and dinner.  When we decided to eat (about 9:00), there were relatively few people in the Plaza, and most of the restaurants were closed or closing.   

Police presence in the Plaza de Armas

That's a 40 ounce Heineken

Catedral de Santiago

Another building on the Plaza

Next: Santiago, Valparaiso, and Vina del Mar