San Antonio, Chile

March 18^th, 2024

Today is end of the first segment of this cruise. About half of the passengers are disembarking but they will soon all be replaced, and then some. The ship will be sailing at capacity.

Disembarkation seemed to be very organized, no huge crowds at the gangway or hordes of people hanging out in the public rooms. It was all very civilized.

I love taking a peek at empty cabins to get an idea of what the different grades of cabins look like.

We are lucky with the tender that is outside our window. Some of the obstructed view cabins really do have their view significantly blocked. The tender totally does obstruct the view. One of my complaints about out cabin is that there is only one chair, which is annoying if there are 2 of you in the cabin. Well, I discovered that the standard balcony cabins also just have one chair. There isn’t room in the cabin for another one. Definitely a design fault. The mini suites and suites however, do look very nice, and have an extra chair or sofa. Satisfied that I had had my fill of looking into cabins I joined Brian in our little cabin to get our backpack ready for going ashore.

We had decided not to take a tour today, but to have a leisurely day exploring San Antonio. Usually cruise ships dock in Valparaiso, but due to industrial action from the port workers there, San Antonio was deemed to be a better option.

San Antonio is a container port, so you have to take a shuttle bus to the cruise terminal at the port entrance. I must say that the cruise terminal looked a bit like a warehouse, but it does have free wifi so that is a plus.

One of the many downsides to docking in cargo terminals is that we miss out on local musicians and dancers entertaining us on the dockside as we arrive and when we sail away. That is always so much fun, but clearly not practical in these busy cargo ports.

On leaving the cruise terminal it is about a 15 minute walk along the waterfront to the fish market and local restaurants. It is a lovely walk past the colorful fishing boats in the harbor.

The path is lined with restaurants and stalls selling clothes, toys, jewelry, all manner of plastic goods, housewares, and of course fish.

The restaurant we chose, Rincon, was down a side street from the waterfront. The interior décor was interesting.

It was clearly a very local establishment, with no menus in English.  It was great not to be in a tourist trap. We had a delicious meal that was very reasonably priced, and we were entertained by a strolling guitarist.

After lunch we visited the local shopping mall, which had a large supermarket and pharmacy so we were able to stock up on supplies. It is very handy when shops are so close to the cruise terminal!

On our way back to the ship we saw harbor seals, and watched a sea lion jump onto one of the fishing boats. I was very impressed with him, but I expect the owner of the boat will not be so happy.

At the entrance to the port is a fishing boat that is a memorial to the fishermen lost at sea. It really brought home the fact that the calm Pacific ocean can be a totally treacherous death trap at times.

Back on board it was soon time for the sail away party. The singers and dancers did a wonderful performance  at Neptune’s pool, this was followed by line dancing.

A fun time was had by all. Even Fortuna Luck made an appearance.

It was not quite the same as hearing Jerusalem and Rule Britannia as you sail down the Solent, but I suppose we are in Chile, and we are definitely not on QE2.

I tried again to order a pisco sour. There are no champagne stations at the sail away, but I thought seeing as we are in Chile they may have bought some pisco while in one of the Chilean ports, and there would be pisco sour stations. No such luck, there is no pisco on board.

Just as we were ready to watch us let go our lines and sail away into the blue yonder, the captain announced that our departure was delayed as the pilot had failed to show up. We would not be able to sail for another 2 hours.

We spent a while watching the large container ships next to us, and then went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner.

We had a reservation at the Italian specialty restaurant, Sabatinis.

It is a very pretty restaurant, and we had a table by the window, which was great. The food was hot and not bad, with an interesting deconstructed version of tiramisu.

Our visit to San Antonio was OK, but it is not the most interesting port. We will most likely be taking a tour if we come back, we really enjoyed the tour we took to a ranch and winery last time we were here. I would like to do something like that again. Preferably a tour that involves a pisco sour.