Coquimbo is much greener than the northern towns we visited. It’s also more “Americanized”. There are well-ordered streets lined with small single-family houses. As with all of Chile that we’ve seen, it is clean, clean, clean. The town is built around a horseshoe shaped bay. On a hill overlooking the city, a Millennium Cross stands guard. It’s an ugly structure but the Chileans seem to be proud of it. Our tour guide, Yasna, was a young girl who had a fair command of English; as we walked along she and I talked; I practiced my Spanish and she practiced her English. She told me she thought Ed and I are a great couple, that we have good energy. That was nice!
A famous lighthouse signifies the boundary line between Coquimbo and the nearby town of La Serena. We traveled by way of a boulevard lined with spectacular royal palms. La Serena is an adorable resort town with upscale shops, museums and cafes. We visited a museum, the focal point of which was one of the Easter Island statues that was brought to Chile by a former president. Since Easter Island isn’t on our itinerary, this was very interesting to see. We were only able to spend a couple of hours in La Serena, which is one of the down sides of being on an organized tour, but it’s a place we would happily return to.
Highlight of the day? Pete fulfilling his dream of holding the bus sign!!
Next stop: Valparaiso.
Austin, you wanted me to comment on the crew and internet and news access: The crew is mainly Filipino and Indonesian, as pleasant and efficient as they were on the Amsterdam. Even under the extreme pressure of the norovirus, their responses are always “excellent” when asked how they are.
Internet access is, as usual, slow and frustrating. Just when you’ve spent a few dollars answering an email, it kicks you off without any explanation. The upside is that we can get a signal from our cabin so we don’t have to go searching for a comfortable place around the ship to get online. We have our usual daily newspaper from the New York Times, international television news and internet news, so we’re pretty up-to-date, although maybe a day or so behind. Selfishly, I find I don’t really care much about what’s happening in the rest of the world but Ed keeps me in the know as he can’t stand to be out of touch.
Norovirus update: Yesterday while we were in port the staff did a heavy cleaning of the whole ship. We had to remove everything from every surface in our room and while we were out they fogged the room, took out all the glassware, ice buckets, towels, etc. So now we’re squeaky clean. According to the Captain, there are still a few cases coming in so the disease prevention protocols are still in place around the ship, but it seems to be getting better. Among the 4 of us, only Sharon suffered with it. Knock on wood!!!!
A famous lighthouse signifies the boundary line between Coquimbo and the nearby town of La Serena. We traveled by way of a boulevard lined with spectacular royal palms. La Serena is an adorable resort town with upscale shops, museums and cafes. We visited a museum, the focal point of which was one of the Easter Island statues that was brought to Chile by a former president. Since Easter Island isn’t on our itinerary, this was very interesting to see. We were only able to spend a couple of hours in La Serena, which is one of the down sides of being on an organized tour, but it’s a place we would happily return to.
Highlight of the day? Pete fulfilling his dream of holding the bus sign!!
Next stop: Valparaiso.
Austin, you wanted me to comment on the crew and internet and news access: The crew is mainly Filipino and Indonesian, as pleasant and efficient as they were on the Amsterdam. Even under the extreme pressure of the norovirus, their responses are always “excellent” when asked how they are.
Internet access is, as usual, slow and frustrating. Just when you’ve spent a few dollars answering an email, it kicks you off without any explanation. The upside is that we can get a signal from our cabin so we don’t have to go searching for a comfortable place around the ship to get online. We have our usual daily newspaper from the New York Times, international television news and internet news, so we’re pretty up-to-date, although maybe a day or so behind. Selfishly, I find I don’t really care much about what’s happening in the rest of the world but Ed keeps me in the know as he can’t stand to be out of touch.
Norovirus update: Yesterday while we were in port the staff did a heavy cleaning of the whole ship. We had to remove everything from every surface in our room and while we were out they fogged the room, took out all the glassware, ice buckets, towels, etc. So now we’re squeaky clean. According to the Captain, there are still a few cases coming in so the disease prevention protocols are still in place around the ship, but it seems to be getting better. Among the 4 of us, only Sharon suffered with it. Knock on wood!!!!
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