Yesterday we were in Iquique, about 5 hours from Arica by car but an overnight cruise. A short morning tour took us to a place called Humberstone, which is a ghost town that has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The three of us (yes, one of us was stricken with the norovirus, but more about that later) traveled 50 kilometers over the Pan American highway to get there. The highway rose higher and higher up the mountain, giving us spectacular views of the city and the coastline below.
Humberstone turned out to be much more interesting than I anticipated. A man named James Humberstone came over from Dover, England in the 1800’s and was the originator of this town, which revolved around the mining of sodium nitrate. At its heyday the town had around 2000 inhabitants and from the look of it they had a pretty good life. There’s a nice hotel, shops, a large swimming pool, a theater, a school and a pretty town square, all now deserted. The buildings are all open for visitors to walk through and it was fun to see how they lived.
After that we went downtown to walk on a beautiful historic pedestrian street lined with multi-colored buildings. We stopped in a restaurant that served us some canapés and mango or lemon sours. I had two mango sours and was a little looped on the ride back to the ship.
Poor Sharon came down with the norovirus and was pretty sick for 24 hours but thankfully she’s up and around today, looking cuter than ever with a new hair style from the ship’s salon. She said she was told there have been no new cases of the virus today, which is good news, but we are still under “code red”, which means the ship is taking many precautions to prevent the spread. Most of the public areas were scrubbed and sanitized last night beginning at midnight and finished around 4AM. The crew is doing a very good job; practically every time a passenger touches something there’s a staff member there to wipe the surface down. I’m sure we’ll lick this in a couple of days.
Last night I was chosen to play a game called Battle of the Sexes. We had had an officer at our dinner table with free flowing drinks and wine, and after 2 mango sours I was feeling no pain. As I walked into the lounge they were asking for volunteers for the game and I waved my hands and Ashley chose me. I quickly sobered up. It was 3 women on one side of the stage and 3 men on the other side. They asked questions and we all wrote our answers and turned them in. We got points if our answers matched. The women won and it was a lot of fun, too.
Today is a day at sea and we’re just about in the middle of Chile, which is the longest country in South America. Tomorrow we’ll be in Coquimbo so stay tuned for the next installment.
Humberstone turned out to be much more interesting than I anticipated. A man named James Humberstone came over from Dover, England in the 1800’s and was the originator of this town, which revolved around the mining of sodium nitrate. At its heyday the town had around 2000 inhabitants and from the look of it they had a pretty good life. There’s a nice hotel, shops, a large swimming pool, a theater, a school and a pretty town square, all now deserted. The buildings are all open for visitors to walk through and it was fun to see how they lived.
After that we went downtown to walk on a beautiful historic pedestrian street lined with multi-colored buildings. We stopped in a restaurant that served us some canapés and mango or lemon sours. I had two mango sours and was a little looped on the ride back to the ship.
Poor Sharon came down with the norovirus and was pretty sick for 24 hours but thankfully she’s up and around today, looking cuter than ever with a new hair style from the ship’s salon. She said she was told there have been no new cases of the virus today, which is good news, but we are still under “code red”, which means the ship is taking many precautions to prevent the spread. Most of the public areas were scrubbed and sanitized last night beginning at midnight and finished around 4AM. The crew is doing a very good job; practically every time a passenger touches something there’s a staff member there to wipe the surface down. I’m sure we’ll lick this in a couple of days.
Last night I was chosen to play a game called Battle of the Sexes. We had had an officer at our dinner table with free flowing drinks and wine, and after 2 mango sours I was feeling no pain. As I walked into the lounge they were asking for volunteers for the game and I waved my hands and Ashley chose me. I quickly sobered up. It was 3 women on one side of the stage and 3 men on the other side. They asked questions and we all wrote our answers and turned them in. We got points if our answers matched. The women won and it was a lot of fun, too.
Today is a day at sea and we’re just about in the middle of Chile, which is the longest country in South America. Tomorrow we’ll be in Coquimbo so stay tuned for the next installment.
get the recipe... those mango sours sound good.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you guys are making the best of the situation.