Cruising!
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2007
1
20
42
Trip End
May 18, 2007
Valparaiso,
Chile
Monday, April 2, 2007
Up early to pack, clear the apartment, and make our way to the bus terminal in good time. We had time to spare there and Josh was hungry so, almost just for the fun of it, we decided to purchase two rolls and incredibly this bulk buy took the price down to 4p each! We boarded the coach and set off for Valparaiso, northwest of Santiago. The roads were very good and we heard that this is typical throughout Chile but nearly all are toll roads. Ian sat next to a man going to meet a government official for lunch - the government has been based in Valparaiso since Pinochet's time. He turned out to be a very eminent economist - had been the head of the Chilean Stock Exchange for over 10 years - and now worked as an independent adviser. He believed the current government had got the economy wrong and advised a change of direction, and had found someone who was in agreement and trying to influence the government to change. It was fascinating to hear him - he was very up to date with UK politics and interested to hear how things were in the UK. He spoke superb English and read Shakespeare in order to test himself! It made for an excellent journey to the town.
On arrival at the bus station we parted company and then needed to get a taxi to the port - again much pointing at documentation with the driver who was very amusing by being angry about the traffic, even though he recognised we didn't understand a word!
It felt a relief to get into the hall for registration and embarkation but was just the start of a huge queuing/waiting process that would mean 3 hours plus before we finally got on board. Straight to cabin to drop off baggage then straight to food - well we had some catching up to do! Because we've been lucky enough to cruise before we felt we knew our way around and Josh enjoyed nothing more than giving out advice on how to get places, run the lifts, and even show some new friends around the ship.
We set sail about 6pm heading north along the coast of Chile.
