DAY-19: Puerto Chacabuco - Sheila's Birthday
DAY-19: Puerto Chacabuco - Sheila's Birthday
Day – 19: Saturday, March 7, 2020
Starting Location: At Sea Aboard the M.S. Marina
Interim Location: Anchored at Puerto Chacabuco, Chile
Ending Location: At Sea Aboard the M.S. Marina
When we awoke the ship was anchored off shore from Puerto Chacabuco, a small town that has no tourist industry or infrastructure.
It does have water deep enough for cruise ships but some think we're here simply to avoid three "sea days" in a row. There are tours from here and we'll be on one.
For starters, Ismial showed up with birthday croissants for Sheila in celebration of the big day Birthday # __ (one more than last year). That was in addition to a multi-colored fresh fruit breakfast.
Our tour for the day began at 8:30 when we boarded the ship's tender to go ashore. The ride in was a bit choppy but the distance was short.
At the landing we were met by our tour guide Gevanka and once we were all assembled we boarded a small bus
and headed to Coyhaique the center of outdoor activity for the parks, glaciers, and volcanic region of Chile. En-route we passed through Aysen a few minutes after leaving Chacabuco. Asyen is a much more upscale town
and even has a suspension bridge painted to look like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
The similarity ends with the style and paint job. Seems the load bearing test for the bridge is conducted by herding local cattle onto the span and measuring the deflection.
Continuing on we made a stop at a water fall
and at the Rio Simpson National Reserve.
At the park we experienced the local flora and fauna, on the lookout for the illusive Chucao bird (borrowed image):
Bird viewing was limited but bird listening was good, a tweet-tweet here and a tweet-tweet there, here a tweet, there a tweet, everywhere a tweet-tweet, etc.
Continuing on we arrived at our destination the city of Coyhaique the regional capital of the Aysen Region.
Seems that Chile is undergoing something of a constitutional crisis. The current constitution dates from the days of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970's through 1990's. Since this past October there has been an increased call for a new constitution, so today in Coyhaique a protest was planned in the Central Park area, our destination. The guide indicated that today the "YES" group (keep the current constitution) would hold a rally about the time we arrived. And sure enough they did, all 20 (generous count) of them.
Seems that the "YES" groups are typically the older generations and the "NO" groups (calling for a new constitution) are made up of the younger generations. We were assured that the "YES" groups were typically peaceful quiet protesters whereas the "NO" groups were likely to show more emotion and often run afoul of local law enforcement.
We had a few minutes to stop for a quick pizza, with beer for me and Coke for Sheila.
I don't think we were the last ones back to the bus, but it was close.
As we departed the town we passed a "famous" sculpture,
an image of a cup & straw used for drinking some kind of special "herbal" tea.
Not sure what we were thinking when we had the pizza for our next stop was at a local restaurant for a bit of lunch, actually a tapas like serving of local dishes. As lunch ended our guide led the group in a multi-lingual rendition of Happy Birthday for Sheila and presented her with a gift as a token for remembering the day and journey.
The return to the ship was simply the reverse of the morning's route, nothing new to see.
Between the tour and dinner the birthday calls came in, FaceTime and Skype keeping everyone in touch throughout the cruise.
The Birthday Dinner was scheduled for the Red Ginger Restaurant. There was the usual singing by the staff followed by presentation of the birthday cake.
We had consumed so much during the day including dinner with dessert that we deferred on the cake. Not to worry, it would be refrigerated and served up tomorrow.
So ended a "Happy Day", once again away from home.
Interim Location: Anchored at Puerto Chacabuco, Chile
Ending Location: At Sea Aboard the M.S. Marina
When we awoke the ship was anchored off shore from Puerto Chacabuco, a small town that has no tourist industry or infrastructure.
 |
| Fish Farm |
For starters, Ismial showed up with birthday croissants for Sheila in celebration of the big day Birthday # __ (one more than last year). That was in addition to a multi-colored fresh fruit breakfast.
Our tour for the day began at 8:30 when we boarded the ship's tender to go ashore. The ride in was a bit choppy but the distance was short.
Continuing on we made a stop at a water fall
 |
| "Outdoor Woman" Describing the River |
Seems that Chile is undergoing something of a constitutional crisis. The current constitution dates from the days of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970's through 1990's. Since this past October there has been an increased call for a new constitution, so today in Coyhaique a protest was planned in the Central Park area, our destination. The guide indicated that today the "YES" group (keep the current constitution) would hold a rally about the time we arrived. And sure enough they did, all 20 (generous count) of them.
We had a few minutes to stop for a quick pizza, with beer for me and Coke for Sheila.
I don't think we were the last ones back to the bus, but it was close.
As we departed the town we passed a "famous" sculpture,
Not sure what we were thinking when we had the pizza for our next stop was at a local restaurant for a bit of lunch, actually a tapas like serving of local dishes. As lunch ended our guide led the group in a multi-lingual rendition of Happy Birthday for Sheila and presented her with a gift as a token for remembering the day and journey.
The return to the ship was simply the reverse of the morning's route, nothing new to see.
Between the tour and dinner the birthday calls came in, FaceTime and Skype keeping everyone in touch throughout the cruise.
The Birthday Dinner was scheduled for the Red Ginger Restaurant. There was the usual singing by the staff followed by presentation of the birthday cake.
We had consumed so much during the day including dinner with dessert that we deferred on the cake. Not to worry, it would be refrigerated and served up tomorrow.
So ended a "Happy Day", once again away from home.
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