Coquimbo & La Serena, Chile

4th & 5th February, 2023

Well, a day at sea first, sailing down the coast of Chile, which, I have discovered is more than 4,300 kms long! Lovely weather, mid 20s with a light breeze, perfect for a game of shuffleboard. Mind you, after 2 days on shore with another 2 days to come, it is also a day to visit the laundry (along with half the rest of the guests on board). It’s a hard life, isn’t it??!!

Before I move on, I will just insert a photo of Iquique as we left the port, which gives you a good idea of what it is like in situ, so to speak.

Well, we arrived at Coquimbo, which is another rather scruffy port, beach front and couple of hills absolutely covered in houses of all different quality, as the photo, I hope, shows.

It was a bit of a strange place to stop as there is not a lot there other than a market, which, from our taxi, looked very busy (this was Sunday). However, about 11km away is La Serena, the second-oldest city in Chile, founded in 1544. It was very pleasant, with access to the beach (which runs all the way down to Coquimbo) and the whole coast looks like a holiday destination. It was quite quiet as it was Sunday, but had a very easy, dare I say, serene, feel about it. By the way, Darwin visited Coquimbo in 1832 and said ‘the town is notable for nothing other than its extreme quietness’. It had between 6,000 to 8,000 people living there then and most were involved with mining – copper, silver and gold. It also had a lot of fleas!!

We managed to negotiate our way around using taxis, though I am beginning to regret not signing up for Spanish lessons on board. Everyone seemed helpful and pleasant, though quite a few people suggested I put my camera out of sight, which suggests something. We only had about half a day here, so we had a good view as we steamed out back into the Pacific to continue our southwards journey. there are always some interesting sights….

Just to mention, Val has got my cough, though it is on the mend as is mine, though it is taking its own sweet time to go. It has been named as the Balmoral cough, though some passengers now have bad colds and some Covid. The latter means instant incarceration, which for come people has meant 11 days out of circulation. And we have some gastro-enteritis (norovirus?), so the ship has increased the already pretty stringent hygiene regime. So far so good. If you don’t see a blog for some time, it might mean we have succumbed. Fingers crossed!!