South American Adventure Part 10: Day 19

Day 19 – Wednesday, February 15th – Valparaiso & Santiago, Chile

At last, the final day of the cruise had arrived. We were docked at the same cargo pier that the Star Princess was in March 2010. The weather was beautiful, and it was nice to see the funiculars still operating in the port city of Valparaiso, which climbs the hills surrounding the port like San Francisco (albeit without a large downtown area).

While we were supposed to evacuate our cabins by 8:00AM, Mike and Chuck arranged with their stateroom attendant to keep theirs later. We ditched our bags in their room and made our way downstairs for one last breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room. Allan suggested that we give my Valentine’s Day roses to Cary, the sweet Peruvian hostess who greeted us every morning. She was delighted. We also got a chance to say our goodbyes to our favorite wait staff, like Alex, Allan, and John (who waited on us for breakfast).

This port required buses to transport passengers to the cruise terminal, several kilometers away. The ship was being filled with provisions for the next trip around Cape Horn (and eventually continuing up the east coast of South America to the Caribbean and Ft. Lauderdale). Boxes of Skye Vodka, Dos Equis Beer, and frozen lobster tails sat on the pier, ready to be loaded into the cavernous storerooms of the Crown Princess.

We were assigned to the very final group to disembark the ship (Yellow 6, for the record), so we had plenty of time before our group would meet and be taken off the ship. Because we are all Platinum status with Princess, we could hang out in the Explorer’s Club lounge, which provided easy access to the Promenade Deck outside. Allan and Mike were updating their Facebook posts, so Chuck and I went outside to see how things were progressing.

But something was amiss: large protest signs were being hung on nearby containers (I saw the word “crucero” which means “cruise” and got a bad feeling about what was happening). And all worked stopped. The port workers (and bus drivers) went on strike. People who were in buses on the way to the cruise terminal were brought back and put back on the ship. We encountered David and Danny who had this happen to them – bad news, since they were scheduled to fly to Lima, Peru that afternoon. I have to say that this was one of the few times where I didn’t panic, because we had a Princess-arranged transfer to Santiago and a stay at the Sheraton for several nights. We had nowhere to be at any specific time.

Princess did an excellent job in keeping people informed (in both English and Spanish) during this whole event. Even if there was no news (and at first there was very little), they let people know that. About an hour into this (it started at around 9:15AM), they announced that the buffet was open and available. The staff who remained aboard were also nice and accommodating.

And still we waited. And Mike was sweet and got us some sandwiches from the International Café to keep us fed (because god forbid we don’t eat every hour on a cruise). According to the Passenger Services Manager, there were only 1,100 passengers left aboard, which means 2/3 were able to successfully get off the ship before the strike hit.

Shortly after noon, there was progress and the workers headed back to their jobs (what of the frozen lobster tails??!!). And people began boarding buses and leaving the ship (side note: the volumes of luggage had already been transported to the cruise terminal very early in the morning).

Our group was finally called at 1:30PM, and we made our way off the ship and on to the transfer bus. The drive to the terminal was surprisingly long, although we did get to see the Plaza de Armas and some of the lovely old buildings of Valparaiso. The warm Chilean sun shone on the palm trees and it felt good to be off the ship.

That good feeling was tested when we arrived at the cruise terminal. There were two cruise ships in port (the other being the Costa Luminosa) and the arrival crowds were swimming upstream against the departing crowds. Imagine hordes of people with luggage in long, snaking lines, both inside and outside the building. We didn’t have to reclaim our bags, as they were delivered directly to the Sheraton (a definite plus). We walked past a long row of buses to find the one assigned to our group. After 25 of us had shown up, the bus left (it was a luxury bus with comfy seats that normally seats around fifty).

We inched our way through surprisingly dense traffic (at 2:30PM) and were eventually on the highway that connects Valparaiso with Santiago: about 120 kilometers. Chile’s highways are well maintained, and the views as we traveled over (and under) several mountain ranges were beautiful. There was a bad drought here (terrible forest fires in the south several weeks ago that ravaged an area the size of Maryland) and most of the scenery was brown. But when we entered the wine-growing region, the area was green with acres of vineyards.

And then we hit a several kilometers long traffic jam on the portion of the road leading to the long tunnel that connects this area to the valley where Santiago is situated. There were several stalled buses and overheated trucks and cars. (We later found out that there was a crash between two semi-trucks in the tunnel). We inched and crawled, and eventually got through said tunnel, into the hazy valley (the Andes mountains are on the other side of the valley, but they weren’t clear against the horizon).

By the time we arrived at the Sheraton, it was after 5:00PM. This Sheraton is a large convention hotel, located next to a busy road which borders the Mapucho River (more on that later). We were cranky and tired and the check-in line moved slowly. Eventually we got our room assignment (we got put into 511, which faced the Providencia neighborhood and the Andes, Mike and Chuck into 345, which faced the beautiful pool area).

We freshened up a bit and met in the bar for cool drinks and surprisingly excellent pizza. The idea was to take a nap and then explore the neighborhood. Our bags were delivered to our room by the time we got back, which enabled us to do some unpacking. I should say it was a treat to have left the bags outside our stateroom on the ship and then have them show up the next evening in our hotel room.

Mike and Chuck bailed on going out, and so did Allan. I was so pent up by spending the day sitting and waiting that I went out by myself to explore the neighborhood. In essence I was doing some reconnaissance work that would save us time the next morning.

It took about ten minutes to get past the multi-lane roads and cross the river (good sidewalks and lighting). Once the bridge was traversed, Avenida Concepcion became a beautiful tree-lined street with a mixture of medium height office buildings and lower buildings that had other types of businesses (I found the closest Starbucks on that stretch). Eventually, the street crossed with a major boulevard, Providencia. The evening crowds were out in force, and despite my vague recollection of Chilean men, there were plenty of very handsome examples out that night (and every day after that!).

I just walked and walked, discovering the Manuel Montt metro station. I figured out how to buy a Metro card (called “Bip!”, pronounced “beep”) and load fares on it (660 pesos per trip – about US$1.00). I then walked in the opposite direction and came upon several tree-lined side streets with plenty of restaurants featuring outdoor dining. And they were quite busy, even at 9:00PM at night (they eat dinner late here).

Heading back to the hotel, I stopped at a mini-mart and picked up some cold drinks and snacks. I am frustrated by my rudimentary Spanish skills, but somehow managed to complete the transaction. Got back to the hotel at around 9:30PM, and slept well into the next morning.