Latitude 20º 32 S': Valparaiso, Chile: Here We Go!

January 17, 2010
Valparaiso, Chile

Mile 0!

It´s hard not to like Santiago in the summer. The days are long and it´s got a Mediterrean climate which makes it dry and hot during the day and cool at night for sleeping

It was Sunday the 17th--the day Glenda and I would set sail for our two week cruise around the southern tip of South America. It was also election day for a new president. We lingered long over breakfast, sitting in the garden of Casa Amarilla with a coupole from Sweden, and Maria who was filling us in on the current state of politics in Chile and the pros and cons of each candidate. I was not paying any attention to time. From previous experience, I figured it would take us less than two hours to get to Valpo, the port city from which we´d sail. We could leave by 11:30 with time to spare.

How wrong I was. I say all of this to provide background as to how we almost missed the boat.

When we got to the bus station, no seats were available until 1:30. What nobody had told me was that Chilean voters must return to the place were they registered. Lines were long and nothing was available that would get us to Valpo in time! What to do?

There really was no choice, but to hire a taxi for the 70 mile trip. In the end it was the best $120.00 we'd spend on this trip.

Traffic was heavy and there were lines at all of the toll booths. My only experience with getting to the coast was on a weekday, so this was new. When we finally got to the port, it was only logical to go to the ship, but we were turned around and sent to a processing area where we´d check in. To be quite honest, if we´d not hired this great taxi driver we´d never had made it in time. Each time he navigated us out of another potential problem, I´d pull out more pesos to give him as a tip.

In the end we didn´t miss the boat. And we did have some time to spare,although not a lot of it. OMG! How excting it was to look at this giant ship, The Nowegian Sun, and know that it would be home for the next two weeks.

I rarely get excited about anywhere I go in the world. But today, this was different. I could hardly contain the excitement. I rememebr my friend Mary who was taking her first out of country cruise. I called her on the way to NYC where they´d fly from and she told me she was "almost crawling out of her skin.¨ I felt that way, too, that Sunday afternoon as we waited for the boat to set sail.

At 5:00 pm sharp the ship quietly slipped out of Valparaiso. Below us were small tourist boats that I´d ridden almost a year earlier. Then I remembered looking up at the people on board thinking how unlikely it was that I´d ever be in their place. But here I was...here we were...watching the small boats in reverse and watching the city recede as we headed out to sea.

I´d wanted to see the waterways of Chile, cruise the Magellan Straits, round Cape Horn. I wanted to sail south to the long, white nights of an austral summer. I wanted to sail along the Patagonian Coast and set foot on Tierra del Fuego. I wanted to go the end of the world.

And I was on my way.

By 8:30 we were sitting oceanside in one of the two large dining rooms aboard the ship. The sun was beginning to set. It had been a marvelous day, and the sunset would be lovely.

After dinner, we went to the 12th floor observation deck. The night was perfectly clear. A silver of a crescent moon hung in the sky. Venus shown brightly above it. I´d brought Genda here to show her the Southern Cross. It was warm. The ship was sailing quietly through the night. I was still crawling out of my skin with excitement!

The adventure had just begun!