Puerto Chacabuco, Chile (2019)
On the morning of January 27 we were anchored near the end of Aisen Fjord by Puerto Chacabuco.
Puerto Chacabuco was named after an important battle in 1817 during Chile’s war for independence and it is the ocean gateway to northern Chilean Patagonia. While a few hundred people live in the area, there is nothing really to see in Puerto Chacabuco beyond the scenery. Last time we were here we went on a delightful private driving tour through the area, which you can see here:
https://baderjournal.com/2012/01/30/in-patagonia/
This time we signed up for a HAL bus tour through the area to Coyhaique, the capital of the region. We drove along the Carretera Austral, a road completed in 1976, for about 50 miles, watching the marvelous scenery, with mountains, valleys, rivers and waterfalls, pass by. The day was mostly cloudy and gray, providing some atmosphere to the landscape. We saw a number of isolated farms and ranches near the road.
Our first visit was to the Rio Simpson national reserve. The visitor center included a museum of exhibits about the history of the area and the plants and animals to be found. Best was a giant condor hanging from the ceiling. Around the visitor center grew giant rhubarb plants, with leaves as big as a person.
A short walk down behind the visitor center we came to the Rio Simpson, a very beautiful river with clear water flowing past stone cliffs.
We left the Simpson River Reserve and travelled on toward Coyhaique. The Simpson River continued in the same direction and we caught sight of it a number of times. The landscape continued to be quite beautiful. At one point we went through a tunnel in a mountain and came out to a magnificent overlook, where the bus stopped for a long look. We crossed the Andes at a height of 1,476 feet.
Our first sight of Coyhaique was from the Alto Boguales viewpoint. There is a large and long mountain called Cerro McKay on the other side of it.
Coyhaique is the capital of the region, with a population of about 50,000. We drove directly to the Plaza de Armas, where we had about half an hour to look around. The plaza is pentagonal in shape and very green, with many trees, bushes and roses. There is supposed to be a handicraft market in the plaza, but it was Sunday and almost none of them were there. We walked across one street and looked through a couple of shops that were open. We walked all the way around the plaza, but unlike in Castro we found no bust of the Chilean naval hero Arturo Prat. Only one of Bernardo O’Higgins, liberator of this part of Chile. Then on the way out of town we passed a bust of Arturo! But we were past it before we could take a picture.
We drove up into a nearby mountain area for a lunch/snack that included wine and very good meat and cheese empanadas. From the deck was a very nice view of the neighboring mountain and valley, along with a large carved wooden bird.
After lunch we drove back along the same road with the same great views. We stopped briefly for a view of the Cascada La Virgen, a two level waterfall. On our first visit to this area we stopped at the shrine next to the waterfall called, you guessed it, the Virgen la Cascada. People were there today as we looked at the waterfall from the bus.
We drove through Puerto Aisen, a town about 10 miles from the port. Founded in 1904, Puerto Aisen was the main port for this area until about 1960. Forest fires and logging of forests in the area, exacerbated by a volcanic eruption nearby, caused the Aisen River to silt up to the point that ships could no longer navigate to the city. So the port was moved 10 miles down to its present location in Puerto Chacabuco. There is a story about the town’s name that says the pioneers built their settlement at the edge of where the glacier was at that time, thus “ice end” became Aisen. Of course, that only works in English, and then only as a “sounds like,” so we have our doubts. We stopped in Puerto Aisen on our previous visit but this time we just drove through it, crossing the Aisen river on what we were told is the largest bridge in the region.
It wasn’t long before we reached Puerto Chacabuco, where we tendered back to the Prinsendam, still waiting faithfully in the harbor. It was a bumpy & wet tender ride, but the area was still beautiful in the late afternoon light. And although we missed Arturo Prat in Coyhaique, we found him here in Puerto Chacabuco, guarding the Arturo Prat playground near the water’s edge.
So that was all for our visit to beautiful northern Patagonia. We will leave you for today with a cantaloupe mouse looking a lot like Mickey and another that looks like a rabbit or maybe a fat-cheeked Goofy. There is also a look at one of the lovely orchids that regularly grace the dining tables in the Canaletto area.
Castro, Isla Chiloe, Chile (2019)
January 26 found us anchored off Castro on Isla Chiloe. We first visited here in 2012, which you can see here:
https://baderjournal.com/2012/01/27/castro-isla-chiloe-chile
While indigenous people have lived here for 6,000 to 7,000 years, the Spanish founded this city in 1567, making it the third oldest continuous town in Chile. A hundred years ago it had only about 1300 residents but has grown to about 40,000 today.
The center of town is the Plaza de Armas, right in front of the bright yellow & purple church you can see in the picture above. We took the tender into town after breakfast and walked up the very steep street to the plaza. It is steep enough that the pedestrian benches are set one above another, rather than parallel to the street.
Most of the buildings in town are relatively new because Castro has repeatedly been virtually destroyed by earthquakes and fires over the centuries, in addition to being sacked by Dutch pirates twice during the 17th century. The most recent was a devastating earthquake in 1960 that was accompanied by a tsunami.
The Church of San Francisco, built in 1910, is the tallest building in town & there is a law preventing building one higher. Contrary to outward appearances it is not built of stone, but entirely of wood covered with corrugated and embossed tin, then painted yellow and purple. It was painted these colors for a visit by Pope John Paul II. Its bell towers are 130 feet tall and were used by ships at one time to guide them to the port. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and can dominates the skyline of Castro.
Inside the church is almost all wood as well. The carving was done by local people. It is an impressively large space.
We walked over to see the library. It was fairly large and spacious with an open feeling enhanced by large windows overlooking a sizeable inlet. They were setting up for some kind of presentation.
Outside we looked over the inlet, which we think is called Fiordo Castro. There were a lot of white birds in the water and the other side was lined with palafitos – brightly painted wooden houses built on stilts over where the water comes at high tide. These are emblematic of Castro and there were quite a few more of them lining the shore before the 1960 earthquake. They have dual facades, one facing the water and one the street, and many were built in the 19th century when fishermen would moor their boats to the stilts and climb a ladder to their homes. The water was low during our visit.
We walked back to the Plaza de Armas, past some colorful wall art and a number of backpacker hostels. We also visited a small regional museum that was interesting, probably more so if you could read Spanish, but no pictures.
The Plaza de Armas is a very pleasant space with a lot of trees and flowering bushes. There is a bandstand, a fountain and busts of several notable military leaders, including Simon Bolivar, Bernardo O’Higgins (the liberator of southern Chile) & our old friend Arturo Prat, the hero of Iquique.
Our last objective was the Feria Artesanal, which required us to walk down the hill to the water front. This is a maze of stalls selling a variety of souvenirs and handicrafts along with a huge variety of knitted goods. We noted what we think is a much greater number of machine made woolens than we saw last time, but the beautiful hand knitted items were abundant. And they were amazingly inexpensive: we bought a heavy hand knitted jacket for just $20.
So we tendered back to the ship after visiting the market. As we sailed away we passed a large fish farm and some local birds, looking dramatic against the dark blue water.
It was Australia Day & the ship’s penguins were outfitted for the occasion. At dinner we watched an other worldly panorama of snow capped Andes peaks pass by our window as the sun went down. Last time we were here those peaks were pink in the setting sun. Not so pink this time, but they were beautiful nonetheless. And so to bed.
Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile (2019)
After a very rough crossing of more than 400 miles we arrived in Cumberland Bay by Robinson Crusoe Island at dinnertime on January 23. We were scheduled to arrive on the 24th but the Captain took it at high speed to minimize the bad weather and rough waters, and once we reached the bay everything turned pretty calm. The craggy peaks and green valleys of the island were quite beautiful as the sun went down.
This island is one of three in the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, named for . . . you guessed it, Juan Fernandez, who first discovered it in 1574. The islands were uninhabited and there is no evidence that humans had ever been there before. He named this island “Mas a Tierra,” which means closer to land, and the second largest island Mas Afuera (Farther out). Pirates and buccaneers used it as a refuge & watering spot off and on for many years, then the Spanish took control in the mid-18th century & used it as a penal colony. The first permanent settlement, San Juan Bautista, wasn’t established until the second half of the 19th century.
If you have read the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe you know that it is actually set far from here on a fictional island in the Caribbean. While there is no direct evidence for this, many think that the ordeal of a buccaneer named Alexander Selkirk was the primary inspiration for Defoe’s novel. Apparently something of a pain in the rear, Selkirk kept complaining about the condition of his ship. So the captain put him ashore on this island alone with very few supplies. He lived here for four years and four months before being rescued by a British ship in 1709. He ate fish and goats, which had been introduced to the island by Juan Fernandez, and reputedly climbed the mountain every day to scan for ships. Bad as this was, Selkirk was lucky for he was right about the ship he was on: it sank a month after he was marooned taking the lives of many of the crew.
After his rescue Selkirk returned to buccaneering, dying of fever in the tropics 14 years later. A book about his experience was published in 1712, just a few years before Robinson Crusoe. So in 1966, in a blatant attempt to exploit this history for tourist dollars, the government of Chile changed the name of Mas a Tierra to Robinson Crusoe Island and the name of Mas Afuera to Alexander Selkirk Island. There you have it: Robinson Crusoe never set even a fictional foot on Robinson Crusoe Island and Alexander Selkirk never set foot on Alexander Selkirk Island.
But we did set foot on Robinson Crusoe Island. After breakfast on January 24 we boarded a tender that took us to the pier at San Juan Bautista. Almost everyone in the archipelago lives in this town, some 800 people.
Our first stop was in the town square right next to the pier, probably called the Plaza de Armas. Here are a few small shops and a bust of our old friend Arturo Prat, the hero of the Battle of Iquique.
These islands are more than 400 miles from the nearest mainland, so it isn’t surprising that it is home to many endemic plants and animals that can be found nowhere else. Among the animals are the Juan Fernandez fur seal, hunted almost to extinction in the 18th century but now making a successful comeback, and the Juan Fernandez Firecrown, a tiny hummingbird. We didn’t see either of these during our visit, but the Firecrown fertilizes and feeds on the nectar of the Cabbage Tree, an endemic tree related to the sunflower that is only found on this island (there are unrelated plants elsewhere with the same name). Both the hummingbird (of which only about 200 are left) and the tree are endangered species; we did see some cabbage trees in the town square, blooming with large yellow/orange flowers. Alexander Selkirk ate these when he couldn’t find goats. Some 70% of the approximately 200 native (ie. not introduced by man) plant species on the island are endemic, found nowhere else. As you will see, we saw quite a lot of flowering plants during our visit, but we have no idea which ones are endemic, other than the cabbage tree.
In 2010 the town of San Juan Bautista was mostly destroyed by a tsunami estimated between 10 and 30 feet. About 16 people were killed (10 known dead and 6 missing) and all the buildings were flattened. It would have been much worse, but a 12 year old girl noticed the water receding from the bay and knew that was a sign of an impending tsunami. She rang the emergency gong in the town square in time to save the lives of most of the inhabitants. On our visit the town looked like it was mostly rebuilt, but tsunami evacuation routes are plainly marked and they are pretty steeply uphill so it wouldn’t take long to reach safety with a little advance warning.
We walked down to the end of the town and visited the cemetery. It is in a beautiful spot, with cliffs on one side and the seashore on another. It is not crowded, we understand, because a number of graves were washed away by the tsunami. Here there is a memorial for the 16 people lost in the tsunami.
Walking a short way down past the cliffs beyond the cemetery we came to the small lighthouse and a wooden platform built up against the cliff. In 1914 a German navy squadron under Admiral von Spee (of whom we will hear more in a later episode) gathered here before defeating the British at the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile. They continued on to the Falklands where British cruisers sank most of them. The Dresden, the only German cruiser to survive that battle, returned here in the beginning of 1915 and was cornered in the bay by the British. Rather than allowing the British to seize their ship the Germans scuttled it, and it still sits deep under the water about 700 yards from this wooden structure. A number of the Dresden’s sailors (either killed in battle or settled here after the battle and died later, depending on the source) are buried in the cemetery with a stone memorial maintained by the Chilean navy. We have read that you can still see unexploded shells embedded in these cliffs, but we did not (we must have unknowingly walked right past them).
Having pretty much exhausted the town, we walked back to the central square & began walking up one of the mountain paths that might take us to the old fort. Instead, we ended up at a nice scenic overlook complete with park bench. On the way there we passed quite a few interesting flowers.
Still determined to find the fort, we walked back down the path and took the other fork. A fellow came out on his porch a good ways away and showed us two spiny lobsters he had caught. He was far away and the picture isn’t very clear, but it was a cool moment and it’s the only one we have. These lobsters are among the mainstays of the island, not only consumed locally but exported to mainland Chile. We saw a few passengers on the porch of a small guesthouse on one of the mountain paths enjoying one.
Fort Santa Barbara was built by the Spanish in 1749 to protect the island from pirates and privateers. We have read that it was heavily restored in 1974, so we don’t really know what it looked like originally. Today it is basically a large grassy platform supported by stone retaining walls containing several old cannon, which may be the original ones. It has a very nice view of the bay (which it would need to fend off pirates) and is surrounded by a lot of flowers, some of which we have seen before.
After leaving the fort we tried to climb up to Mirador Selkirk, the spot where Alexander Selkirk reputedly watched for ships every day. It was pretty steep, though, and got much steeper. Not only that but there was very loose dirt & gravel, so every time we took a step up we would slide right back down. So we gave up on that (good thing since it would have been a much longer climb than we anticipated) and hunted out the Cuevas de los Patriotas (caves of the patriots). We could see them above the town, but getting there involved climbing some hazardous wood and dirt steps that had been badly eroded, presumably by rain. The story of these caves is unusually confusing because different sources give different accounts. They were certainly inhabited by some soldiers in 1814. Some say these were Spanish patriots who fled the mainland after Chile declared its independence. Other sources say these were Chilean patriots removed to the island by the Spanish. Take your pick. Whoever they were, they soon tired of living in caves but we don’t know whether they settled there or found another way out.
And so we ended our visit to beautiful and isolated Robinson Crusoe Island and tendered back to the ship to await the sail away. If you are a nature lover (who isn’t ?) & your legs are up to a challenging climb, this would be a lovely place to spend a few days, although it is not an easy place to get to if you don’t happen to be on a cruise ship that is going this way. As we sailed away, the island (of course) got smaller & smaller and we began the long journey back to the Chilean mainland.
San Antonio & Valparaiso, Chile (2019)
We docked in San Antonio, Chile early on January 22. Until recently most cruise ships in this area docked in Valparaiso, an important old port city about an hour and a half away. But labor troubles, or a new port owner who thinks he can make more from container ships, or something else (we have heard several different stories) has resulted in most cruise ships now docking in San Antonio instead. That’s a shame because Valparaiso is a very interesting city with a long and colorful history, while San Antonio has little to offer beyond a working port.
So we spent no time in San Antonio, instead joining a private excursion to Valparaiso. In 2012 we docked in Valparaiso and witnessed sunrise over its beautiful port, but spent the day instead on a trip to Santiago. You can see all that here:
https://baderjournal.com/2012/01/26/
Founded in 1536 by an associate of Diego de Almagro, Francisco Pizarro’s partner/rival, Valparaiso remained a small village until the early 19th century. In 1810 the first pier in Chile was built there and after Chilean independence in 1818 it became the primary stop for ships sailing between the Atlantic and Pacific, most of which had to sail through the Strait of Magellan. Its importance grew as miners flocked to California from the Atlantic coast in the 1850’s and it developed into a cosmopolitan city containing communities of German, English and Italian immigrants. This lucrative sea trade mostly dried up when the Panama Canal opened in 1914. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
After the long drive from San Antonio our van dropped us up near the top of one of the hills surrounding Valparaiso’s large harbor in what (if memory serves) was once the German community. There were splendid views of the bay.
As you can see from the pictures above, Valparaiso is a very colorful city with buildings painted a variety of bright colors. It is also known for its amazing graffiti. There is more graffiti here than anywhere we have been. It is not the stuff of midnight taggers, but publicly approved works of art. Part of what pulled Valparaiso out of its long decline after the opening of the canal was its emergence as a center for the arts and artists, with many having studios in this city. Our guide told us that one way for young artists to become known & successful is by painting public walls and staircases. They seek permission from the landowner, many of whom are glad to have them because of public approval of these works. We saw many of these during our visit, most of which were quite interesting and well done.
As we continued walking down the hill we came upon a children’s library . . . pure serendipity. And, of course, a lot more wall art.
We came to the end of a street that continued down with wide stairs. It provided a nice view of the bay. But our guide borrowed one of our cameras and ran down to a lower level and took a picture of the group standing on the top. The steps looked entirely different from below, of course (although it’s a lie; we really are aging hippies).
On our way down we passed two impressive old mansions built in 1916, the tail end of Valparaiso’s golden age. First was an impressive yellow mansion and then the Art Nouveau style Palacio Baburizza, which became an art museum 1971. After passing the Palacio we came to a viewing point over the harbor.
We had a nice walk down one of the hills, but walking up would be an entirely different matter! To alleviate this the city has a number of “ascensores,” or funiculars, that will take you up or down the hills on rails (for a small fee). They were built between 1883 and 1916. At one time there were 30 of them but today 16 remain and only 7 are in operation (the others are being restored). We rode down a funicular (not sure which one) to Plaza Sotomayor.
We walked through the Plaza Sotomayor, the central square of the city built entirely on reclaimed land. It is a large and impressive plaza, with the headquarters of the Chilean navy spanning one side & a monument to the heroes of Iquique in the center. The remains of Arturo Prat and some of his men are in a crypt below the monument. The navy headquarters used to be the legislative building or the presidential palace (we can’t remember which), but now the navy refuses to give it up for any other use.
Valparaiso (and really all of Chile) relies on volunteer fire departments to protect the city from fires. The city’s tradition of cohesive ethnic communities led to fire brigades being organized by each community, beginning in the early 1850’s. Today there are still American, British, French and Italian fire brigades, among others. To join a brigade you have to provide proof of your ethnic descent. The overall headquarters of the fire departments is in Plaza Sotomayor, and the building houses two brigades on its first floor; if memory serves, the garage on the left is the English and the one on the right American. Plaza Sotomayor has a lot of typical vendors’ kiosks in its central area, and we visited a modern building that has what appears to be the most expensive restroom in the world (actually 300 Chilean pesos amounts to a little less than 50 cents American).
Refreshed after the pit stop, we walked over to the lower station of another funicular, the Ascensor Artillería. We rode it up to a plaza overlooking the harbor.
We walked from there to where our van was waiting. Nearby was an awning with a Coke ad that looked like it was from the 1950’s or earlier; we had seen a number of these old fashioned Coke ads in Peru & Chile. Then we drove up one of the hills through what was the English district. We had to reverse course several times because of traffic jams (we were glad we weren’t driving), but we passed several old buildings representative of this neighborhood and, inevitably, some more wall art.
We stopped at a cul de sac overlooking a beautiful bay with surf breaking on volcanic rocks. Several dogs were sleeping there, looking like they were having a lazy afternoon. Our guide pointed out to us a shrine on the rocks below, which was dedicated to a girl who died there. We can’t remember the story about her, but got the impression it was well known in these parts. Small shrines for dead friends or relatives can be seen all over this part of South America, particularly along roads and highways.
We drove to Vina del Mar, a nearby resort town. But it is a large one: Valparaiso has about 280,000 people within the city but Vina del Mar has about 325,000, Chile’s fourth largest city. It was founded in 1878. There is a large river running through the town with many bridges and high rise residential buildings lining the banks.
We exited the van by the Palacio Carrasco. It was built in 1912 and is now the site of the municipal library as well as hosting art exhibitions. In front is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin called “la Defensa.”
We walked down to the Fonck Museum, but didn’t go in. We were there to see a moai statue from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the only one in mainland Chile (Easter Island is actually owned by Chile).
The last item on our brief visit to Vina del Mar was the floral clock, an obvious tourist attraction but pretty nonetheless. What we hadn’t expected to see there was Groot!
After this we started the long drive back to San Antonio. When we scheduled this excursion we were a little concerned that the long drive in both directions would leave insufficient time to see the city. But in fact we had a very enriching visit to Valparaiso, mostly thanks to our guide, Juan. About half way between the two cities we passed a church that Juan told us is the site of pilgrimages in which the roads are blocked off and many thousands of people walk, and even crawl, to the church to express their devotion. Here is a picture taken from a moving vehicle, so it isn’t a very good portrait of the church.
Despite the distance from Valparaiso we reached the port in ample time for “all aboard” and set sail west across the Pacific to our next port. As we say good night we will leave you here with a carved watermelon and a towel animal for your enjoyment. Some of the crew on this ship are very talented!
Antofagasta, Chile (2019)
We spent January 20 in Antofagasta, a city of about 400,000 in northern Chile that looks a lot like Iquique from the ocean: sitting on a narrow shelf between barren mountains and the water. This is still the Atacama Desert; Antofagasta gets about 0.1 mm in annual rainfall making it the world’s driest city.
Antofagasta started life in 1869 as a Bolivian town, built primarily as a port for nitrate exports from the mines in the desert in the region. But that didn’t last very long because in the settlement of the War of the Pacific in the 1880’s the town was ceded to Chile. This left Bolivia landlocked, but the settlement provided that Bolivia would have free access to the ports of Antofagasta & Iquique for its exports. Not sure how that worked out, but to this day these two countries do not have diplomatic relations.
We visited here during our 2012 South American voyage, and you can see it here:
https://baderjournal.com/2012/01/26/antofagasta-coquimbo-chile/
As you can tell if you look at that posting, we weren’t too impressed then with this port in the desert. Seven years later it was a little better, so they have made some progress, but still not a place to put on your bucket list. HAL’s location guide, Heather, told us (as if this made the stop exciting) that this is the first time since 2012 that they have visited this rarely visited city. Lucky us, hitting it both times.
We took the HAL shuttle to Plaza Colon, the central square of the old city. Presumably named for Christopher Columbus, this is a very nice & very green space. In the center is a clock tower contributed by the English community of the town. It is said to be a replica of Big Ben in London, but doesn’t really look like that to us.
It was Sunday morning, but the cathedral, on one side of the plaza, was open to visitors. It is modest as cathedrals go but pleasant. While we were there a dog walked in with a HAL tour group and sat down quietly in one of the back pews until they were ready to leave. He looked like he was a veteran of such occasions. There are quite a few loose dogs walking around in this city.
On the opposite side of the plaza was an old distinguished looking building that housed the post office and the regional library. It was Sunday, so the post office was closed, but surprisingly the library was open. It was a very nice library too, with many comfy looking chairs and skylights at the top of the high walls. Even the children’s room was open.
In 2012 we left the plaza toward the south, finding nothing but dusty streets and lazy packs of dogs. This time we turned north & walked to the old port, where they used to ship the nitrate. This was a much better choice. On the way we passed a couple of museums, closed on Sunday, and some nice flowers. At the small port were a few vendors (mostly closed) and a fish market.
The one accessible museum was the old railroad station which, we think used to connect Antofagasta with the Bolivian interior.
We walked back to Plaza Colon, where we found on the first corner an unlabeled monument that we think must be Ferdinand & Isabella. Makes sense on a plaza named for Christopher Columbus, right? At the lower left of the monument was a lion, but we aren’t sure what it was supposed to represent.
We returned to the ship to await the sail away time. Here are some pictures of Antofagasta from the water & as we sailed away.
January 21 was a sea day, but there were a couple of events worth sharing. First there was a medals ceremony. HAL hands out (fake) copper, silver, gold & platinum medals for passengers who have spent certain total numbers of days at sea on HAL ships. We think this is pretty silly; after all, the only “accomplishment” being honored is being a particularly good customer of the company (not sour grapes, we have received two of them). But a lot of folks really like this and on this day our friends & tablemates Robert, Bill and Sharon were among those receiving medals. The ship’s penguin squadron looked really proud of their medals too.
The second notable event was the Filipino crew show. Most of the crew on HAL ships are Filipino and Indonesian; HAL has a crew training facility in Indonesia called the MS Jakarta where they learn their trade. The professional and friendly crew are one of HAL’s best calling cards for repeat customers. On every grand voyage each of these groups of crew members take time from their unbelievably busy schedules to rehearse & present a show of their national song and dance. They work very hard at this and it shows; the crew shows always attract a large and enthusiastic audience of passengers. Here are a few images from the Filipino crew show that was presented on this day.
So that is all for this episode. We leave you here with a couple of cantaloupe sculptures and a pair of bedtime towel animals.
BADER JOURNAL 