Downtown Santiago, Chile a few weeks before Christmas.
Closer examination of the decorations show they all have the
Coca Cola logo. The buses cost about 44 cents per ride and
go everyplace. An underground subway costs a little less and
is fast, frequent, and clean.
Another tree near the Central train station. Strange for us Northern
Hemisphere folks to see water in the fountains and short sleeves
in early December. Ice cream is available on every corner.
Yet Santa still wears a red suit with white fur and the parking
lots are decorated with lighted snowflakes.
The port and resort city of Valparaiso. A little like San Francisco
with small cable cars and pastel colored buildings.
Our ship and home for the next 14 days -
The Zenith in the Celebrity Cruises fleet.
If ever wonder what ocean view windows look like, here you are.
Actually we saw a lot from our window. An added attraction was
a video cam on the front of the ship that plays continuously on the
TV in the stateroom. Fun to watch the ship entering the ports.
Puerto Montt, Chile. Our first port. This city was the site of the largest
earthquake on the planet to hit a populated area. 9.7 on the
new scale. Destroyed the city in 1960 with the initial quake,
tidal wave, and the next year an erupting volcano as a bonus. 15,000 people
were killed or disappeared before it was over.
Chile
is the second largest producer of salmon in the world (behind Norway). The
weather is much milder here and thus the
fish grow faster, so its aspirations for becoming a larger
producer of fish may not be unfounded.
This is the volcano Calbuco (now 6100 feet) that erupted in 1961.
It used to be much taller.
The surrounding area is still full of the ash
Bob and Joyce in the foreground of another large volcano Osorno.
This one will erupt someday. It is about 8000 feet tall today.
Quite unusual to see it on a clear day as we enjoyed here.
The Zenith cruised through the Chilean Fiords to visit a large
and active glacier terminating in the sea. This is the Amalia Glacier