We arrived at our first Chilean port of the cruise which is in Coquimbo, Chile at around 8:00 AM this morning. This is a maiden port of call for Crystal as it is the first time a Crystal ship has visited this port of call. Coquimbo is home to approximately 300,000 residents. A big part of the local economy is the local seafood, particularly large scallops and oysters.
After waking up early and having breakfast in the Lido Café we worked out in the Fitness Center. We departed the ship around 9:00 AM. And took a c complimentary shuttle provided by Crystal into the town of La Serena which is about a twenty minute drive from the pier. This town was founded in 1543 and is one of the top two premier beach towns in all of Chile.
We did not have a tour planned for this location. In fact, we have very few tours planned in South America since we visited several South America ports on another cruise in early 2005. The vast majority of our formal excursions are planned in Africa, the Middle East and in Europe.
We walked around for about an hour and 30 minutes. We went into a local supermarket to get a sense as to the prices and the types of food that local residents buy. The prices were very reasonable and they had some wonderful fresh items. The baked goods looked quite nice, particularly the cakes and the empanadas. We looked at some of the local wine and plan to purchase one or two bottles of wine at the next Chilean port of call.
While strolling around town we saw a variety of churches and also walked around a central square. We also walked through a fairly large outdoor market.
After returning to the ship and having lunch in the main restaurant we walked along a street adjacent to the pier where we came to a very large market where many local items were for sale. We also walked by several places selling fresh fish. And, when we say fresh fish there must have been several hundred fish in each of several markets and many of the fish were Texas sized fish.
We enjoyed walking around both towns and we had wonderful weather with sunny skies and temperatures in the 60’s and the low 70’s.
When we got back to the ship we took a very nice walk on the promenade deck.
Before dinner, we listened to several of our passenger’s who have formed a choir and sang songs from Annie. We enjoyed listening to them and we know some of the passenger’s who are part of the choir.
This evening was a casual night in the restaurant. We were joined at our table by one other couple as the third couple was dining in one of the specialty restaurants.
Tomorrow we will arrive in Valparaiso which we last visited in January of 2005.
Keith & Anne Marie
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