Wednesday, 11th February, San Antonio, Chile 15 degrees

We had a leisurely start to the day which dawned bright and sunny. We are going to stay close to home today and give ourselves a self guided outing of the area of San Antonio.

We breakfasted late outside on the back of the ship and watched, fascinated, the loading and unloading that was going on on the huge container ship behind us……

In one of my past lives, many years ago (!) I sat on a cargo ship in the London docks typing up bills of lading as stevedores loaded and off-loaded the cargo…. A different age!

Aurora sits in the middle of the port surrounded by this container activity.

San Antonio is situated at the mouth of the Maipo River and has taken over from the historic port of Valparaiso as Chile’s primary freight terminal. It has evolved from a small fishing village to being capital of the local province in this the central region of Chile. It is situated on the Humboldt Current which carries cold waters from southern Chile to meet the tropical waters of northern Peru and has a cooling influence on the climate around here.

We had a marvellous day, after the technical hitch of my not remembering to take my Chile Affidavit document out with me, which meant I had to return to the ship before I could leave the Terminal. The punishment was that it took about an hour to come back to the cabin, pick up the document and get back to the terminal. The plus point was that I was able to see some of the staff in the midst of a life jacket wearing practice exercise!

We had wanted to so some downloading of material with the stronger WiFi in the Terminal so there was no real harm done. Once that was over we decided to go first to the fish market along the water front towards the old original fishing village that was San Antonio not many years ago. What a joy!

The quay side was a riot of colour, with stalls selling everything from sunglasses to seaweed. Boats of all colours bobbed about in the harbour against the backdrop of those big container cranes.

We walked on, passing stalls selling very odd things on skewers

And eventually arrived at the fish market which was buzzing with activity. There were various fish, crustaceans and eels all looking very shiny and healthy, fresh from the water. Apparently the amount and variety of fish is down to our friend the Humboldt current which accounts for 18-20% of the world wide fish catch. In addition it also supports marine mammals such as sea lions as we were to see later.

First the fish market …

As an aside to the fish there were beautiful vegetables and nibbly bits to be had …

The jetty around the corner saw men and women with wheelbarrow loads of fish. Another man was stripping the heads and innards of fish and eels and dropping them into the water, much to the delight of the enormous sea lions below!

Pelicans and gulls joined in the frenzy, with a lot of flapping of wings and squawking as more detritus hit the water.

Eventually we turned away from the tumult on the jetty and found a lady and gentlemen selling home made empanadas – they were delicious!

We then wandered back towards the ship, more stalls and wares had been added to those we had passed on the way out. Some people had just laid what looked like cast-off clothes along the wall, with children’s toys, shoes and all sorts. It was a cross between a car boot and a come and buy sale.

When we reached the Terminal building again, we did not turn in but kept going as Keith had found details of a restaurant he wanted to try and find for lunch. And so we set out on what was one of our biggest adventures so far on the trip.

The road was pretty dusty as lorries thundered past us taking the containers from the Terminal out into the whole South American continent. There was sand, stones, rubbish and the odd weed under foot. We came to the bus station, where every few minutes buses emerged taking their passengers far and wide throughout Chile and beyond. Our route continued as the path followed the edge of the Container Terminal. At various stages we saw mountains of salt being scooped up by large dumper trucks, huge silos containing maize (assumed from the evidence on the ground around them), literally miles more of containers, sparrows gathering in the fronds of a palm and hopping in and out of the barbed wire security fencing and a long goods train made up of large number of orange tanker shapes. Next came a football stadium and at a small hole in the wall of a seemingly derelict building – a newspaper seller!

Eventually we found a route over the railway line that we had been seeking and turned left along Bernardo O’Huggins Boulevard no less. At the end of this we turned off again onto a sandy path into a a forest of pine trees. After all that industry and noise and dust, it was an oasis of calm.

A shallow stream, slightly encumbered by weed, wended its way along by the side of the woodland. We had found the nature trail we had been seeking. Here nasturtiums grow wild as they are native to the Andes mountains and they covered the bank of the stream on our side.

On the other side of the stream there were shacks and houses,

Sadly we felt that we needed to turn back because the route to the restaurant was not clear but in doing so we were diverted by a large bird swooping down to the edge of the stream across the way from us.

It will have come down looking for crayfish that would be readily available in the stream. We watched it for some time from the opposite bank. What a treat! All manner of tweeting and twitching went on around us, together with the groaning of the trees as the breeze caught them, It all made for a really magical place. Butterflies were in abundance and then finally a pair of picui ground doves were to be seen digging amongst the pine needles and leaves on the forest floor. Our final sighting was a Chilean mockingbird. (All sightings discussed at length with my ChatGPT mate.Ed)

We eventually left this wonderful wonderland to retrace our steps along the dusty road back, only to find the El Paso cafe which we had missed on our way out because we were looking for other things. We went through the stringed fly curtain and found ourselves in a small room probably 8 ft by 10 ft where a couple of men were having lunch and a young lad waited for his order, bent over his mobile phone, ear buds firmly in place. On the wall was a very comprehensive list of the day’s fare. To the right a door and a counter filled the remaining space.

We ordered our drinks and an empanada – Keith’s first choice was not available (I think the list is for guidance only!) but the chap behind the counter and Keith eventually found something to his liking. (Sadly there was no chicken and sweetcorn which is allegedly one of the national dishes you have to try in Chile. So I had to share a prawn and cheese empanada. But it was fab! Ed) We shared the young lad’s table and drank thirstily until the empanada arrived – and it was delicious! What a treat! It could not have been better. Perhaps not the posh meal we had expected, but after our walk and sightings, it was nectar of the gods.

Totally refreshed we retraced our steps back to the terminal very pleased with our day!

A bit of down time was required after our walk (All 7 miles of it. Ed). I got up to date with the diary and Keith researched the birds we had seen and had an altercation with his bank. Meanwhile the sun shone down on us through the cabin window. A shower was a definite requirement before supper as we both felt we were covered in dust. Dressing for supper was an unexpected requirement as we had envisaged a long lunch and no meal this evening. However, as it turned out we found ourselves ‘home alone’ at the table as Michael and Penny were off for an evening excursion and Gareth and Sian had been out for the day.

Despite our isolation, (or perhaps because of it Ed) we had a good chat to the people at the next table and then sauntered back to our room. It is a lovely evening. We don’t leave San Antonio until 11.30 tonight. Way past our bedtime!

Tomorrow is another sea day. (Yay!! Ed)

Sun setting over the container terminal …