Santiago (San Antonio), Chile

          Monday, 17 Feb 2020 – We were scheduled to dock at San Antonio at 7:00 AM.  San Antonio is located 73 miles west of Santiago and 60 miles south of Valparaiso, Chile.  Gateway to Santiago and the hub of the fishing area, San Antonio, Chile has a population of about 87,000.  Its port is the largest in terms of freight handled and the busiest on the western coast of South America.  The city was 80 percent destroyed by the 1985 Santiago earthquake; then the San Antonio port was shut down by the 27 Feb 2010 earthquake, but had resumed operation at 80 percent capacity by 3 Mar 2010.  There is not much for tourists to see in San Antonio.  All three available Oceania shore excursions for San Antonio began with bus rides to Valparaiso or Santiago.

Santiago is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas.  The metropolitan region of Santiago has a population of about 7 million.  (We have stayed overnight in Santiago, as well as in Valparaiso, before and after cruises.)  Founded in 1541 by the Spanish conqueror Pedro de Valdivia, Santiago has been the capital city of Chile since colonial times.

Port Entrance

            Besides Kathy and Larry, two of our other friends, Marvin & Liz (dancers), also disembarked in San Antonio.  We went to breakfast at 9:30 AM, which was a good thing, because the Terrace Café was closing at 9:45 AM, 15 minutes earlier than usual.  We sat near Julie, who was eating alone; Canute was on an excursion.  After breakfast, Jesse walked out on the Lido deck to take photos of the town.  It had been raining and the air was very cool.  A little later, Jesse left the ship and took a shuttle bus to the ship terminal; then there was about a 20 or 30 minute walk to the outside gate.  When Jesse finally got to the port entrance, he learned that shopping, etc., was another 30 minute walk along the road.  Therefore, he soon started his walk back to the ship!

After lunch, we checked the temperature of the pool and considered going swimming later, but never did.  Jesse’s cold started bothering him again and he didn’t feel much like swimming.

At 5:15 PM, we had another mandatory guest lifeboat drill.  Although it was mostly for the new passengers, as usual, all passengers had to participate.  Although we waited until 7:30 to go to dinner, the Terrace Café was still crowded.  We found a window table at be back of the restaurant near Julie and Canute.  Canute seemed very tired and wasn’t very talkative.  He had taken a 7-hour excursion earlier.

We attended the ship’s “Homecoming Dance” in the Insignia Lounge at 9:15 PM.  Raffle tickets were passed out at the door, and more were passed out on the dance floor.  The dance floor was crowded, but very few couples were doing ballroom dancing.  Three or four of the younger ladies were putting on quite an amusing show with their “interpretive” dancing, and two of the ship’s entertainers sang a few songs.  Raffle ticket prizes included champagne, Oceania baseball caps, and spa coupons.  Although we stayed until the end at 10:00 PM, we didn’t win anything.  Our friend, Velma, won a hat, although we hadn’t seen her or Billy on the dance floor.