Antofagasta, Chile

Bob enjoying ghost twon slide

Today is Wednesday and we are docked in Antofagasta, Chile.  We lost another hour last night and we are taking a shore excursion, so no morning swim.  We had a light breakfast in La Veranda and then headed to the theater for our bus assignment.  Mickey and Dick are on our bus.  Our excursion is called "Historic Chacabuco and Baquedano Train Museum".  Sounded great but wait till I tell you all about it.  I thought that since we had to pay for this tour, it would be a great one.  Surprise to me!!!

We boarded our bus and headed out of the city into the desert.  This is the driest desert in the world.  Not a tree to be seen.  The ride to the first stop was about one hour.  Baquedano is hardly a town.  It once was an important junction of the Antofagasta and Bolivia Railroad Company.  Here you get to see several old and rusty locomotives that were used in the nitrate industry.  Today they are rusting away in the desert.

Old Locomotive

Next stop was at a town called Chacabuco.  This was once a large nitrate town built in 1922 for the workers of the nearby nitrate plant. The town was abandoned after nitrate prices fell below market sustainability levels and was largely untouched until put into use again between 1973 and 1975 by the Pinochet government as a concentration camp for political prisoners.  In recent years, the German government has tried to restore some of the buildings.  But we found that most of the buildings are cracked and in very bad shape.

On the ride back to the pier, we drove on the PanAmerican Highway to stop at the Tropic of Capricorn, where a recent monument has been built to mark this spot.

We returned to the ship and had a late lunch at the Pool Grill.  I enjoyed a burger and sweet potato fries.   Yum!!

After a short nap, we headed up to the pool to do our exercises.  It seems at this time of the day, the pool is not crowded.  Some others will come into the pool for short spurts of swimming and then ususally head to the hot tubs. 

We cleaned up for dinner.  Tonight we decided to eat at La Veranda.  They switch the menus from Italian, to French, to Mediterian, etc.  Tonight was Italian and okay.  But a nice change from the Compass Rose. 

We came back to the cabin and decided to watch a movie.   Decided on "Footloose".  Not bad.  Then lights out and sleep.

Tomorrow a sea day.