Day -1 - 06/Jan/24 - Chilling in San Antonio, Chile

 Today was to be a slow down and not hurry day.  We were both quite tired and we didn't get up until 10ish.  We enjoyed the continental breakfast at the hotel and then packed up to head out for a leisurely stroll with a goal of walking the waterfront along the esplanade.  

A block south of us is a home center (think Home Depot or Lowe's).  On the upper level is a collection of little stores including a grocery store, two pharmacies, a general merchandise store, and a few others.  We visited a few of them before walking down Veintiuno de Mayo street to the port level streets.  There was a large supermarket there called Tottus which we extensively visited.  We enjoy visiting local grocery stores around the world to compare with what we are used to at home.

Leaving the Tottus store we walked a few blocks north on Barros Luco, a busy 4 lane highway, and joined the esplanade which is named Paseo Bellamar. There's a fisherman's memorial there which is a retired wooden fishing boat with memorial plaques attached to the hull. Along the esplanade all the vendors were set up and I purchased a 3 USB outlet port 220v charger that we can use here and on the ship and elsewhere around the world.  The cost was $2.

We continued strolling along the now very familiar esplanade and at the fish markets we got to see them in full swing.  Right next to them is a pier from which the fish cleanings are dumped to the pleasure of the gorging sea lions and hundreds of gulls. Many people were also fishing there but I didn't see any catching.  There were also dozens of huge sea lions sunning themselves on the rock wall.  The nearby sand beach only had a few which was quite a change from yesterday.  People were also taking a harbor tour from this dock.  

Typical esplanade venders

Snoozing sea lion about 3' away

Sea lion with hook snagged on his lip

A little farther north we found the restaurant (La Cholita) that served ceviche that we spotted yesterday.  We secured an upstairs seat with harbor views and tried to down a single heaping plate of ceviche served on a bed of salad greens, mussels, shrimp, salmon, a crab & cheese dish, calamari, & onions.  It took two Coke Zeros for each of us to wash down what we could eat and it was very good. The total cost was $38US.  

After our lunch we strolled back south along the esplanade to the stairs that took us up to the top of the hill.  Angela counted 150 stairs.  The views from the top are wonderful.  We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging at our room and I even snuck in a little nap.  I watched a number of YouTube videos on the coverage of the Alaska Airlines flight 1282 out of Portland that suffered a rapid decompression after a 'plug' panel failed and separated from the aircraft.  We flew on that model just a few days earlier from Seattle to Atlanta and I noticed today's flight from Seattle was cancelled. It's one more reason why we come a few days earlier in case situations happen. Also I would note that the temperature was 70°F today and I was in a short sleeved shirt.

We skipped dinner tonight and enjoyed a cup of tea and a roll with jelly that Angela had saved from breakfast.  We watched a Cosco container ship (Volga)  enter the port and tie up during the fading rays of sunshine today. Our ship should be parking in front of it tomorrow by 7am. I did check on its progress and it is making its way up the coast.

Tomorrow afternoon we board with a scheduled time of 3:40pm (latest we've ever had) so we'll do another leisurely day in San Antonio. Sailaway is scheduled for 6pm.