TravelBluebird

Ok got to the ship as I was putting up my bus and WE’RE AT THE SHIP photos!

Group 8 was called. Quick check of passports, your photo taken, then quick security—they didn’t even pay down my metal knee. We are on the bus off to the ship!

Evidently some passengers have been stranded in Panama due to the grounding of the 737 MAX 9 planes. Horrible situation

We are in the termina! Very industrial port! Passenger terminal is green warehouse building. Very easy procedure—clearly marked tent for baggage drop off. You get a number as you enter the building for boarding. We have been here about an hour. That are on number 5 we are group 8. No one seems to care what the boarding time on your pass is, but this is ver organized! There is limited seating to wait but we snagged one seat. Got coffee at the coffee shop—cappuccino blech very sweet.

We got on our privately arranged van to the port at about 9:30. A little confusion because there were 3 private vans and some were working on old van assignments, but it all worked out. The HAL arranged buses leaving from hotel starting at 9:45 to 11am

@caneable Glad to have you along for the blog! And we do have the Falls on that tour—I can’t wait!

@NorbertsNiece Enjoy Santiago, and safe travels home! I can’t thank you enough for this wonderful Cruise Critic blog—WAY more than a BIT of a blog, and one of the best I’ve ever read with detail and information. I was so lucky to read this before we board the ship today!

@NorbertsNiece I’m sad your trip, and your marvelous Cruise Critic blog are over! Thank you SO MUCH, for all the wonderful information and photos. And thank you for letting me know disembarkation is happening on time!

I hope someone can answer your question! I mentioned the switchbacks because I have a son who still gets car sick in such situations, and one poor gal in our van was nibbling crackers and green that part of the trip. I also should mention to be careful if you are sensitive to altitude (I am due to asthma). There is a hill down to the lake from the restaurant. I had to come back up the hill VERY slowly because my heart was pounding and I got winded from slowly walking up.

Long day! Due to traiffic an a few construction road stoppages, we didn’t get back to the hotel until 6:30pm—9 hours, and it was supposed to be a 7 hour tour. I highly recommend this tour if you want to visit some of the high Andes mountains to the northeast of Santiago. I’ve included a map below to give you an idea where we traveled to. On our way up Edward, our tour guide, was very informative about Chilean agriculture, the mountains, rivers, and various plants. We stopped at a vineyard briefly to talk about grape agriculture, we stopped at the Colorado river for some photos of the muddy rushing river from a bridge, and stopped to see the aforementioned Aconcagua mountain, plus a couple other stops. We also stopped for some views RIGHT at the border between Chile and Argentina (feels like we might have walked right into Argentina at one point, but no one was too fussed about it; when we drove down that hill we had to show our receipts from our water purchases in Santiago to prove we had come from Chile and not Argentina! The road up to the Portillo ski resort (and Hotel Portillo, where we had lunch had 29 switchbacks (!!). I found it quite entertaining, but I don’t get car sick. On the way home, we mostly rested, but then Edward told us about some of the ports we’d be visiting and a bit about our embarkation port, San Antonio, tomorrow. Evidently crime is a big problem there because we were told to hide anything that looked valuable, and our guide told me directly to put my Nikon in my carry on due to the situation. We had planned to walk down to the local restaurants again tonight, but I was exhausted from the long day (even though its not a ton of walking; I was only at 6,000 steps). Also, Russ tripped and fell during his touring around Santiago—he’s OK, just a bit bruised up. We also weren’t all that hungry, so just got a quick bite with some wonderful new cruise friends we met yesterday. Then we had to repack everything (its amazing how much stuff we had to UNPACK for 48 hours!) Now finally just resting. Also got a quick photo of downtown Santiago and the mountains right before sunset. Tomorrow we finally board the ship! We are terribly excited. I suspect that @NorbertsNiece has left the ship in good order for us! Oosterdam here we come!

Lunch was at Hotel Portillo at the ski resort. Not just great views, but delicious too!

The current view from lunch! At 9000 feet near border with Argentina!

Tallest mountain in Sourhern and Western hemispheres at 22,000+ feet! One that looks like a pyramid. Aconcagua in Argentina

On the tour van to the Andes! Small group—11 people. Had the fantastic hotel buffet breakfast to start—lots of fresh fruit, good bacon, made to order omelettes, pastries, yogurt, in a beautiful open air setting by the pool Weather at 8am a cool and beautiful 60 degrees! Now at 10am 63. Med climate so heats up during day.

Oh, an before I forget, I did get my cruise preview vlog online for this trip, which is great because I taped it at 10pm the night before we left, and wasn’t sure I’d get it up before the cruise starts! Y’all are already along for the ride, but here it is in case you are interested:

So….I added another excursion! I’m not really having another chance to get up into the Andes mountains on this trip (there is a day where some excursions are going on the cruise, but we are doing a long nature walk instead). And there it was at the holland america table—the Full Day Andes Mountain Range tour! I’m feeling really well after flying in (I normally don’t want to sign up for something so lengthy in advance since I have to see how the old RA is doing). and so I thought—why not?? Russ is going to stay in Santiago and walk all over the city. Will report back, of course, on how all tha goes! OK…not sleepy yet, but I need to get some rest for tomorrow’s excursion! Description of excursion in the image:

Before the tour, we walked about 10 minutes down the hill into a very walkable neighborhood with little restaurants and cafes everywhere. We picked a restaurant called La Biferia that specialized in meat (they say they are #1 in meat and I believe them!) I had the beef tenderloin and Russ the Rib Eye, with sides of grilled vegetables and polenta; whole meal was $67 including tip and the meat was well seasoned and excellent; highly recommend if you are looking for beef lunch or dinner! They had English menus. We sat outside; the weather was glorious today; so sunny and not humid at all!

The tour today was informative, and it was nice to see lots of the suburbs of the city, plus get a chance to walk around downtown Santiago. On the tour we walked to the Cathedral (destroyed multiple times by massive earthquakes, the last time in the late 1700s, but further damage from some more recent ones can be seen with cracks in ceiling), the Presidential palace, the main park, several museums (did not enter) and up and down a road with some outdoor restaurants as we learned a bit about local cuisine. We also drove around to see the hills with the funicular and cable car, the tallest building in South America (which has a giant mall in it), and a beautiful park with swans that have black heads and white bodies. The politics in Chile are very divided, and Santiago had a very rough time of it with terrible riots just prior to the pandemic. Currently, a new constitution has now failed 2 votes. We were warned to be very careful walking around, and the amount of graffiti in certain areas is shocking; I never thought I’d see a city with more graffiti than Barcelona, but now I’ve seen Santiago, so Barcelona has lost their 1st in Graffiti trophy. Different ways to accompany your sanwiches! Completo, italian, etc. Below drink, Cola de Monc, is alcoholic and vey popular The below local dishes include tongue, kidney, intestines etc.

Just did the Central Park area today with walking tour in area and enjoyed it. Tomorrow going high up into the Andes for a day! Many on our cruise are touring Valparaiso area and/or vineyards.

A few photos from the tour for now

The HAL desk is right in the lobby—lots of guests here on the pre-cruise package. Although we are not on the package (it was sold out). There was room on the 3:30 tour of Santiago, which we are on now! excellent tour, lots of walking in downtown Santiago. Small van group of 14 people. Have learned a ton from Cecelia our guide. Now in traffic back to hotel.

Woke up about noon, which is not so bad since 10am EST. Nice. Britt expression maker in the room, so had coffee HERE ARE SOME Sheraton Santiago photos:

Brain cells unfortunately were needed to check into our room at the Sheraton Santiago. Even though we had called the front desk to let them know to hold our room for an t Jan 5 arrival (booked room Jan4 to 7) they couldn’t find our reservation! I looked on my Bonvoy app to find that our room had been cancelled as a no show! They reinstated the reservation, and we got a lovely free room upgrade to a beautiful Superior room with GREAT views! VERY comfortable bed, and we went right to sleep!

We landed on time at 4:39 AM . LATAM airline was fine, no complaints. Customs was a breeze—no line at that hour. Took awhile for our luggage. We booked an hour so 5:30 pick up with Welcome Pick ups was perfect. Gonzolo texted us as we arrived, had our names on a sign, pre paid, big car for our luggage. Just what we wanted at 5:30am—no brain cells needed!