Anderson South American Adventure Day 10 – Punta Arenas, Chili “Good Morning this is Your Captain Speaking” March 13, 2020

Anderson South American Adventure Day 10 – Punta Arenas, Chili “Good Morning this is Your Captain Speaking” When your morning starts with the captain making an announcement at 7:30 am you know that it is not good. Our South American adventure is going to be cut short. We will disembarking in Santiago, Chili, or actually 2 hours from Santiago. We have a flight from Ft Lauderdale to Cincinnati but not from Santiago. At this point I am going to trust Holland America to get us home and not just dump us on the dock in Chili. After that bad news we decided to carry on as usual. We ate breakfast then headed out to get on the shuttle to town. As we got off of the ship there were two police officers with a dog. The couple ahead of us tried to walk past them. They got stopped and had to open their backpacks. Rob stopped, took off his backpack and waited. They let the dog sniff it and let us go. We got on the shuttle and headed for town. We were dropped off at the town square right in front of the tourism building. We were warned that there were a lot of demonstrations going on so if we see something we should avoid it. Uh, yeah. Rob asked me what the magic word was. I said “por favour.” He replied, yeah, but “mercado” which means market. Rob went in to get a map and we tried to figure out where we wanted to go. We wanted to go to the marcado and a scenic point. He could not read the streets on the map. I could not read them unless I put on his reading glasses. Nothing said mercado. He went back and in the crowd had dispersed. He asked for the mercado and the scenic overlook. He got them circled. Off we went. We did see a lot of groups of police around. They are wearing neon green uniforms. Um, what street are we on? You do not always find street signs, sometimes they are on buildings. OK, lets walk this way and see what we find. Now, did we scream “TOURIST?” We are holding a map, I have a camera and Rob has a backpack with water bottles on it. We were headed in the right direction, this in itself is amazing. We keep reading the street signs when we can find them and we should see it soon. I can see the corner where it should be. I see a gas station. Um, OK, not what I was expecting. We go around the corner. I see foot prints and the image of a pot on the sidewalk. I figure that they are aiming us to the mercado. Everything looks closed. It is not quite 10:00 am so maybe in a bit? We find the front doors and enter. Wow, we are immediately hit with the smell of fish. Ah, this is the fish market. It looks as if they have their own stalls and sell from there. We head further down the hall and enter another area. Ah, I can see handmade things in stalls, most of which are not open. They have glass on the bottom and I can see beautiful yarns, most of it handspun. We sit on the benches, covered with crocheted covers and get online. The first thing is that I get a text from Victoria: “If you get this you must be in port- looks like March 14 at 6 am is the next stop. How much news are you getting?” I make a wifi call. Well I really hope that it is a wifi call, I still have my phone on airplane mode and am on wifi so I will keep my fingers crossed for when the bill comes. I call Victoria and tell her that we are both fine and there is no one on the ship is sick but we will be getting off next week. I call Maggie to make sure that they are OK and so that she can tell Mom to not worry. Next call is to Douglas, although Victoria had let him know. I kept the calls short just in case these cost. I keep checking out the different stalls to drool over yarn. OK, we will give them until 11 then buy from those open. We keep checking things online, wow, we really should have charged our phones before we left today. OK, I am going to give those shops until noon to open, I really want that yarn that I can see. One more stall opens. I keep checking the ones that I really wanted. One had these really nice wooden bowls. It is noon and that it that. I buy some beautiful yarn. Then we head off to a scenic overlook. Scenic overlook to me sounds like climbing. Yup, it is up a hill. We climb, I tell Rob to go ahead and off I go. It really is that that bad. From the top we will be able to see the Straits of Magellan. OK, worth the climb. The mosaic is of a Pueblo Indian who fought for their rights. We get back to the square and wait for the shuttle. I see peope with Holland America bags so I know that we are in the correct place. There is a protest going on in the square. I do not know what the protest is about but they are fairly peaceful. We did see store windows that are covered with plywood or corrugated metal. We cannot get on the first shuttle back but another one comes in a few minutes. We board and everyone is eager to return to the ship. The couple in front of us recognize someone they knew coming down the aisle. The people in the aisle stop dead and they start to chat. The people behind are not happy, I do not blame them. Back to the ship at the same time that three tour buses return. Take a deep breath and wait. The guy ahead of me refuses to use the Purell because his hands are full. His wife takes the tote bag. He puts Purell on one hand but will not move his cruise card. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why it spreads. Everyone hits the Lido at the same time but we get some Malaysian food for lunch and all is well. We take time to go to the hot tub. After that climb my hips and knees need it. Of course everyone is talking about what is happening. No, I do not know how I am getting home, I will wait. To find out. At dinner the captain announces that we have been refused entry to the port of Ushuaia. Great, we have about $100.00 in Argentinean pesos that are loosing value by the minute. Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. We eat dinner with a British couple who have taken trips to both poles. Very interesting. I make a comment about going to the shops. The man tells us to wait until Thursday, they will be marking everything down. Oh yeah, they will. The show tonight is BBC Earth. A great movie with live music accompanying it. I will play Scarlet and worry about everything next week.