South American Tour: Santiago, Concepcion, and Talcahuano, Chile

Friday, January 22, 1965 Santiago to Concepcion to Talcahuano, Chile

Up at 6:30. Packed to take the eleven hour trip to Concepcion. We were on a coach with all seats reserved. There were several other coaches, but ours was the only one going to Concepcion. Every coach was crowded and 2/3 were children, but the best behaved youngsters I have ever seen. Never was one allowed to run in the aisle or annoy adults. They just sat in there seats for hour after hour. We left the hotel at 9:30 AM., the train departed at 10 AM. It was pretty much of a milk run, but they amazing country side between two chains of the Andes Mountains. Excellent farming and grazing county. By the time we arrived in Concepcion there were at least 50 passengers without seats, standing in the aisle of our coach with their bags and boxes.

We became acquainted with a young chap, Alberto Duharn McInnes a native who spoke excellent English with a Scottish burr. One of his grandfathers was a Scot, the other a Frenchman and his mother a Chilean. We had an excellent dinner on the train, altho the waiter had trouble with our English. At Concepcion, our new friend for us a taxi and instructed the driver to take us to three hotels, in case one or two did not have double rooms with twin beds. Imagine our surprise when all three told us no rooms at all, neither could we find any at other hotels. The driver took us to some others, most pretty bad. So we told the driver to take us back to Railroad Station and we would prepare to sit out the night. The lunchroom, telephone, office were closed up, but the waiting room still was open. We left Tom with the luggage and Millie, Bea and I went looking for a phone to call ship's agent to find out where the ship was.

At a nearby hotel we started, the clerk knew no English, but he tried valiantly to help. Jones was the name of the agent, but the number we had was no good. There is no info dept. or phone co. We wanted to contact the park authority who might give us some info. The clerk finally spotted, "Maritimas" in the phone book, phoned it, and asked for Mr. Jones phone no. They had it! A contact was made with Mr. Jones and he told us the ship was in Talcahuano (pronounced: Talca WANA) the Chilean Navel Base 17 KM away. He was sure we could go thru the base to our ship if we had our passports, we did. Our spirits picked up as we hired a taxi. We checked at the gate of the naval base headquaters and were given definite directions to our ship. Apparently, Mr. Jones had phoned to expect us. Man o' Man did that bed feel good. It was one-forty five in the morning.

Saturday, January 23, 1965 Talcahuano, Chile

Today, large sacks of flour are being unloaded, donation by the U.S. to the starving Chileans. Some of the passengers walked the short distance over to the highway where they took the bus, after waiting an hour, to Concepcion. The town observes the "English Holiday" so little shopping can be done on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday, January 24, 1965 Talcahuano, Chile

Still unloading sacks of flour. Weather still beautiful. No rain since we left San Francisco December 14th. Temperature cool, very enjoyable. At 5 PM unloading had been completed and hatches closed and the ship took off. The pilot who will take the ship thru the inside passage and Strait came on board bringing his wife who will be with us until we reach Puenta Arenas. He does not go to work until we turn into the channel 390 miles away.