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.

South American Tour: Valparaiso and Santiago Chile

Wednesday, January 20th 1965, Valparaiso Chile

The ship docked at six am. It is Chile's main port and her second largest city with 220,000 population. The city is divided into two parts. The business section lives on the flat level piece of land on the inner circle of the amphitheater of hills. The 41 hills using 1000 to 1400 feet sharply behind the downtown area are each a city within themselves with their winding streets and step cobbled lanes. 20 ascensores (funiculars) and roads link them with downtown section. We hired at taxi and guide from a group that came on board. We were able to buy Chilean money from taxi driver at four escudos to $1.00 U. S., the official rate is 3.2/3.5 to 1, so we bought $200. We drove to the top of one of the hills and had a wonderful view of the bay and town then thru the business area to Vina del Mar. Here we registered at Bernardo O'Higgins Hotel, Then drove along the beaches to Con Con, another resort and back to Hotel at 3 P.M. for lunch. We had given the guide money to buy R.R. tickets to Santiago and he was to meet us at 7:15 AM on the morrow. On second thought, it could go sour as appointments to in S.A., so Millie and Bea walked the 2 blocks to R.R. station with the guide and took the tickets. We relaxed for an hour and then all four strolled down the main business street. We were not alone, it appeared. that all the families in town turned out to do the same thing. Many of the guide books mention it is not kosher for ladies to wear slakes on the streets. Actually, at lest one out of ten wore them. It was light until nearly nine which was the time we returned to Hotel. Freshened up a bit and ate in main dinning room.

Thursday January 21, 1965 Nina del Mar-Santiago, Chile

Up at 6:30. The guide was waiting in lobby. We paid hotel bill. The guide instructed the porter what to do with luggage and we left. I thought we would take a taxi, but the Station was just across the plaza, so we walked. We boarded a very nice electric train leaving at 7:40 for the 116 mile, 2.5 hour ride to Santiago. When the conductor came thru we told him we wanted breakfast. He knew wanted to eat but that was all he figured out. He left and came back shortly with a waiter who was not a linguist, and a man who might have been a maitre d'. He acted as interpreter in getting our needs into 'espanol' for the waiter. The breakfast was served at our seats on trays, airplane style. Before we arrived in

Santiago we had become better acquainted with our linguist - he was a Valparaiso business man who spent one day a week in Santiago. He stayed with us until 6 PM and certainly was a big help with the language barrier. We arrived in Santiago, the Capital of Chile about 10 am. We took taxi to Kent Hotel on Avenida Huerfanos. After registering and stowing our baggage we walked to a travel bureau in Cervera Hilton Hotel to arrange for trip to Chilian lake area. There we were told that all planes in southern Chile were booked solid for the next 30 days - mid-summer vacation travel, you know. So we decided to rejoin ship at Talcahuana and ordered and paid for R.R. tickets for tomorrow. The tickets were to be delivered to our hotel. Mr. Valenzuela took us to Union Club for lunch, then a taxi tour to see the capital. It is the largest city in South America with 2,000,000, altitude 1700 feet. There are no negroes here and very few in the entire country. Hired taxi and toured city, and ended by motoring up the winding road to the top of Cerro San Custobal. Here are excellent views of the city from many angles. Then back to hotel for rest it was 7:30 and the sun still high in the sky.