Day 25 - 10/31/23 - Castro, Chile

Two words summarize today: Birds and churches.

Castro was a new port for us. On our previous Antarctica voyage, we stopped at Puerto Montt. And this port is a tender port, so with a mixed group of Mariner status', I prevailed on on Patty who's in the Pinnacle Suite, who was able to put our little group of 10 together in the 4-5 star lounge. Tendering, however, was delayed a bit because there were two cruise ships in port: The Viking Polaris and the HAL's Zaandam. We were able to get on the first HAL tender but waiting for the Viking tender delayed our arrival at the dock until just before 9am. I had been in touch via Whats Up app with our tour guide and kept him appraised of our situation.

Departing the tender we went through the mandatory bag inspection and walked through the small terminal to the street exit where we easily spotted our guide Guiermo or Gui for short. Our driver was Ulysses or Uli for short. The 19 passenger Ford van easily accommodated our group of 10. It turned out to be the quietest van we have been in this cruise.

Soon we were underway and headed north out of the city past the mud flats which were due to the extreme low tide. We headed on out to a location (Playa Aucar). What we found here was a small island with the boardwalk stretching from the island to the mainland. That boardwalk was probably 1/8 of a mile in length and was about 20 feet above the shoreline or waterline depending upon the tide. Of course the tide was out and there were hundreds of various type of birds present including resident black neck swans, gulls, Yellow feet, ibis, and much more. It was especially fun to observe the gulls drop mussels from about 40 feet to break them open. They would then dive down and eat the mussel from the broken shell. On the island was a small wooden church and a cemetery for fishermen. The clapboards were weathered and we couldn't go in.

From there we drove to Coco which was another village with a UNESCO wooden church. This one was open to us and it was interesting to see the construction inside which was much like the inside of an upside down ship's hull. While it was rather plan, two sailing ship models hung from the ceiling at the alter. I was able to climb up into the choir loft (not in use any longer) using a very steep set of stairs that were almost like a ladder that I recently built for my granddaughter for her access to the reading loft in her bedroom. I loved seeing the joinery of the wooden construction. We also noted a black vulture perched on the cross on the church steeple.

Our next stop was a San Juan where there was another of the wooden churches with its weathered siding. But the treat here was the ability to walk through a working ship yard. A half of a dozen boats were beached and were in various states of repair or construction. Then we walked through the working ship building area where we could observe up close the ships being constructed. Cypress was the wood of choice here and the ribs of the boats were literally inches above our heads. Never would we be able to do such a tour in the US! Outside there was a large flock of Black Necked Swans and also a rapidly flowing incoming tide.

Dalcahue was our next to last stop of the day. This little town was noted for all of the fishing boats moored there and there was also a large handcrafts market and a "food court", where we enjoyed a heaping plate of clams, mussels, a ham hock, pork sausage, and potato cakes along with a side dish of hand made ceviche which was prepared before our eyes. All of that plus a beer was only $15US. This town also had a wooden church that was not quite as weathered but was much larger that the other three churches that we visited today.

Our last stop of the day was at a little viewpoint park that overlooked the stilt houses or palafitos.They were colorful and photographed well with the reflection in the rapidly filling lagoon that they were built on. After we were dropped off I took the opportunity to walk back a few blocks to the Tren Park (Train Park) where I photographed the train engine and several antique steam tractors and farm implements.

Back on board using the second to last tender, we enjoyed a pleasant sail away under blue skies. We passed by salmon raising pens and mussel raising farms. We were following the Polaris as we departed. Later we enjoyed a small light dinner with very nice views of the snow capped Andes Mountains including the Corcovado volcano. Later we joined a couple other couples and chatted while enjoying the Andes views and sharing photos from the day's activities.

During the day there were various Halloween themed displays and tonight the carved pumpkins were moved to the World Stage at the Halloween party. It was fully decorated along with many of the guests. The top two winning costumes were a couple dressed as jellyfish and another couple dressed as Zaandam cows which paid homage to the Cows found in the aft lido pool. After the contest we adjourned to our stateroom where we watched the last part of game 4 of the World Series in which Texas won over Arizona 11-7. It was then off to LaLa land.