After an easy two day cruise, Indigo arrives at the beautiful coastal vacation city of Vina del Mar, meaning vinyard by the sea. Its high coastal hills, eucalyptus and pine trees and balmy climate remind me of Monterey, California, though its culture is more that of Miami Beach. […]
Little did I know upon checking in at the nondescript Villa del Rio hotel, that my stay in Valdivia would be one of the most enjoyable times of the entire voyage. As luck would have it, one of Indigo’s new crew members, Tomas Miranda, not only is from Chile but has extended family living in Valdivia. […]
For reasons that would bore you and pain me, the extensive refit work on Indigo that was scheduled to take two months instead consumed eight. But as the work wound its way to conclusion, I invaded Chile in the belief–wrong, as it turned out–that my proximity would speed things along. […]
In the more or less attractive town of Puerto Montt, I take one blue sky day to wander about its public market area. There, stalls of fresh and smoked fish, mostly salmon, clams, scallops, and a variety of other seafoods, stand side by side, their owners hawking in a friendly but insistent manner. Other stalls are stuffed with local made woolens of every description, jewjaws and gimcracks, dust collectors mostly. […]
Phil: After saying fond farewells to my good friends, I and the good ship Indigo begin making our way through the Chilean archipelago’s canals, headed north to Puerto Montt. Along the way, we are accompanied by the ever present rain, cold, wind and more rain, its climate closely resembling that of the Inside Passage in Alaska. […]