I originally published this trip on Cruise Critic, but I do not know if they will keep it forever and to have the report in my personal online scrapbook.
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The cruise -- 15 night from Valparaiso, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina, around Cape Horn on the NCL Sun on March 9th, 2017. It was our 9th cruise, all on NCL.
Some background
We booked this cruise about 13 months before. We originally planned for Nov 2016, but quickly determined that we could not compete with the Thanksgiving cruisers. I wanted port side, given our eastbound direction; I do not think this really mattered in the end -- we were either in the channel with land on both sides or too far from land. Also, since I heard crossing from one ocean to the other could be very rough, I wanted lower and mid-ship cabin. We booked a port hole room, mid-ship on deck 4th -- 4030. We normally book around deck 8 so were a little concerned about being far from things. We did not mind the location.
We booked through a travel agent and got some outboard credit. We also got 4 specialty dining meals and pre-paid tips (it was nice not to see these added to the onboard account every day -- they add up fast!) from NCL's pick 2 free at sea. We were platinum for the first time, so go two additional specialty dining meals.
We have one night on land before the cruise but did not stay longer after since we had kids to get home to. We had a direct flight to Santiago from DFW and a direct flight from Buenos Aires home.
Arrival in Santiago
We each had to fill out separate customs forms on the plane. I had researched Chile's strict food policy due to their big agriculture industry. They just had one difficult, vague clause about "other plant products" being not allow. I started worrying about my apple shampoo and conditioner. I saw on Cruise Critic (CC) about raisins being tossed. We wanted a few emergency snacks -- we brought four small packets of trail mix with no raisins. Normally, pre-packaged snacks are fine. We also brought candy without concern. I wrote yes food and "trail mix" on my customs form. When going through customs, I showed the trail mix to the customs officers. I was taking no chance. He did not care and said to put them in the bag to go through the xray machine. That was probably in hand signals. Being from Texas, we learned some Spanish in high school -- some words and phases, not full conversions. Though we used our Spanish on the trip. Sadly, I could ask how much something costs in Spanish but then could not understand the answer. Chile's currency was where things cost in the 1000s (hard numbers to understand in Spanish) where that was a less than $10. Some places would type the final cost on a calculator and show it to you.
With luggage, customs, and immigration completed, we went off to look for an ATM and the bus to downtown. Both were difficult to find. The first ATM did not work, and a line was forming. So, we had to wait to try one that did give others cash. There was also a particular menu option you had to pick, or it would not work. Try another if you are having trouble. A couple that was successful and English speaking helped us. After getting cash, we stopped to let me get a chocolate croissant at one of the shops at the airport since I did not eat my airline breakfast.
We found the Tur-Bus box office outside the airport. It is affordable. We went to Terminal Alameda. We knew from CC that there was a luggage store, look for "custodia". This was much more expensive then we expected from online research; I believe around 30,000 pesos. Since I noted cash needed from the ATM, this blew our Chilean pesos budget. Luggage drop off was easy; with pick up, they had trouble finding our luggage and describing in Spanish was not working well.
After dropping luggage, we got on the metro at Universida going to Cerro San Cristobal, the funicular, for a good view of the city and mountains surrounding. I like subways in big cities -- London tube, Berlin, Munich, DC, NYC, and St. Petersburg, but geez Santiago's was the most crowded that we have experienced for the full time that we were on. It was not even rush hour! Next, we walked to the funicular. It required walking a street know for the scam of spilling mustard or something on you and the other person tries to help clean it while robbing. We had taken our rings off and hid all valuables in a money belt, one that goes under your shirt, and were very cautious. We did not have any problems.
We had heard there could be long lines to get on the funicular and even could see lines on the google maps satellite view. To buy a ticket, it was not bad at all; there was a small wait to get on a funicular.
Going up
There is a stop halfway up to go to the Zoo. At the top of the funicular; you can see some mountains through the haze.
Around Chile, you see stray dogs just hanging out. I read, before going, that they do not believe in neutering them because it is a mostly Catholic country. I don't know if that true or not. These were on top of the mountain. I guess they walked up; surely, they did not get a funicular ride -- hehe. Santiago is also know for many PDA; we saw some, which is more than we have seen at other places.
The Virgin Mary. Gargoyles on the chapel; the chapel.
More views and return down.
I looked up Cerro San Cristobal or San Cristobal Hill in wikipedia. It is in northern Santiago and is the 2nd highest point in Santiago. It is 300 m above the city.
After returning to Santiago normal elevation, we returned to the Bellavista neighborhood for lunch. We had Charly Dogs -- hot dogs. The hot dog was not great quality. While eating, we determined (in Spanish) that we probably could have gotten a sausage instead that would have been better. The cool thing about the restaurant was there was tons of interesting toppings that you could use to top your dog. It also included a soda, sold by the mL, and with no ice (ice would eat into the mLs). Caffeine was good after the overnight flight. While we ate, we watched a street performer spinning mixing bowl on wooden spoons. He had found a light with a really long stop and short green; he knew how long to perform and how much time to allow to collect money before it turned green.
After lunch, we headed back on the Metro to pick up our luggage. Tickets were sold in booths by people. You get a ticket and immediately feed it to the machine in the direction you are heading. They are sold by different prices by time of day. More transportation notes later. Super crowded again.
Walk (next building) from the Metro station to the Tur-Bus terminal. Picked up luggage and went outside to buy tickets to Valparaiso where our cruise was departing from. I think we got the last two tickets for that bus. We checked luggage at the bus, boarded, and picked random seats. Lesson learned -- there are assigned seats. At a stop part way through, someone wanted the seats. In Spanish, tried to ask where the seat numbers were labeled in the bus and on the ticket. Had trouble finding tickets. Just sat in the back because it was open and was able to later confirm they were our seats. The drive was very pretty and about 1 hour and 45 minutes. When we arrived, my husband only could find 2 out of 3 luggage claims. They wanted it. He thought to show the the luggage tag on the suitcase matched one that we could rightfully claimed. Most people had gotten their luggage by then, so they accepted this. Rough time keeping up with things -- no sleep was setting in. Normally, we do well at keeping up with paperwork.
From the bus station, we took a taxi to our hotel. We had reserved the Ibis, which got good feedback with one note that the check-in takes hours. This blew my mind, so I was excited when I found pre-check-in that I could do online a couple of days before our flight and check in. There was a line that was slow, but definitely not an hour. With our key, we went up after a long flight and day, and the door would not open. It turned green, and we could hear it click unlock but would not open. It seemed locked from the inside. I have had this before and watched the maintenance person body slam the door before giving us a different room. Back to the line...expecting a different room, while husband stayed with the luggage. The lady from the desk came up to try herself with no luck. She radioed maintenance. He immediately opened it by pulling up before pulling down after using the key. Hum...I have never seen this technique or "secret" before. I will try it if ever in the situation again.
After a short rest at the hotel, we headed out to Ascensor Concepcion (funicular station). It was closed for construction, so we walked up stairs instead. We read the Ascensors are an experience not be missed, so bummer. It is a city built in layers. There were more stray dogs and views of the Pacific. We got baked empanadas from a street vendor and ate by the water. We also stopped at the mall and got some groceries, particular bottled water. Our hotel was very close to the mall with grocery store and a metro station.
Comandancia en Jefe de la Armada
This was crazy; does not seem up to code.
Plaza Sotomayor
Now, it was time to go back to the hotel, call the kids over wi-fi, shower, and sleep -- yay!