Monday, January 22

At sea today–overcast and cooler than it has been in the morning, but warming up nicely in the afternoon.. Team Trivia in the morning, then Jill and I got together to plan some future skulduggery in relation to Harvey. He is, of course, the pookah who occupies the apparently vacant seat at our table.

We also went to the knitting and needlework group. If you don’t have any needlework of your own, the ship will provide yarn, needles and instructions for making various items that are then donated to orphanages...this trip possibly in Rio. So now I’m knitting a cap for some poor unknown soul...I call him or her that because my knitting skills are rusty, and there’s no telling how it will turn out although the yarn is a lovely, soft blue-green mix.

Tuesday, January 23

Today we were at Coquimbo, Chile. Actually there are two cities on this huge bay; the other is La Serena. Took a half-day tour of the area and again had an excellent tour guide. In these ports which don’t get a whole lot of cruise ships, they tend to recruit tour guides who are English teachers in "real" life. The photo is of the lighthouse at La Serena.

At the University here there is a large observatory...of course the actual telescope facility is way up in the mountains. But I heard from another passenger that his guide’s father is associated with the observatory, and that there is supposed to be a comet visible this evening around 9:30 to the southwest. I have also heard that we are supposed to have fairly high swells this evening, but if I can navigate myself, I plan to go have a look for the comet after dinner.

Wednesday, January 24

Well, I didn’t see the comet...it was cloudy and somewhat rough last night. In fact, it was bouncy enough that just about everything creaked, rattled or thumped. It was like trying to go to sleep in a bowl of metallic Rice Krispies. I can only imagine what it will be like when we get down to the Horn. There is an astronomy session tonight, so maybe I’ll see the comet then.

I was booked on an all day trip to Santiago today, but just didn’t feel up to that long a tour, so bagged it and stayed in Valparaiso. I did go ashore briefly and "managed to find" some lovely lapis lazuli set in silver that I couldn’t resist. Lapis is, by the way, one of Chile’s major exports, so what better souvenir of my various stops in this country...

Valparaiso is built on a thin strip along the shore then on hills that rise so steeply that they have lost of funicular elevators to take people to the top. The photo is of some houses at the top with a funicular going up to them.

I didn’t go see the comet (which someone said is called McNaught, or something that sounds like that), although we did turn up at the beginning of the astroomy session. It was quite chilly and very windy, and Jill and I just weren’t dressed warmly enough to spend time on the upper front deck. Also the astronomy session was later than the best viewing time for the comet, so we’ll try again tomorrow. This comet-viewing is beginning to sound like my experience in 1986 on a Halley’s Comet cruise when I never did see the comet while on board (although I did see it later).