March 19 - At Sea : On our way to Arica

We left San Antonio Chile last night on our way to Arica in northern Chile.  It is a two day trip along the coast of Chile.  Unfortunately there is a heavy mist on the shore so we can only make out the faint outline of the coastal mountains.

For some reasons we were delayed for seven hours last night in San Antonio.  First they blamed the longshoremen for not loading the supplies on time.  Then they blamed the customs official for leaving his post before releasing the boat.  Finally this morning they blamed a failure of the life boat winching system.  All I know is that it will cause chaos when we arrive in Arica.

We met our new dining room companions.  We got along very well with Ruth and Mel an couple from Florida.  Mel is in his 90s and was a professor of dentistry up until this year and she has had multiple jobs.  They are very interesting to talk to, especially when it comes to talking about the health care systems in each of our countries.  They have a very strong interest in travelling and have been to both the Shaw festival in Niagara on the Lake and the Stratford Festival. 

We have no common interests with the other two couples.  They strike us as very materialistic and self centered.  They probably voted for Trump.  I told Marg if they bring up politics just say “Trump Who?”. That will piss them off.

They menu is beginning to repeat itself.  I guess this is to be expected when taking a back to back cruise.  We both have fallen in love with a Chilean wine variety know as Carmenere.  It is very inexpensive but quite delicious. The Carmenere grape is a wine grape variety originally planted in the region of Bordeaux, France, where it was used to produce deep red wines. Now rarely found in France because of a blight that hit the vineyards many years ago, the world's largest area planted with this variety is in Chile, with more than 8,800 hectares that are cultivated in the Central Valley.

The theatre was hosting a show which had a group of musicians who had performed on America Has Talent. We figured it would be boring and safe, so we decided to go the Martini Bar.  Marg has a drink to try out on our friend Heather Brunet.