Grimsby with sun is a good way to describe this port of San Antonio. We arrived by bus at about 1.00 on Saturday and by 2.00 had found a reasonable hotel on the hill overlooking the port. We looked hopefully for the MSC Romanos (the ship bringing Gerty to Chile) but no sight so went to explore the area. That exploration took about 30 mins as this is defiantly not a tourist attraction. We did find a small fishing harbour with lots of small colourful fishing boats, a small pier, fish market and promenade with small stalls and some street entertainers. Behind all this was a shopping Mall, not on scale of Santiago but at least it had a few places to eat. The Mall was also a good place to escape the overpowering smell of fish.

While having lunch we saw a sea lion (Pinnipedia Otariidae for those in the know) in the water so afterwards we went searching and found hundreds of them on the rocks around the fish market. For companions they had an equally large number of Peruvian Pelicans (Pelecanus Thagus). Both seemed to be happy waiting for fishermen and stall holders to throw them discarded fish heads and tails.

Sunday Peter started the day with a run but reported back that the the port end of town was a bit run down. We returned to the fishing harbour and took a short 'sightseeing' boat trip but still no sight of our ship. We returned to the shopping Mall for lunch and were very excited to see the MSC Romanos appear in the port and dock right opposite us. We finished lunch and after a duck bashing session (don't worry it was an arcade game) we took another boat trip to reassure ourselves it was our ship. We returned to the hotel and sat on the balcony in the sun watching containers being unloaded, hopefully one with Gerty.

Monday did little more than visit our Shipping Agent and hand over paperwork.

Tuesday Peter had to stay within 10 metres of a bathroom. He thought he had Cholera. It was only a touch of Sun/Heat stroke. He had me running into town to get medication and supplies - not much different to being at home.

Wednesday we went to the port with our Shipping Agent and finally after 6 weeks we had our first glimpse of Gerty. She had shifted about 150mm sideways in the container. It must have been a bumpy trip across the Atlantic. Luckily she was OK. Peter drove her out of the container, watched by some fascinated dock workers who laughed when they heard we were going to live in her whilst traveling. Do they know something we don't? Gerty had to stay in the Port until Customs Officers had inspected her the following day.

Thursday at last we were able to drive Gerty out of the port after much questioning and paperwork at the Customs office. We had expected an inspection of the vehicle but obviously they had more important imports to sort out. We drove away happy to have Gerty at last. We stocked up with provisions and diesel, ready to set of early Friday morning.