A good day today in our final Chilean port. Caryll (one of the Facebookers/Cruise Critics) had organised a private tour through Arica and into the Atacama desert, the driest in the world. As soon as we left the port we saw El Morro, a huge lump of rock that overlooks the port and Arica. We then saw the Iglesia San Marco, a church built by Gustave Eiffel and shipped from France. The only wooden part is the door. Then we had a look at the old railway station...

Breakfast. Mile. Book. Crosswords. Lunch. Book. Collect duty free. Sindhu. Syndicate Quiz - lost! Bed.

Our penultimate port in Chile. There’s not really much here. We grabbed a taxi to go to La Serena which is supposed to be a nice seaside resort. It was OK. We went to the main square, Plaza de Armas. There were stalls around two sides of the square selling various tourist stuff. We went into the La Serena cathedral. Past the court house and a couple of churches. We visited a Walmart albeit under a different name. Rob and Linda sat in the Plaza whil...

Our second day in San Antonio and nothing planned. After breakfast (back in the Medina restaurant) we met Rob and Linda and walked along the sea front. There were lots of fishing boats and some were still unloading their catches. We passed some market stalls and the (obviously) smelly fish market and on to a beach where some sea lions were basking. We saw a few more on the way back. We went into the local shopping mall. I bought a t shirt, Barbara bough...

Our midway point and our earliest start to date. Our alarm call was booked for 6:45, eek! After our first breakfast in Horizon (not as civilised as those in Medina) we met the others for our P&O trip to Santiago. There we saw the Palacio Moneda. The old Chilean mint which is now the presidential offices. Twice a week they change the guard and purely by fluke, we were there to see it. There were horses involved and they were patted in unison! The ...