Port of call - Coquimbo, Chile

What time is it in La Serena?

Decided to bypass the tour and take a taxi into the local tourist town of La Serena with Paul and Susan. We left the ship at 9.30 am, and started to walk the town. I noticed the town clock and a digital clock that showed 9.30 am when our watches showed 10.00 am. Okay – a 30 minute time difference between the ship and town times. Then we walked into another shop that sold clocks this store had the ship time. So then we decided it was probably just a problem with the digital and town clock. There is NOTHING in this town we walked into several churches and there were some markets that were not yet open. So wanting to find something of interest we decided to find out when the markets would open. We went into the tourist information office. We checked the time – they had ships time and said the markets would open in 30 minutes at 11.00 am. Only thirty minutes to wait so we decided to walk some more and give the markets time to open. Well the people in the markets had the same time as the town clock so it was an hour to opening. I do not think I have ever experienced a town that had a variance in the time. I guess you can have a 30 minute window and take a choice of what time you decide it really is depending on if you are running early or late. Amazing how confusing it is when the time is not clear.

One of the markets was local with clothing and miscellaneous goods that were of no interest to us at all. The other markets were for the tourist but nothing of interest here either. This small town is simply a gateway to the longer out of town tours that I am sure are of a lot more interest.

The highlight of the day was the communication with the locals we found them to be very friendly and even the market vendors did not bother you to look in their store.

The local tourist office had two women and neither could speak or understand much English. Ken wanted to find out if there was anything of interest if we went somewhere close to town by taxi. His question was long with reference to being on the cruise ship, sightseeing and then he ended up with the words “by taxi”. They looked at him blankly all along and then when he said “by taxi” their faces lit up and they bought out a map and showed us where the taxi stand was located. Ken thanked them as if that is what he wanted to find out and Susan and I decided we had to give Ken kudos for his optimism that they would understand him.

Coming back to the ship in the taxi our young taxi driver was trying VERY hard to talk to us and Paul was using his Spanish to communicate. It is a lot of fun to see two people trying to talk to each other and the joy at actually reaching some understanding.

So not a highly successful day, but it was not hot and pleasant to get out and do some walking. Be interesting to talk to the groups that went out into the countryside today.

Life is good on the Mariner and we are having a wonderful time. Prime 7 tonight looking forward to that!