Retarded small elevators
Across from the hotel was the Parque Cultural Huanchaca. It was a little complex that had a small museum and some ruins. I never got why the ruins were important or when they were from or what they were used for that matter but they were spectacular anyway.
Inside the museum there was a brief history of the area including the copper industry and how the Atacama Desert was used to test the Mars rover for “the NASA”. Chile is also home to the European Southern Observatory. It’s where they filmed the end sequence of Quantum of Solace, at the awesome hotel that they blew up.
Ancient Thriller Mummy
There were also some other things there like a copper Buddha, some ooooold mining equipment that Alexis and Tatienne desecrated and a few fossils from the area.
Alexis’ Dad had been in invited to a ceremony to celebrate the national holiday on the main street of the city near the port. The celebration was described to me as a military parade and before we had arrived I assumed that I would be watching the parade in the standard fashion, that is, behind a barrier on the side of the street. But once we got there we were escorted under a tent with all the important people from all the branches of the military as well as the police force which is a national entity.
Goose Steppin’
During the ceremony there were a few speeches about the holiday, the earthquake and other Chilean things that I could not understand.
Halfway through the shindig there was a demonstration of the Cuecca, a traditional Chilean dance performed by a group of all ages that were dressed in the traditional garb. BTW, I found the hat for Chris.
The guy in the awesome hat was serving Chicha, a fermented grape drink served out a horn, to the Mayor of Antofagasta as well as the Governor of the District and other VIPs.
If the picture of the dog seems random, that’s because it is. During one part of the ceremony they fired off cannons which prompted one of the many stray dogs in the area to come and seek shelter near me and Alexis.
Alexis’ Dad had a luncheon that he had to go to that we were not invited to attend so we ate lunch at Hotel Terrado. It was the hotel that we were going to initially stay at but opted to change based on the fact that we would all have to have separate rooms. It was brand new and pretty legit. One might say it was so much so, that it didn’t have the ability to stop.
I’m going to hit you with a rundown of my meal then post the pictures afterwards. It was big and lasted a long time (that’s what she said).
We started with Causa Limena. It was three little potato things with octopus, salmon and shrimp. The octopus was cooked just right so the texture was perfect. We also had some Ceviche. It tasted pretty good but I didn’t eat much of it. I didn’t get to take a picture of the ceviche. That was followed by Frutti di Mare, a linguini dish with shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, octopus and some fish. For dessert I had cremas volteadas de lucuma, cherimoya y amarula. Lacuma is a fruit that apparently called eggfruit in English although I had never heard of it. It is prepared with the same spices as pumpkin pie so it tastes very similar. Google will probably give you a better description of cherimoya and amarula because a consensus was never reached on the description to be given to me. The meal was wrapped up with an espresso plus a bonus one that was delivered by mistake.
This is only the one with octopus.
The bathrooms were really neat and had urinals that so cool I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to pee in them at first. The walls and floor had copper tiles on them and the sinks were pretty cool too. Copper decoration is very common in this part of the country.
The hotel next door was where Alexis’ Dad had the military cocktail lunch so that would explain the submarines in the little bay across from our restaurant.
After we finished lunch we had a few hours to kill before dinner so we headed to the mall to get some things at the conveniently located pharmacy. They are in most of the malls here. This is where Alexis bought her Happy Time Lotion with feel-good sensation.
Here is a shot of the mall for your viewing pleasure.
The evening was capped off with a cocktail reception aboard the FFG Captain Prat, a Chilean Navy Warship. The centerpiece of the reception was a missile launcher. Sadly it was not loaded. But it was really, really, really cool nonetheless. I got to talk to a bunch of different Navy officers and met the Commander of the Chilean Submarine Fleet too. I was a popular attraction on the ship because I spoke English and provided an opportunity for the men to practice their language skills. A few of the officers had participated in a naval exchange with the US and were stationed in San Diego for a year so they were excited to talk about the culture in the states.
The food at the reception was good or so I was told, I only ate the cheese because I wasn’t hungry. I got to try a drink called an espuma de whiskey. It was really good, I had never thought about mixing whiskey and milk. The Navy was not stingy with handing out the beverages either. They were asking me if I needed anything else every 30 seconds.
Tatienne with an espuma de whiskey
Lt. Juan Paulo gave me a personal tour of the ship. He took me down the side of the ship showing me all the weapon systems and communications equipment. I got to go in the Officer’s quarters and up to the Bridge. It was also super cool but I couldn’t take any pictures there. On a side note I have a future in the Chilean Navy if I want it. Everyone asked me if I had any aspirations of joining the Navy.
I had not.
The evening concluded back at the hotel where we all passed out and forgot to go check out the roof top pool.
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