Santiago

An early morning wake up gets us on the road at 0630.  Smooth sailing until near Santiago.

Lindblad/National Geographic reps meet us in the airport and transfer us to the Mandarin Oriental. They are offering a noon bus to the artisanal market and a 1400 bus tour of Santiago.  We've done both and elect to pass.

We have a beautiful top floor room.  Too bad our stay is a short day.  Wake-up tomorrow is 0450 with a bus departure for the charter flight 0620.  So much for a relaxing start to the cruise.

 

 

 

The daily schedule is changed.  There is a receptions at 6:30pm which kills our planned evening with Mauricio and his family at their home in the foothills.

 

Unlimited pisco sours and a sad but welcome announcement are the highlights of the reception.  We get to sleep in later tomorrow with wake-up moved back more than an hour and a half.  The reason is that Orion has spent the day in a search and rescue mode answering the call for all ships in the area to participate in a search for a Chilean C-130 presumed lost with 38 souls on board.  Our boarding time on the ship is pushed back.

Since we have a bottle of good wine to drink, we order room service and enjoy the sunset.