La Serena, Chile
At 8:00 AM we docked at Coquimbo, Chile, the port city of the greater La Serena region. Founded in 1544, it is the country's second oldest city after the national capital, Santiago. As of 2012, it had a communal population of roughly 200,000 and is one of the fastest-growing regions of Chile. Greeting us on the hill top was Crus del Tercer Milenio (the third millennium cross). Constructed between 1999 and 2001, it stands 278 feet tall and is the tallest monument in South America. (The famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio De Janeiro is only 98 feet tall.) Jan, still recovering from her fall, remained on the ship while Gene traveled to the Elqui Valley and visited the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Getting there, the tour bus struggled up an unpaved, single-lane trail before finally reaching the 7,200 foot summit of Cerro Tolodo. The bus bounced, leaned and groaned as it labored up the high mountain trail. The a...