Wednesday February 26th, 2025 Coquimbo, Chile

Located about ¾ of the way up the coast of Chile, Coquimbo is a small port town with a small fishing fleet in a sweeping bay – it’s not really a tourist town, but it’s nearby neighbor, La Serena is more tourist focused.

As the Queen Victoria edged towards her berth this morning, I could see the town of Coquimbo stretching along the waterfront – mostly low rise buildings and a single pier with two container loading cranes. A huge cross, the Cross of the Third Millenium, dominated the top of the ridge above town; a massive concrete structure 83M tall completed in 2001. Beyond the pier I could see two sunken wrecks immerging above the waterline along the shore, and further along I could see the 19th century Fort Lambert with its single canon. With only a single pier, marked by two large cranes like giant sentinels guarding the town, the port was not very busy.

No shore excursion today, so we are just wandering the town and to get there we had to pass through an amazing fish market. Long rows of covered stalled displayed a remarkable collection of fish and shellfish, most of the fish species were new to me – all really fresh, with lots of locals haggling and buying as we walked through. Just off the dock area we could see a couple of “pirate” tourist ships – what a nightmare it would be to be out on one of those. Other than the awful pirate ships the rest of the town seems to be largely focused on locals with a large mall and a couple of busy shopping streets. We found the shopping streets very confusing, with no curbs and a nice, tiled surface we assumed they were pedestrianized – what a shock to find a car coming up behind us as we strolled down the center of a street.

The Church of San Pedro and it was a small, simply decorated building with a small kind of grotto off to the side. The weather was a bit warmer than our last stop, as we’ve steamed closer to the equator, and with a gentle breeze blowing we sat in the peacefully quiet courtyard taking a break from the hustle and bustle of the town.

We spent a bit of time searching for a nonexistent, Trip Adviser recommended café and slowly strolled back to the ship. A short but relaxing day.