Pirate ship in Coquimbo
So let’s say you’re a little podunk port on the Chile coast. About all you can boast is that you’re a bus ride north of La Serena, which is a town the tourists want to visit more than you. You don’t even have a container ship gantry. So whaddaya do? Fight pirates, of course.
Pirate ship battle
We were moored on their pier for the day. And out there off our port side, two tiny ships locked in battle. One flew the Jolly Roger (these were obviously the bad guys), and the other flew the flag of Coquimbo. Each had two masts and spars, but the sails were tattered shreds, all of them. They chugged about on diesel.
Something I never knew about pirates before: They all wore life preservers. Picture Captain Jack Sparrow in an orange vest. Even the ordinary citizens who paid to take this ride out on the bay sported life vests. Two swordsmen dueled on a sort of platform. Finally, the pirates backed off and allowed the good guys to go their way.
Actually, Coquimbo is a funky, fun little berg. It is built on a vast pile of rounded sandstone boulders. Houses are crammed into whatever space a house might fit. Some are half on piers because the lot wasn’t level enough for a whole house. However, this is not like the favelas of Rio. They are not crowded together, nor do they look destitute; they’re simply built in unusual surroundings. Many of them are not served by a street at all. The few streets angle up and down, and there are pedestrian steps and stairs zigzagging along here and there but basically going straight up. A staircase a quarter mile long. This is no town for old people.
The houses are painted in muted yellows, aqua, blues. They all look sun-faded. The concrete stairways are also painted in pastels and from here on the waterfront you can watch them snake their way up the steep hill.
Third Mellenium Cross in Coquimbo
There are very few automobiles. I saw bicyclists a lot, mostly young men. Going uphill is a real chore; coming down is a screamer.
There are a lot of birds around, all of which are Kelp Gulls. Pigeons park on roofs.
On one of the higher boulder piles is built a cross. This is their Third Millennium Cross, intriguingly lighted at night. All the bus trips go to The Third Millennium Cross, which has a souvenir shop, then directly to La Serena so you can spend your money.
I stayed home.