A Hop Around The Harbor

Last Tuesday the kids enjoyed a day off of school and on a whim, we headed to the harbor to look at sea lions. Unfortunately when we arrived at the dock where the sea lions usually sun themselves, they had all headed out to play! Instead, we decided to take the kids on an hour-long boat ride around the harbor. The girls and I had done this once before, but it was a first for Owen and Daddy.

Because the boat sits and waits for passengers, the novelty soon wore off for three antsy kiddos. Owen was ready to quit before the engines were even started! But once we took off he was content for quite a while, gazing down at the blue water and especially intrigued by the jelly fishes and Humboldt penguins floating by. As we drifted, a guide shared stories about the heroic exploits of Captain Arturo Prat in the Battle of Iquique during the War of the Pacific.

Surprisingly, he was quite knowledgeable about this history and very passionate about it as well. It was fascinating to learn details about the lives of the protagonists of this battle, including the fact that one Peruvian admiral was identified only by the remains of his one leg with hand-sewn initials on his woolen stocking. That leg was carried in state in a box of precious wood and silver to receive a funeral with honors, and later laid to rest in the mausoleum of a Chilean admiral who happened to be a brother-in-law. The two had married Peruvian sisters yet fought on opposite sides of the war.

Another story he told was of how many Peruvian soldiers drowned by leaping off their ship when it was boarded by the Chileans. When confronted by a Chilean commander (whose name I can't remember), those remaining begged not to have their throats slit. His response was something along the lines of, "You have not been captured by barbarians! Ours is a civilized nation." This reassurance saved the lives of many others who would have otherwise jumped to their deaths in fear.

These tidbits of historic fact were fascinating to me, but in the meantime all of our kids fell asleep! The way the tour goes, the boat first heads out to open water and specifically to the area where the battleship Esmeralda lies sunken under the sea. It isn't until the final turn that it passes the area where all the sea lions congregate, and by that time none of our children saw them. It was too bad, because there was even a cute little baby sea lion that they would have loved! The one redeeming factor was that when we did return to the dock, a big old crusty sea lion had returned to sun himself there.

He wasn't much for having his picture taken, but you can see how close Pedro and Owen were able to get to him. In fact, they could have walked right up to him if we had any reassurance that he was friendly! He was a funny-looking fellow and made us smile as we said our goodbyes to our tour guide "Samuel" and promised to return next time my dad is in town. Dad is a history buff and would love to hear his stories! (Right, Dad?) Samuel's one complaint to the group on our boat was that we did not ask enough questions or show enough pride in the history of "our" country so next time we had better come better prepared. :)