Shane and I waited a whole TEN minutes to get these pictures at the Museo Naval y Maritimo in Valparaíso, Chile, right on the colorful and busy port.
Of course, as our luck would have it, we got on line to take pictures RIGHT AFTER a busload of schoolgirls on a field trip from Ecuador showed up. We had to wait for all of them to take their shots with their camera phones and post them on Facebook and all that. There was much giggling and trading places in line, and between the two of us taking our pictures we did our photo shoot in 1/100th the time of each girl on that long field trip line.
I guess it was fun watching the hooplah. We were just as excited as they were, too.
You can imagine how our bubble was burst when we realized that there isn’t just one Fénix capsule. There is also one on display in Washington, DC, at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in an exhibit entitled Against All Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine.
The naval museum is located at the top of the hill overlooking the port. You get to the top of the hill from the busy part of the city by taking up one of those tram cars. The round trip cost 600 CLP per person (approx $1.16 USD).
You, too, can take a picture standing in the Phoenix capsule that lifted the 33 trapped miners to the surface in 2010. If you still have your unexpired college ID, it’ll cost you 100 CHP to enter the museum, or approximately 19 cents. You need to have your ID with you, and yes, they accept IDs from other countries. If not, full price will cost you 700 CHP, or $1.35. Sort of ridiculous to pull out your school ID, but I sure did.
It looks like you can barely fit in there. It must have been quite claustrophobic for the miners!