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By Ellen Creager / Detroit Free Press
South America beckons with discount cruises to Chile, Brazil, beyond
South America is the hot spot for last-minute cruise bargains. Its fares have fallen more than any other market - about 50 percent this year, according to Mike Driscoll, editor of Cruise Week. But what’s to see on a South American cruise? One person who knows every inch of the route is Johnny Faevelen, captain of the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas. Feb. 19, he finished sailing the huge ship 16,892 miles and 47 days from Port Canaveral, Fla., to Los Angeles, stopping in nine South American ports and sailing around Cape Horn, as Magellan and Charles Darwin did so long ago. Some cruise port services in South America are relatively unexplored because only in the last five years have more than a handful of cruise ships put the route on the schedule. In one way, it’s good because there is no gauntlet of boringly similar stores - each port is strikingly different. In Lima, you have a 30-minute drive to the colonial city. In Valparaiso, you can disembark and be in the center of town. For people who have never been to South America, a cruise is a good way to get introduced. And right now, you can do it at up to 50 percent off.