Love Boat or Titanic?

What would you prefer, a voyage on the Love Boat or on the Titanic?  Maybe this is not such a difficult choice (would you, like me, prefer to sink in the middle of a freezing ocean than be trapped on a sappy television show cruise?!! :-), until one is standing on the shore of the Maule River and both Captains are vying for the 1000 pesos (2 dollars) each passenger will pay.  Both boats are painted bright blue and eye aching white, both have an inch or so of suspicious looking water sloshing around in the bottom.  (Are they leaking or does the water leach through the not quite water tight wooden hulls?)  Neither boat has life-vests or any other emergency equipment to be seen.

I finally choose the Love Boat because a group of screaming and laughing teens climbs aboard the Titanic.  The old, heavy vessels, motors chugging and sighing as if reluctantly accepting one more voyage, race each other upstream at a turtle`s pace as the crew training for University of Talca zips past in a modern lightweight shell. We come back downstream, facing the new bridge and the old one that fell in the 2010 earthquake.  They say that the Maule River used to be navigable by ocean going vessels.  I read in one history book that is was the deforestation in the mountains, as far away as the Shalom Center on the Lircay River that feeds into the Maule, that caused the heavy silt that reduced the depth of the river and eventually cut off the trading route.  Another book said that it was a devastating earthquake in the 1920s that cut the river off from the ocean.  I ask the Captain of the Love Boat.  He gives me a friendly smile, nods, and offers no explanation leaving me to my own conclusions about the Maule River.

Both boats arrive back at the starting point with no mishaps.   I guess whether you choose the Love Boat or the Titanic, you have to accept the risk of the adventure.  Once you are on your way, anything can happen!  I guess next time, I will pick the Titanic and ask  the captain if he knows what happened to the ocean going ships that used to come to Talca on the Maule River...