Tired and emotional in la serena

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La serena to Arica.

An emotional 8 hour journey to la serena. As before we set out in the station a little boy was in tears and so were his family. He was travelling with his sister and was completely inconsolable leaving his family. For whatever reason we'll never know so you naturally assume the worst and fell his pain. I had to turn on my iPod so I too wouldn't be blubbing all the way to la serena. Although at the lunch stop he seemed fine with a coke and some chocolate. Ah comfort food a bit of chocolate and all is good with the world, well his world. Got to la serena in the evening and out hostel was great. Run by a german lady, die oma. So we sorted things out in part Spanish, part german and part hand gestures. Decided to dine with the locals and instead got scared out of our minds. The guy next to us was as high as a kite and made some kissy kissy noises and started to edge his way toward us ever so obviously. So that was it we went straight to the supermarket and decided to make our own dinner. Whilst saving some valuable pesos. The hostel had everything and was in a quiet location, near enough to the bus station. Visited the local 15th century cathedral and walked the beach. Other than that there wasn't a whole lot to do. There were some nice markets with Latino music blaring out of the speakers and a carnival for kids. Some lovely squares to chill out in. We spent a day in coquimbo, the next town. We caught a local bus and got off near enough to the top of the little town where there was a cross towering over coquimbo and la serena. Took a while to get there it's a steep enough walk through little streets filled with one storey, colourful houses. Very south American style. Got to the top, through a church and up some more steps is the lift to the top. You get to walk out on the arms of the cross. Amazing views over the two towns and well worth the climb. It's the highest monument of it's kind in south America. Buses were crammed on the way back to la serena and had ours heads in peoples parts, although here we were taller than most so it was all legal but still not pretty. Another long bus journey awaited us to Antofagasta this time. We had to stop off here in order to sort out our trip to the desert. San pedro de attacama. But when we got there every single hostel, hotel and inn was booked up. We were on random buses and walked for so long till we walked into the radison and crossed our fingers but no they were fully booked. It seemed like there was a mining convention on and everywhere was full. Emilio the nicest guy ever who worked in the radison got his phone nook out and called everywhere for us. We gave him hostel numbers and he kindly phoned for us and nada, nothing at all. We didn't know what to do and we must if started to eye up the chairs in the lobby of the radison as emilio told us to wait 10 minutes. He was going to talk to his boss and see what he could do. Sure enough 10 minutes later we had a room and for half the price also. He said he would only charge us for one person. Whispering as he said this we were so happy. With out complimentary free drink each, the softest bed, toiletries and the best breakfast how could we not be happy. We booked the rest of our week ahead so we couldn't run into this kind of trouble again. A week of planning was good for us. Antofagasta has a nice coast walk and can take about 2 hours to walk up all the way to the radison and back again. The Sunday we were there it was children's day, we were wondering why McDonald's was so packed. The coast walk was full of families, kids with kites, a live band and general mayhem. We had time to kill as we had a night bus to catch to Arica the chilean border town to Peru and it was a nice way to spend it. We were hoping to chill out in Arica as you generally need to after a 10 hour night bus journey. The kiwi Chilean owner hostel we stayed in arica was perfect for just that. Nice bit of chillin and getting to know some of the other guests around the big breakfast table. Listening to some of their scary Bolivian travel stories I wasn't looking forward to doing it. The buses and the guards seemed crazy searching everyone's bags at the side of the road. Being held up for 3 hours or so. Mad but we had to go there to get to Argentina plus there were places we wanted to see. Again more climbing up hills to get a good view and up to see more crosses. So far chile had been a good work out no gym membership for me when I get home. Along the way we visited an archaeological museum which had some well preserved bodies from early 19th century. It's on colon street but only half finished. There're still working on the rest it was discovered when plans for a hotel were in place. Arica was a good spot to stop for a few days and plan our Peru trip, well as much as we could. No more than 2 days and that's enough. Peru is a calling and especially machu picchu.

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