South America Day 15

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27th January

We dropped people off of the bus in various towns in the early hours on the way to Copiapo, our destination near the desert coast. We arrived into a station and the bus attendant woke up passengers & told them that this was their stop and they got off. We hadn't been told this was our stop by the attendant and as there was no sign telling us where we were we assumed that it wasn't our stop so we stayed on the bus. After 1/2 hour of fueling up & some minor maintenance to the door the attendant was handing out breakfast boxes. He gave me a double take and said 'Copiapo' to me looking wide eyed. This was indeed our stop so we managed to get off just as the driver was making moves to leave the station.

1 hour further west of Copiapo is Caldera a port town on the desert coast so we caught a bus over to there to see if there were any good beaches to spend a day or two. Another beach town 5km south of Caldera 'Bahia Inglesa' was recommended so we got a taxi over. The bay was really nice with white sands & a rocky coast but unfortunately there was nowhere to stay. So we decided to spend the day there then head back towards the larger town of Caldera for the night.

On arrival in Caldera we found a hostel with ensuite rooms (the first yet!) and headed down to the waterfront. On the water in the distance we spotted what looked like a heron on the sea but upon a closer look it turned out to be a huge Pelican. In the distance we could see an island full of them just off a rocky headland so we headed over. It turned out that there were about 30 of the huge birds on the island and we could get pretty close to them seeing details without binoculars’ which were as always not with us when we needed them! They had a wingspan of around 2 meters & when stood were around 1 metre tall, pretty big birds.

In the evening we stumbled across a restaurant called Empanadopolis. An Empanada is a classic Chilean snack food sold by street vendors & snack bars usually a pastry like outer filled with cheese then either heated or fried. We had had a few on our travels & thought they were OK but this place was the home of the alternative Empanada. They had over 40 different fillings to choose from and it was quite a difference from the plain ones sold by the vendors.

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