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Published: December 1st 2008
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la mica in la serena
we had the town to ourselves until everyone woke up... About a month ago, me, my room mate micaela, and sara, her friend from michigan went to la serena. We took the last bus at midnight, and got there at about 7 am. We left our bags at the bus stations, and went to explore the city. The streets were literally empty, because no one wakes up tell after 9, or 10, or even later! so it was kind of nice to have a peaceful city all to ourselves, but we couldn´t even buy coffee or anything to eat until about 10:30! Our plan was to stay just for the day, visit the beach, and i wanted to see my friends, but we ended up staying the night there!. We walked all over the city, it´s the second oldest city in chile, very beautiful with old buildings. We took a siesta on the beach, then we went to have once (like tea time) with my friends the rioseco yanez´s. The mom, iris was my neighbor in the hospital in the last room i was in. She was truly the sunshine of my days, and whenever i was having a hard time, or got really frutstrated, she always made me feel better!
we would stay up talking for hours (i did mostly listening) at night, and in the morning, she would always be cracking jokes, to make the whole room laugh (there were either 5 or 6 of us at a time) and the nurses too.
I became very fond of iris and her family very quickly. Her son felipe would visit her everyday, for almost the whole day! visiting hours exist here, but no one pays attention. Felipe is a lawyer in la serena, but stayed in santiago for the 5 days that iris was here. Iris called me the day after she let the hospital, i had to stay one extra day without her, and i have stayed in contact with them ever since. Recently Iris came back to santiago for a breast cancer operation, and I visited her every day. i feel so blessed to have this family in my life! The next time I go to la serena, i will get some fotos of them.
So we went to Iris´house at about 4, with the intent to stay for only a little bit, which means like 3 hours, but we ended up staying till 9 and missed the
last bus to valle de elqui! But we got to meet her other son Rodolfo, and they served us tea, ham and cheese sandwiches, cake, ice cream, and cookies! It was delicious, but at the same time i was a little nervous for my friend Iris, who is diabetic! Chileans in general are very generous...incredibly generous.
So we left their house very happy, and went to find a hostel, pizza and beer. Well, we found beer, hambergurs and fries, but the hostels were a little pricy, and not very many because it was haloween, so i think a lot of people wanted to stay in town. They celebrate haloween here too, but not with the sexy costumes like in the states. Kids go trick-or-treating, and people just go to bars in costumes. we had a costume party here in la casa blanca, the following week to celebrate mica´s b-day, the election of obama, and it was your alter-ego theme! (i was a ninja of course)
So I called Felipe to see where he recomended to stay in la serena, or another way to get to valle de elqui, but he was in church, so he called me back later, and
spider man!
i can´t believe i saw spider man in la serena! i was trying so hard to take his picture without him noticing! insisted that Iris insisted that we stay in their living room! Their house is not very big, but just the right size for the 3 of us to sleep on the floor. they were so gracious and welcoming! we left early the next morning for valle de elqui.
Valle de elqui is known as a place with a high concentrtion of energy. There has been many ufo sightings, so they say, and in the 60´s, a hippy comune was set up in rio magico. The valley is full of voneyards, to make pisco, but the hills around the valley are very dry...it is truly a special place!
It´s about a 3 hour bus ride to the back of the valley with really incredible views. I think the ride could have been shorter, but the bus was also a public transportation system for the locals of the valley, and a school bus for the kids! We got to pisco de elqui, a small toursit town by like 11 am. They named themselves pisco elqui to claim the rights to pisco because there has been a huge controversy between peru and chile about who´s pisco is better and blah blah blah...there wasn´t
pisco distilery
tour of mistral plant in pisco de elqui much there, but the pisco distillery. We had a great tour, our tour guide gave us a discount because la mica talked to him forever before the tour! It´s a lot like making wine, because pisco is made from grapes, but not as good of quality of grapes, but fermented for much longer, and at a higher temperature. we left pisco elqui and started back down the valley por dedo. We ended up getting a whole tour of the valley by car, and we got to see more than we thought we would! We went all the way to where we could see the boarder of argentina. We started the morning on the coast, at la serena, and by 4 we were at the other edge of the country (it´s only about 4 hours from ocean to the cordillera). We camped in another tiny tiny town, and it was the best night yet here in chile. It was so great to see the stars! and we saw probably a dozen shooting stars!!!
i will go back to la serena and valle de elqui sometime. I want to camp at el rio magico, we were going to, but to get back
uvas seco
the old way of making pisco to the main road when the bus was going to pick us up at 8 am, was over a 7 hour hike, or we could have called a guy who has a truck, that charges 5 mil per trip, and we just tell him when to get us, but we couldn´t get cell phone service, so we decided to camp closer to the main road.
if anyone would like to join, please let me know and i will buy the bus tickets!
hasta pronto mi familia y mis amigos!
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