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Published: August 17th 2006
San Pedro de Atacama - the first stop over the border from Bolivia. There is nothing much in this place but to book adventure tours. Everything is overpriced, so thought best to get out as soon as possible. Besides, the tours seem to cover the same things that I just experienced in Bolivia, ie. salt plains, geyers etc. Got a night bus all the way to La Serena.
La Serena - La Serena lived up to its reputation of being a great place to relax. A little lady at the bus station convinced me to stay in her hostel, which was really her daughter"s converted house. Who was I to argue at that time of night with nowhere else to go? I had my own room and bath and tea making facilities on hand, and use of the clothes washing machine (unfortunately I couldn"t figure out the operations in Spanish).
La Serena has beautiful architecture and artisan markets as well as modern fashion malls and a shopping centre with fast food and cinemas. Although i actually had cable TV in my room (a big plus), I decided to have junk food and go to the movies just like home.
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Streetscape near main plazaSaw "The Lakehouse" with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves (there was obviously not much to choose from!) - it was the usual fluffy chick flick. It was also nice to be able to walk to the scenic beach to see the old lighthouse and smell the salt air.
I only stayed one day but could easily have stayed longer. La Serena has a nice sunny climate and feels very safe to walk around even on your own.
Valparaiso - I made the mistake of arriving at night which is never a great option. Ended up staying in a grand old house recommended by Lonely Planet. As no single rooms were available, I stayed 2 nights in one of the dorms. I only worked out later that it still cost me $10 US per night for a dorm bed - this is really expensive by Sth America standards.
Valparaiso gave me a very weird impression of being somewhere in Europe but not sure where. There are some beautiful buildings, an interesting antique market (even though it folded up early due to the rain), charming colourful houses set into the hillside and a bustling port. On my only day
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The non-functioning lighthouse and the beach there the sky was overcast all morning and then it rained for several hours. This was the first time on my travels that I was caught in the rain and it was not too much fun to be cold and wet. In general I did not feel safe walking the streets even in broad daylight. Being Sunday, the streets were quite dead until about 11am, which made it worse.
Even so, "Valpo" is an attractive and interesting place and should not be missed. It was also the place where I snapped my favorite alltime photo so far - see doggy pic...
Santiago - My last stop in Chile was Santiago and I was glad I listened to other travellers" and just stopped for the day. I had met quite a few people who were staying there for a few months on some kind of study exchange, but no-one said anything particularly positive to recommend it. There is nothing very interesting to see in this city. Its just a big city which seemed surprisingly sleepy, with not too many people around until about midday. I guess like all Latinos they were out partying all night..
On the positive
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La Serena main plaza side there are some very nice, large parks and the city metro system, (which I"m proud I managed to navigate to find my hostel), is clean, fast and efficient.
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