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So this Saturday Jana and I decided to explore the area around La Serena/Coquimbo. We went to Vicuna, which is a town that is about an hour and a half by bus from La Serena. We visited the museum of Gabriela Mistral, hiked a small hill which had a view of the valley, explored the shops, and visited the Pisco Capel distillery. The museum of Gabriel Mistral was good, but would have been better if I was more familiar with her or her work. Finding where the hill was took longer than hiking up it, but it was some physical activity for the day. We took a tour of the Pisco distillery and had a small tasting afterwards. After we went back to a shop, where I wanted to buy a sweater - the lady told me it was 10 mil, but she would give it to me for 8mil. When we went back, another person was running the store, so Jana tells them the sweater is on hold for us and its 6 mil. They said ok, I gave them the money and we left. Yea, we felt pretty badass until we saw the storeowner on the street, and she asked us if we bought it, and then said 8 mil right? We said yes, and ran to the bus station. Not feeling so badass now. But it’s ok, we know that there are 2 prices for an item, the gringo price, and the price for everyone else. We left around 6, went back to Jana’s house, eat some food, then went to a birthday party of her mom’s brother. It had potential to be as akward as the first one I went to, but luckily we had each other and the host went out of his way to talk to us and make sure everything was ok. As the night passed, and we ate almost all the appetizers and drank some pisco, we began socializing with the Chilenos. The ones we talked to were nice, and we didn’t feel like the social outcasts anymore. Chileans are not overly friendly at parties - they are almost cold, or apathetic that a foreigner is there too. Once you talk to them, they become nicer, and invite you to do something with them at a later time, but that later time will usually never happen. All and all a good weekend and good to get out of Ovalle for a little while.

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