Hello from chilly Chile, Part 3 - La Serena

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So then to continue my voyages, I hoped on a bus to La Serena. which is the capital of the Coquimbo region. It was a very spectacular busride as the landscape changes dramatically when you go further North. The Pan American highway hugs the Pacific coast on one side and rocky mountains on the other. The green gives way to small coastal villages, sandy beaches with great waves for surfing and small coarse shrubbery. Definitely worth the drive.

La Serena itself is a beautiful small town, by the beach and beautifully designed. There are a few churches around and lovely squares and parks. I stayed in a hotel owned by a Scotsman who was not shy to fly the St Andrew´s flag. However, I did stay too long there and managed to mistime my stay with a bank holiday weekend where everything was closed, even the tour operators.

I did manage to occupy myself with a couple of trips. One was to the Reserva Nacional Los Pinguinos, which is a marine reserve about 125km from La Serena. It was really windy to start with and we thought that we wouldn´t be able to go on the water. However, it did die down and it was a really cool trip. We saw whales, dolphins, sea lions, Humboldt pinguins, eagles, giant crabs, all kinds of marine birds and mammals. Fantastic. Two highlights were seeing a whale jump out of the water (I managed to capture part of that) and following a pod of dolphins. I also ate abalone for the first time and conger eel again, delicious. We also saw some wild donkeys and guanacos, which are a species of wild black faced lamas.

I also went to Coquimbo, which was the neighbouring town, but forgot to bring a spare memory card. So I don´t have any photos. The interesting thing about the cute little town is that it has a church designed by Mr Eiffel himself and a gigantic steel cross of 80 metres or so built for the millenium.

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