Advertisement
Published: July 19th 2010
P1010829
The oasis we found at the back of Maria's CasaWoke up to the bus attendant kindly offering us a breakfast of biscuits, wafers and sweets, just as he’d put another film on. What a great way to be woken up! Not a very healthy breakfast admittedly but hey ho! We arrived in La Serena on time and immediately got hawked by a number of hostel workers, but once we told them we were staying at Maria’s Casa, they all let out a sigh and gave up. Was this a good sign? Hope so... We trudged up to Maria’s place, only about 5 minutes from the bus terminal and so perfectly positioned. And when we got there we discovered the reason why all the other hostel folk seemed so despondent once Maria’s name was mentioned. From the outside, the house looks tiny and barely big enough to fit a family of 5, let alone act as a hostel, but as we walked through the house and out to the back, a green spacious world opened up with room to sleep at least 20. This could also be one of the friendliest places we’ve stayed as Maria welcomed us with open arms and the offer of lunch. We refused the lunch but
she still insisted we had coffee and some bread with guacamole (strange combination but it tasted good!) She showed us to a lovely room with a double bed and hot, hot, hot showers...well for Lisa anyway, as Ian seemed to time his badly and seriously doubted if there really was any hot water. We went off to find a place to do our laundry and afterwards, we eventually found the centre of town with the plaza and shopping district (Calle Prat), but it was a cloudy, grey day so not so pleasant for wandering round. Had some tasty and cheap empanadas underneath the Mercado for lunch followed by a not so cheap beer in the courtyard of some poncy bar and then walked back to the hostel for a movie and bed.
The next day was lovely and sunny and so we wandered up to town again and saw the palm-studded Plaza de Armas, the Museo Arquelogico (where we saw a 2.5 metre moai statue from Easter Island) and the Mercado La Recova, where we tried to find a bike rental place for the following day, but with no luck. We even asked at tourist information who told us
the exact same address we’d just walked to - the place just didn’t seem to exist unfortunately. So to console ourselves, we hooked up some more empanadas and had a peek through the gates of the Japanese garden (which we couldn’t afford to actually go into), had pizza for tea, watched another movie, drank some wine and went bed.
The next morning was grey and pretty miserable again, (one day on, one day off so it seems) but we wandered down to the seafront anyway and had a typically English walk along the beach - windy, cold and depressing! It was about an hour long walk there and back, past the lighthouse, with Ian having stress issues about his flat back home while Lisa watched the fisherman at the ocean’s edge, catching nothing, and healthy folks jogging by us. There was a couple who had taken their 2 cats with to the beach with them as well as some crazy body boarders who had chosen to brave the cold. We walked back and grabbed a quick lunch in the mall - KFC for Ian and a lasagne, salad and veggies for Lisa, who met Maria in the queue who
P1010835
Our room was on the right then proceeded in her super rapido Spanish to tell her about all her ailments and health problems. A sweet lady but it was real struggle to understand as she spoke so bloody fast! Then it was back to the hostel to pick up the bags, say goodbye to the family and settle ourselves on another comfy bus.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0493s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Marit
non-member comment
Love your blogs....... please keep them coming! The pictures are brilliant. We are packing to go to Norway for 6 weeks. Would you believe it, think I have talked Fay and Kamal into joining us in the wilderness for a few days! I hope Kamal can cope with the primitive life there! What do you think Lisa???? Look after each other and stay well. Lots of love from us both, Marit x x x x x PS Will read your blogs whenever we visit civilised people with computers or the local library.