La Serena

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La Serena is one of Chile’s oldest cities, founded in 1544.It was the main staging post on the route north to Peru; many of the religious orders built churches and convents here providing accommodation for their members, and the city still has 29 churches.

Some people went to Coquimbo to see the big cross, the Cruz del Tercer Milenio (Spanish for "Third Millennium Cross"). It is 83m tall and 40m wide and you can see it from La Serena. Some of us decided to walk to the beach where the lighthouse is. On the way there we walked by Parque Pedro de Valdivia where there was small zoo / aviary with llama, alpaca, some domestic fowl (chicken, ducks, geese), parrots, emu and ostrich. There was also a rink where some kids were playing roller hockey which was a bit unexpected in Chile.

The lighthouse is no longer functional and has been converted to a tourist information office. The flat screen TV in the office was showing the Simpsons in Spanish. The weather wasn’t the greatest, cool and windy, definitely not beach weather. There are quite a few condos under construction near the beach, apparently for people from Santiago who vacation in La Serena.

Most shops were closed because it was All Saints Day. There are a number of cathedrals and churches but they pretty much all look the same. There wasn’t a whole lot to do in La Serena although if you are an astronomical buff there are a few observatories in the area that are worth a visit because of the region’s exceptional atmospheric conditions to observe the night sky in the southern hemisphere. Or if you like pisco, there is a distillery in Elqui Valley. Or if you like alcohol, both wine and beer are cheap. A cheap bottle of wine can be purchased for the equivalent of about $3 USD, and decent six-pack of beer under $4 USD.

In the afternoon we learned that our overnight bus the next day to San Pedro de Atacama was sold out and we might get stuck in La Serena unless we could get Tucan’s overland bus from Santiago to give us a ride to Antofagasta. Later that night we got confirmation that we’ll be leaving La Serena the following afternoon on the Tucan bus.

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