La Serena

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The bus ride to La Serena was packed with movies and entertainment for me as Sarah slept. We passed through a few wind farms (Vestas machines). Zookeeper, in spanish but with english subtitles. Muppets in english. It was great. But then they threw on this Bimbo Fico guy, a comedian who is shown on a number of buses. Sometimes people like him, other times no. I do not understand anything he says. He looks a bit creepy though and his style is very different than comedians I see on TV. He is decked out in this white suit with a white top hat. He look like an evil circus guy from a movie.

Anyway, we arrived in La Serena with 2 hours before dark, so we set off quickly to find a hostal. And finally, there was an opportunity to do some negotiating. Instead of paying $8,000 per person for the hostel we got it for $7,000 per person (about $14 USD). Not a drastic decrease, but it was the first time negotiating worked. We had tried elsewhere, but people were content with just letting us walk out without lowering the price.

With hostal in hand, it was time to eat. The hostal hostess told us of a place two blocks away. We passed it and decided to explore town for the small amount of daylight we had left. So, 15 minutes later we were back at the restaurant.

Now that we were in northern chile, it was time to try a Pisco Sour. Pisco Sours are the drink to be had in this area. Peruvians and Chileans fight over who invented the Pisco Sour. It is a kind of brandy made from grapes in northern Chile and Peru. Neither Sarah and I like brandy, but a pisco sour is some good stuff. We split one over our chicken and fries and soup with potato, beef, and carrots.

The morning of the 21st (Wednesday) we set goals of beach, history and bus (and food for Sarah). I was excited about eating lunch on the beach, so, yet again, I delayed Sarah from eating. We had food with us though so she was ok.

At the main plaza we checked out a number of cathedrals, built as old as the 1600s. Also at the plaza we came across a street band all decked out in authentic, native american looking clothes. They had colorful ribbons, feathers, and all kinds of interesting instruaments. The music was really unique and we stood there for a while listening to them. It would have been great to buy one of their CDs, which were being sold out of stroller, but there is no way it would have made it back home in one piece.

After talking to a tourist office, we realized the beach was only a 20 minute walk so we took off in that direction. We stopped at the bus terminal first and booked our overnight bus to Antofagasta. We shopped again and saved a $1,000 pesos ($15,000 each or about $30).

By now Sarah was famished so we took off to the beach. The beach was really nice, but it was practically empty. We probably saw 30 people on the beach the whole day. Restaurants were closed and it took us a while to find one where we split a small cheese pizza.

Sarah loves the beach. She sat in the sand and enjoyed the magnificant view. Me, I am a little too antsy for the beach, so I checked out the line of birds that covered the entire waterfront, all chasing sand fleas in the receeding waves. I do not know if that is the right term for the animal, but father, you know what I am talking about. They are much bigger here, about an inch long, and frantically try to bury themselves before being devoured by the birds. We also saw a sea gull taking clams up in to the air and dropping them on the beach to break them open. Another white, heron-like bird feasted on little minnows stranded in pools from the high tide.

The water was rather chilly, and seeing as we do not have bathing suits with us we were not planning on swimming. So we walked further up the beach. There were islands in the distance and we could see the town of Coquimbo just to the south with its large cross on the hillside. With the pizza not being enough we found a restaurant and had our first South American chicken nuggets and fries. Cliff, we had a momentary lapse in memory of the pink goo and were later disgusted by what we just ate.

Later we walked back, about an hour, to the hostal to grab our bags and get to the bus station. It was 8PM to 8AM on our first overnight semi-cama (seats do not recline as far and the seats are more tightly packed).

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Comments

[Mike and Jill]

Mike and I made Pisco sours with our host families! They are definitely Peruvian ; )