La Serena

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We just got back from a great weekend trip today. We were trying to leave on Wednesday but we encountered several problems with travel and basically with lots of luck were able to leave on Thursday night. On Wednesday night I went out with my host sister Lya and Liz to her friend’s house then to a discoteca—apparently she knows people because we got VIP passes and just cut an extremely long line. It was really fun and an extremely late night. Woke up the next morning and had a little breakfast then went on an awesome bike ride along the bike path that hugs the cliffs (really similar to cliff walk in Newport but instead of mansions skyscrapers). It was PERFECT weather and I got to see a lot of the nicer parts of Viña and Reñaca the next town/city over. It was probably like at least a 3 hour bike ride and we got ice cream halfway then came back and made empanadas. Parts of it were extremely scary and there were several Caitlin-almost-gets-hit by Chilean crazy drivers; took me a good hour to figure out the rules of the road. Got back and packed up and went to La Serena. Our bus stopped literally like 7 times so the 5.5 hour ride took us more like 8. We got in around midnight and the people from our hostel met us at the bus terminal and walked us to the hostel (thank god never would have found it). It was really cool and super South American seeming. It had an awesome patio and tons of young people from absolutely everywhere. The problem was of course that we forgot to bring toilet paper and towels…apparently toilet paper isn’t a give in. Also it was lots of little buildings and since they don’t have heat here it was FREEZING. Apparently it was snowing at one point but I suspect that the Chilean view of snow is similar to that of the south so it was probably a chance of snow that turned into 6 inches that were miraculously gone when we woke up. The next day we walked around town and stopped in an awesome super high class coffee shop because after the rough night we decided we needed non-instant coffee which is difficult to find. While we were sitting there (and we also got the best strawberry juice ever!) there was a rally of copper mine workers outside, it was like out of Evita…pretty awesome. We walked around through the artisan markets all day then trucked it the few miles to the beach and lighthouses which were absolutely gorgeous. We got some dinner with some friends we met in the hostel that are on rotary scholarships in south America and then the next day we all together got up real early and took a tour of the valley elqui which is hands down the coolest landscape ever. We started freezing wearing every piece of clothing I owned and by the end we were at 7000ft altitude in the desert wearing basically nothing and still sweating bullets. The pictures don’t do a justice (which is probably good since my camera battery died before we got there…) but it was absolutely amazing. I cannot believe how giant the mountains are. On the way we stopped at a dam that was so pretty, the water was a blue I can’t even describe. Then we stopped at a pisco distillery and learned how they make Chile’s favorite liquor. While we were walking around eating the grapes etc. we saw an orange tree so we took a couple and they were the best oranges I’ve ever had. Then we got into the dessert and we stopped at lots of little villages where everything was made out of adobe (sp?). I bought some dried apples at a stand that they just slice and lay out on rocks in the desert to dry out—not usually a huge dried fruit fan but these were epic! And you get like a lb. for 1000 pesos which is like less the 2$. For lunch we went to a place that cooks all your food using only the sun in big metal boxes they leave out. It was really neat, but at this point I started getting some serious altitude sickness (guessing going from sea level to 7000ft in a few hours isn’t the best idea…). It had to be the worst headache I’ve ever had and I couldn’t open my eyes. Thank god Liz had migraine prescription with her that after about 3 hours I gave in and took and felt relief real fast. Maybe not altitude sickness after all? We then asked to be dropped off in Vicuña, a little mountain city in the valley. We hung out for a few hours, played with some adorable Chilean children who were absolutely fascinated by white people. A tour coming from La Serena picked us up at 9pm and took us to the observatory on the very top of one of the peaks. We got lucky it was a new moon so we could do this! We saw tons of planets and crazy constellations—all of which are upside down since they were discovered and named in the northern hemisphere. We had an English guide which was really helpful seeing as we aren’t astronomy experts in English anyway. This observatory had the 2nd strongest telescope on the Earth and it’s the only one they open to the public. We got to see Saturn’s actual rings and Nebula’s and tons of cool stuff, not to mention the constant shooting stars and satellites! Our bus got back into La Serena around 12:30 and we had to wait at the freezing cold bus terminal until 2am to get our bus back to Viña. The bus ride back wasn’t bad with nearly bed-like seats, breakfast, and significantly less stops. Overall it was a completely awesome weekend with TONS of coffee, artisan markets, fresh fruit, walking, beach, mountains, desert, and astrology. We filled every minute and we were all so happy we didn’t attempt Patagonia (which we heard was miserable from our friends) and took a risk and went somewhere a little less touristy.

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