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It was a Chevy
It felt great to drive after 3 months of NOT doing so.We began our trip heading to
La Serena without any plans as to what we were going to be doing or going to be staying-basically we were going with the flow. It felt good going on a road trip like that; taking an unfamiliar road, seeing unfamiliar sights, and going to an unfamiliar place. Once we reached La Serena we decided we needed a break from our "not knowing where to go" adventure so we went to go and have some lunch at a place that seemed to be perfect for a break. Upon arriving we had a man ask us to eat in his restaurant, which is quite normal for Chile. The stocking part isn't normal. When we told him we were going to look around he didn't take that as an answer. He followed us around the entire building. Once, I turned around because the girls told me he was following and when I turned to see he jumped into a convenient store and peeked over the top of a shelf. It seemed a little uncomfortable and kind of weird. So we decided to keep looking. Then we had another man in the same uniform ask us to eat
in his restaurant- another stalker. He started talking about it being in "his" travel book that Jennie was holding. Again, a little weird. Then he asked Carina "what country are you from?" (In English) and she responded "United States". Apparently he meant what state are you from because he kept asking and Carina finally said "you asked me what country I’m from and I told you United States!” It was a classic. This guy wouldn't leave us alone, the other guy was popping up out of everywhere (I was beginning to wonder if he had some special powers to move that fast), and we were sick of it and just tried to ignore it. But when we went upstairs to see what was available to eat it was hard to ignore it all. Upon approaching the top of the stairs men in the same Uniform were all around the stair case and walkway. One was holding up the same travel book yelling "Chicas"!! We laughed it off and decided for ourselves that we were going to go with the "Brazil" restaurant. Our waiter just so happened to be one of the guys who followed us around...Imaginate. Once we were served
Cow Crossing
What's the hold up? our menus and a free glass of Pisco Sour we (well not me, cause I don't know Brazilian food) decided it wasn't Brazilian food, it was a little expensive and the Menu of the Day at the restaraunt across the hall seemed better. So without saying anything we bailed out of there (first time during the trip, but not last). Once we found the Hostel we were looking for and got our room we decided to go for a walk to the beach. Walking toward the beach we walked by the same restaurant...THAT WAS TWO BLOCKS UP THE ROAD. All that searching and we were right by the place we were looking for. We decided the beach was too far to walk to at the hour we were walking so we settled for going to Lider to get some wine and just have a relaxing day at the Hostel. We enjoyed our "La Tradicion de la Familia" and then got HUNGRY. So we went out in search for Chorrillana all over La Serena. It was Rubi's first experience for Chorrilla so we were determined to find it, and well I just really wanted it. Jennie was asking in every place
The Drivers
Me and Carina we passed..."Tienen Chorrilla". We did in fact encounter the Chorrilla, but apparently it's not as popular in North Chile as it is in the Viña-Valpo area, but I think it marked my best tasting Chorrillana experience. We were in bed by about midnight, but between a guy knocking on the door about 3 times and the party going on in the hall at 5 am I was a little cranky in the middle of the night. We checked out of our Hostel the next morning around 9 in La Serena and headed toward
Trapiche to go to the Islands. On our way to this huge metropolis city, we were held up in the road for the cows to cross. Once we approached Trapiche it consisted of a bus stop (I think) and... Yeah that's it. It was a place that shouldn't even be on a map....like String Prairie (ha-ha). The difference is that this place was literally in the middle of no where (unlike String Prairie). We had already been driving for over an hour seeming as if we were heading no where, not passing gas stations, literally nothing until we found our road to the islands....which was even further
Picture stop
Rubi, Me and Jennie
in the middle of no where. We approached our first town that really didn't seem like a town considering how far in the middle of no where it was and didn't surround anything at all. This "city" is called
Los Choros. In this town, we were almost run off the road by a horse that was trying to attack the car. Then a dog almost ate the car when it chased us down the road. At this point we had been driving down a dirt road for almost an hour in the middle of no where going through what we call a town looking for the beach that was not in sight. We finally approached our next big city called
Punto Choros which was a sigh of releif because that was where the boats were to go to the islands. I liked to refer to Los Choros as the equivalence of Viña and Punto Choros as the equivalence of Valpo (another little joke). Before getting to our destination I found Jennie's humor to be soothing and I couldn't stop laughing. The field was full of trees and for some unknown reason they were all bent in half pointing in the
Travelers
Where shall we go next girls? opposite direction we were heading. Jennie then says "Look even the trees are running away". (You guys may not find it funny, but I did.) Finally after a lot of doubts and a long drive in the middle of no where we approach the boats. They seemed a little "fishy" (meaning not too durable) but we figured we drove that far we might as well go for it. We loaded up in the boat and headed out to the islands (for the second round since the first time they forgot to check if the motor worked-fishy). However, it was actually amazing and I'm glad we went for it. We saw tons of sea lions, a few Peruvian Penguins, white sand and crystal blue water (my first time), and got a little wet doing it. We went to two islands called
Isla Choros and
Isla Gaviota. The view was so beautiful and a view that could only be truly appreciated by seeing it through your own eyes. After our boat ride to the islands we decided to have some lunch at a restaurant that we think was a restaurant/home in one. It was really good and fast for homemade cooking. This
Break Time
Picture stop! was the end of our secluded area adventure. We then set off for our journey to
Vicuña to enjoy the Mamalluca Astronomical Observatory. It's a good thing we had enough of gas to get us there and back! Otherwise we would be living in one of those towns with those families owning a restaurant. So, before our venture to see the stars we were in search for our next hostel. After stopping at a few that were either full or not promising, we finally found a winner that came to be known as a two thumbs up and 5 star Hostel! They had HOT WATER and Breakfast for only 5 mil!!! Well- there was no heat, but that's something we have grown accustomed to. Around 9 we headed down to go on our Astronomical excursion. It was really interesting for the first 1 and a half, but after that Carina and I were just laughing at stupid things that were "on our head" just to entertain ourselves and stay warm. During our delusional actions, she went to check out her star. She was named after a star and we were checking it out through the telescope when she blurts out
Amazing Scenery
Snow capped andes, mountains, cactus while looking in the scope "which one is it?!?". Another one of those things you had to be here for. That was pretty much the end of the observational tour and we headed out. Once again we were old ladies and turned down an offer to go out on the town. Instead we walked back to the hostel and went to bed! Once we got up we had our breakfast and were "on the road again" for our next small town adventure. First we stopped at the Capel Plant to go on a Pisco tour. After the Pisco Tour, we made a short stop in
Monte Grande before reaching our next destination at
Pisco Elqui. This was a place noted in our travel guide for its peace and quiet, and that was true. We also drove to this place for natural fruit juice and hopes that Jennie would get to see her UFO also. It was a great place to be to enjoy the peace and quietness for sure. Everywhere we went we managed to find some kind of excitement on this trip. Once we got to this peaceful town, Pisco Elqui, we looked around at their Fería which consisted
Carina
In the middle of no where on our way to the islands. of about 6 booths. Jennie and Carina bought some really good dried fruit, and Rubi bought a necklace that only lasted her over night because it unfortunately broke. After going to the "Fería" we went to a restaurant to try some freshly squeezed fruit juice. The restaurant had a Mexico feel to it and actually had some heat that we were excited about (fire). Since Jennie and I were sitting on the stone benches that were freezing our troseras off we enjoyed sitting by the fire. The juice was to die for, really, it was incredible. The food was really good too, but lost its potential when they forgot to bring me mine and we waited for about an hour before I received it. Once we left the restaurant we went for a walk around town which probably consisted of 2 blocks. It was peaceful and we were enjoying the trip without any problems. That is until we got to the car to realize we only had about 2 inches front and back of the car to get out. We were stuck between a car and a van of which Carina wanted to put gum on his windshield. After having
a towel hanging out of the trunk (rental car) and having everyone stop and stare at three American girls directing one American girl out of this tight spot was interesting to say the least. Once we got out of that tight spot, we decided to leave the town and head back to Vicuña. Everything was going quite well when another unexpected situation occurred. Three cars were pulled over and we were one of them. All of us were really confused as to why it happened or what the process was through being pulled over in a foreign country. Carina was driving at this point and she just showed the info about the rental car and her passport information and that was the end of it. We were off on our marry little way once more. During the drive back we came to the joint conclusion that we all wanted to have our last night in the 2 thumbs up-5 star hostel in Vicuña. During our drive back to the hostel I got excited when I saw a Rodeo was going on in Chile. It kinda reminded me of home. We decided to stay in Vacuña so we could go the
Gabriella Mistral museum for Jennie and then go to
Ovalle Monumento National Valle del Encanto to exercise the imagination. Unfortunately it was raining so the monument visit didn't go well for us. But I wanted to make the best of the trip to this monumental place and decided to look at the rocks and exercise the imagination to see something. I saw a Bear on a rock, a Llama on a rock, a tamarack on a rock, and agreed with Jennie about a turtle, etc. But really the only one we could see for certain was a stick man carving. Jennie went in and saw pictures of what it was supposed to look like if it weren't raining. This marked the ending of our trip and it was time to head back to Viña del Mar. On the way back we were hit on by guys in a car beside us and so we decided to play too. They wrote notes to us and put them on the window, and so we did the same in return. It was interesting until we think they thought we were really going to pull over. We went our way and they went theirs.
Me and Rubi
on our way to the islands
After Carina pointed something out, I came to the conclusion that there must not be a law against indecent exposure in South America (those who want to know, just ask). We had to create a little detour since the Route 5 was backed up with traffic. Everything seemed to be going so well but my frustrations were taking a huge part out of me at this point. We arrived in Con Con and had some dinner and then headed back to Viña del Mar. Carina and I took the car back this morning, marking the definite end to the trip to Norte de Chile.
New Experiences and Theories Small towns in a foreign country
Driving in a foreign country
Making wishes while driving through a tunnel
Coming to the conclusion that people who live in the middle of no where pick the grapes for the scrumptious chilean wine
Rodeos happen in small towns all over the world
South America uses the southern cross to navagate instead of the north star
If you look at the moon upside down it looks like the moon I see in the states (so look at the moon upside down and you will see it
like I do here in Chile)
The roads are squigglely
There are no warnings for speed bumps
Real orange juice can taste like a million bucks
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anonymous
non-member comment
WOW!
Wow Mandy! It is just awesome how you got in a car and just DROVE! No plans, no destination, NOTHING, just driving. That is so awesome. I am so glad you had such a great time. Looking at your pictures really makes someone appreciate the fine things we do have in America. It's sad that there are places like that out there that don't have much but refer it to a 5 star hostel. That just really makes me appreciate things more now, especially the fact that there is no heat and the people there are used to it. The water looked so beautiful in your pictures. It was so crystal blue, made me want to go and put my feet in it. It's just hard to believe that it's cold there while we're here burning up in the 90s. I guess all I can really say about all of it is just WOW! You really do amaze me girl. Keep it up, I enjoy every bit of it and can't wait to see you. I really do miss you. Hey, about the whole no law against indecent exposure, what's up with that. I wanna know. Were you out there flashing people? :) J/K! Well girl, will chat with you later. BBYYYEEEE BBYYYEEEE for now but not for long. XOXOXOX! - Brooke