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Published: February 28th 2009
La Serena was a fresh welcome!! After the dryest of dry deserts... returning to the coast was quite relieving. As soon as we got off the bus we immediately wanted coffee and to find a hostel. WELL.. no one told us that at 6am in the morning not one single person and I mean NOT ONE Soul could be found in the Plaza des Armas (main square) in La Serena!! Haha!! So we decided to head towards the beach... which later turned out to be a bad idea. After about 1 mile we arrived at the sea and began stopping at misc. hotels to see what was available. After 2hrs it occured to us that there were no vacancies along this strip of the beach... so we decided to keep walking. After about 5hrs we ended up in Coquimbo (walked completely out of La Serena!!)... AND our packs were no longer our friends at this point. So we grabbed a cab and went back to La Serena, to Plaza des Armas hoping that people were now awake!! Haha!! We found the perfect hostel (you MUST STAY HERE) Hospedaje Tamaya (hammocks, fire pits, loung chairs, relaxing music) and made it home for
the next few days.
We then scheduled a star gazing tour to the Mamalluca Observatory for 8:30pm pick up!! (http://www.mamalluca.org/ingles/inicio.htm) Unbeknownst to us (imagine that) the drive to the observatory took 75-95 minutes!! Also unknown... was that our driver was a crazy goon!! He passed every single car along the way even around blind turns! Anyhoo... once we got to Mamalluca the tour guide assigned to the english speakers was truly one-in-a-million!! He reminded us of the Count on Sesame Street... ¨Please, this way, this way please¨ (in the count drac accent)... John and I had a good chuckle the entire time. We learned a lot about stars that night and enjoyed looking at Saturn, Earth´s moon, nebulas (where stars are born), and realized how much astrologists know about Space!! Crazy stuff. Also learned that Chile is one of the best places in the world to observe stars. Hmmm... maybe that´s why John and I haven´t seen rain in over 6wks!!
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sarah Winnell
non-member comment
Hola!
I finally got a chance to check on you:)! Hope all is adventurous and well! Looks like ya'll are having a blast! Take care and enjoy! Love your cuz, Sarah