La Serena

Tuesday 5th October

No food on the bus. The landscape got drier and drier as we went north on route 5, Pan American Highway. On the way up we saw a beer lorry overturned with cans of Cristal lager all over the road. Despite the best endeavours of all the passengers the bus refused to stop! We arrived at 20.00 at La Serena , a trip of some 7 hours.

Aji Verde (Green chilli) was our first hostel and let me reassure you that it IS NOT upmarket. The bunk beds were not expected and sharing bathrooms was a very new experience. Still this is a budget trip so needs must as the devil drives. Loads of Brazilians staying here. The hostel is part of the YHA Network so we got a 15% discount. Just heard from Hanne. She got home safely but a word of warning. Do not use El Rapido buses and I quote " a horrible bus smelling of pi**".

Wednesday 6th October

We are now seasoned travellers and hostellers and talked to everybody at breakfast. We have booked the Elqui Valley and Observatory tour for tomorrow. Wandered around La Serena and down to the lighthouse and along the front. Lots of new hotels going up. I cooked dinner, chili con carne with rice. The other hostellers thought it was good too as there was far too much cooked. Being naturally modest I told them that my lasagne was even better! Blue skies and sun 19/20 C

Thursday 7th October

For whatever reason we were not booked on the tour to the Elqui Valley (cock up on the hostel front!) but we managed to get on another tour and will try to meet up with the original tour for the observatory later. On the way had Chilean papaya which bears no resemblance to a Malaysian papaya. It is like a small green lemon and tastes as bad! We found out afterwards that we should have boiled it first! It seems we are going to a Pisco distillery and will get some freebie Mango Sour. Having phoned the Hostel (who were phoning the travel agent) it seems we are now to meet with the Nomadic Tour but will have to wait for the where and when, which turned out to be the Plaza de Armas in Vicuña ( a one horse pueblo where the horse left years ago).

We went into the Elqui Valley (green, green, green) and to a pisco distillery near Mannallucco, site of the observatory. Results of the tasting afterwards. Normal Pisco, totally disgusting and worse than sleepinaditch (slivovica) but just better than 8 year old unrinsed sock washing water. The 3 year old was a little smoother but nobody in their right mind would go beyond the foot of their stairs for it! In the shop we were served a mango sour. Now we are talking "hit me with loads of it". Seems that you have to put lemon, mango or even banana in with the Piso to get an acceptable drink..

We went further into the Elqui Valley for lunch. Every square inch is cultivated. Because of the dam they now get very strong winds so there is masses of protective sheeting everywhere to protect the crops. Not a nice sight.

Having been to the town of Nobel Winner Gabriella Mistral (the name of the town escapes me) we headed back to Vicuña.  The will to live having been lost with the conversations with the hostel reference observatory, it transpired that if we cared to wait in Vicuña for 5 hours we could go on the tour. We declined with what I thought was remarkable restraint. However the hostel could confirm (after two phone calls from our guide) that we were booked on the tour to Parque Nacional Fray Jorge the next day!

Weather hot in Elqui 27/28C. Camera stopped working!

Friday 8th October

We were picked up at 08.30 and after 90 minutes south in a 7/8 seater Honda touring car, featuring automatic and cruise control. From the highway it is 23km on a dirt road to the Parque Nacional. We walked 4 km uphill and into the wind and it took 1 hour. Then 3 kms round the top and 4 km down again. Heroes medals were sought and awarded. The Parque is amazing. The wind rises off the sea and hits a 500 metre ridge where mist forms for 220 days in the year. As a result you have a forest in the desert. One of the party, a Chilean, had spent 9 years in Sweden so we talked to him in Danish.

Next to the Valle del Encanto a prehstoric site with loads of Petroglifs . Back to La Serena and treated ourselves to an Italian Dinner ( in recognition of the sterling work done earlier).

We and the hostel tried to book a hostel in Copiapo but to no avail. This is a big place but even HostelWorld could not offer anything, so we decided to go to Chañaral instead.