April 23 Isla Damas

Yesterday we went on a tour to Isla Damas.

The day started off at 8 with our driver “Jorge” picking us and 8 others up at all our different places (the tour consisted of 3 Chileans, 4 Germans and 1 French stewardess who was stranded because of that Icelandic Volcano that Megan and I knew nothing about) . Jorge was very friendly (used to be an elementary school teacher), spoke English and Spanish very well and was with us the entire day.  We had an hour drive north on the highway leaving the Coquimbo region of Chile and entering the Atacama Desert (the driest desert in the world).  We then got off the highway and had another hour long drive down a bumpy dirt road, on which we saw wild horses, deer and goats. We then arrived in Punto Churros, which is a little fisherman town famous for their olive oil which apparently almost every family makes by hand.  Next we got in a boat (the same ones used for fishing here), maybe 22 feet long, very skinny and had a half hour boat ride to Isla Churros. On the way we got very close to Alcatraz birds (birds that fly very high then spot a fish and dive straight down into the water), next we saw bottle nosed dolphins!  we were very lucky to see them as they aren’t that common, we were within 10 feet of them for at least 10 minuets!  We then got to the island to find hundreds if not thousands of birds and tons of sea lions (just like the ones we have at home)  most exciting for us was to get to see the penguins!  They were Humbolt penguins,  one of the smallest types of penguin in the world (30 cm tall) and were very cute hopping and waddling around.  We ended the tour by getting off of the boat at Isla Damas for an hour, a gorgeous little island with white sand.  On our way home the water was very rough, huge pacific ocean rollers. I wasn’t worried at all being used to the ocean, but Megan almost broke my hand thinking we would go overboard for sure. We made it back to land safely and were served lunch at Punto Churros, fresh caught shrimp and Reineta (fish) with ice cream for dessert!  The day was then over after a two hour trip back to la Serena!

April 19

Just a little update on our travel plans as this month is coming to an end. We intend on spending the rest of this month in our apartment in La Serena, and than head to the Elqui Valley, a region in Chile just north/east of here. The Elqui Valley is known for having the clearest skies in the world, and is supposed to be a gorgeous place. We want to spend about 4 nights there and then spend the rest of the month making our way through the north of Chile (through the Atacama desert) and southern Peru, stopping along the way in a few cities for a few days at a time. We’ve not booked hostels or decided exactly which cities we’ll be staying in at this point. We are planning to arrive in Cusco for the 28th of May, so we can acclimatize ourselves before we begin our ascent into the Andes towards Machu Picchu on the 4th of June. We will fill everyone in on the details of our itinerary once we know for sure.

We are looking forward to a tour we’ve booked for this Thursday, April 22! We’ll be going by boat to Isla Damas (an island just off of Chile) where we will spend the day sighting Penguins, Sea lions, and Dolphins. Should be pretty cool. The island looks really beautiful so we hope for nice weather!

Spanish fort.

Giant dead squid on beach!

This is a motorized car, way cooler than power wheels!! This kid drove back and forth on the beach for like 3 hours and made all the kids on bikes very jealous!

April 12th

Today we went downtown again and found this really cool army base camp (an old Spanish fort), one of the few tourist attractions in la serena. There were some cool looking tanks, cannons, and monuments, but the best part was a gazebo from which we could see all of downtown la serena and all the way to the beach (as the army base is situated on a very large hill, the very outskirts of the Andes). A gorgeous view! We’ve been told that the core of the city is packed with churches on every block, and it was certainly evident from that elevation, and it was really cool to see the church steeples peaking up everywhere in amongst the city. The downtown core is completely void of any high rises, by the way, with the tallest buildings being about 5 stories high. We found a cafe and decided to have a coffee, and discovered that the cafe we picked is apparently a tourist hotspot. It was jam packed full of North Americans (all of them seniors pretty much), and throughout the day we saw a lot of large tour groups parading through the city as well. We were surprised, as we haven’t seen many tourists at all since we’ve arrived.

Cathy (Trevor’s Aunt) asked an interesting question about how expensive the food was.  A typical dinner would usually be between 3,000 pesos (6$) for something like a burger, pizza or sandwich and as much as 7,500 ($15) for that fish, prawn, crab, oyster and cheese plate that we raved about before.  One nice thing is that there is no sales tax and a customary tip for good service would only be 10%.  For drinks it is usually around 1,000 pesos (2$) for a beer coke or our espresso’s (spelt expresso here). It is usually about  2,500 ($5) for a pisco sour.

All is going well and our trip has so far been a big adventure yet very relaxing! We’ve become regulars at a little cafe/bar across the street from our apartment, and go there to have tasty espresso on the beach every couple of days. Other than that we spend our time going downtown or to the mall/grocery store, enjoying Chilean wine, reading or playing cards on our patio, going out to dinner and getting a taste of la Serena’s “mariscos” (seafood), and going for super long walks along the beach. Two days ago we found a gigantic sea lion washed up on shore, which was kind of gross but really interesting! 

 Cool Clouds! Crazy dead fish on Beach

April 8th

We woke up today to our fifth incredibly minor earthquake, this one was the largest so far, although it might just seem that way being on the 9th floor.  The first two we’ve had Megan and i just sat looking at each other dumb founded at what was happening, this time we actually ran to a doorway arch. The weather is cloudy again this morning but that is very typical, it is usually cloudy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon.  We’ve been here just over two weeks now and are starting to make some impressions; firstly i think both of us have been surprised with the food, i think ignorantly of us we expected to be eating Mexican food.  Instead we have been eating almost the same as at home except for empanadas which are everywhere, and the menus at restaurants consist mainly of seafood.  We were warned about the dogs but it has still surprised us just how many there are everywhere.  I’ve also been surprised that people dress so similarly to the way people do at home, lots of the time the same name brands.  Another similarity would be the music, almost everywhere we go from restaurants to buses to the mall or in people’s cars they play north american music, i would have never guessed that i would have heard this much beatles, pink floyd and bob marley.  Culturally things are a bit different, for one thing when you finish a meal at a restaurant they never bring you the bill, instead it is up to you to decide when you want it, in fact they rarely even come to your table. They allow you to have peace and are always on hand but you have to make eye contact or wave them to come.  The bus was a bit scary, the bus driver opens the door way before he stops and doesn't close the door right away either. The shopping mall, grocery store and downtown core are all pretty much the same as every other city. One main difference is that they don’t really recycle here, only some glass bottles that you have to return to the store that you purchased them from. It was really confusing at first when one woman refused to sell us beer until we returned the bottles she sold to us last time.

Xen Garden

 

There is a Japanese garden next to downtown la serena, very tranquil.

Busride to La Serena

La vida la serena

Our apartment! My dream come true.. Harry potter in Spanish!

The cultural landmark of Coquimbo, the twin city of La Serena.

Kids playing futball on the beach.

The tourist landmark of La Serena. Someone forgot their teeth.

Trevor’s awesome artisticality