La Serena

           Last week we didn't have school on Thursday and since we never have classes on Fridays it was a long weekend just tempting us for travel. On Thursday Murphy, Logan, Paul and I decided to buy bus tickets to go to La Serena. We had looked online at purchasing tickets and thought we were doing well until it wouldn't let us complete the purchase. I tried calling the bus company too and that proved to be a good idea that had no promise of an answer. Papa said they're no good at answering phone calls or emails, typical Chile once again.  So we went to the bus terminal and purchased our tickets for the 11:30pm 7 hour bus to La Serena.  We hopped on the bus that night and the boys quickly passed out while I was awake and anxious as there were a bunch of guys eating potato chips, speaking incredibly fast spanish and pointing at us at one point. The boys had a great night sleep and I got to look out the window and enjoy the stars. When we arrived in La Serena we didn't have anything to do. With no hostels, restaurants or shops open we decided there was only one place to go so we grabbed a cab and said "la playa por favor" (the beach please). I can only imagine his thought as he dropped off 4 gringos at the beach at 6:30am on a Friday morning. Eventually we did stay at Hostal El Punto. We enjoyed $4 cups of hot chocolate in a little cafe after being followed for several blocks by at least 10 dogs.  The locals found this hysterical while we definitely did not. We took a nice nap in our hostel and then were refreshed for the night. We were so excited to cook our own food that night so we bought a rotisserie chicken, pasta, salad stuff, bread, carrots and drinks. We were unpleasantly surprised when the kitchen worker at the hostel had other ideas for us than to let us boil a pot of pasta. We feasted on the chicken, carrots and bread and got by all right.  We played Pirates/liars dice and cards for a few hours nestled next to a tiny fireplace while listening to oldies music. That night we treated the locals to one of Paul's favorite Creed songs at karaoke "Higher".  We got a solid round of applause, but maybe that was because they were so excited to have us be finished! Those of you who know my incredibly awful singing ability imagine combining that with 2 boys and a Creed song, ya yikes! After that bar we stumbled upon a Rock n Roll bar and were extremely out of place almost immediately being the only people not dressed completely in black with skulls on our shirts. The idea of Rock n Roll music sounds nice until it is like death metal music videos turned up extremely loud. We left there pretty quickly. The next day we slept in and were told that breakfast went till 11:30 so we woke up before breakfast only to find out that breakfast is only served until 10:30. This hostel really just wanted us to have to go out and support other restaurants I guess. We spent the remainder of the day taking a dirty public bus with 2 drunk men to the nearest port town, Coquimbo.  It was a really cloudy, cold day so we didn't spend much time walking around the fish market and town park.  We revisited the grocery store and bought another rotisserie chicken, cheese and meat, rolls and ingredients for guac....it was a great feast.

Coquimbo port

         This night at the hostel we were all together in what we affectionately called "The Penthouse" because it had 5 beds plus a couch and a little table. This was the perfect setting for the next 9 hours of dinner, cards and dice, singing and quality debates about the legalization of marijuana in the US as countries in South America are considering legalizing it.  Sunday

Elqui Valley

Pisco Factory 

we had to be up at 8am for a tour so we definitely didn't miss breakfast! We went with a tour company to the Elqui Valley. We toured a museum, church, Pisco factory (the drink of the country. it's made from grapes but sort of similar to vodka), and went to the city of Vicuña. The valley reminded me of Western Idaho/Eastern Oregon. Pretty desolate with brown hills and little vegetation, but still beautiful.  Tens of thousands of grape vines covered the sunny valley.  We stayed in Vicuña instead of coming back to La Serena with the tour in hopes of going to the observatory that night. We found the only tour company for the observatory and were there 3 minutes before their schedule said they would return from their lunch break. In true Chilean fashion it was 45 minutes before they returned. We passed the time by flicking a bottle cap to each other across the street and using it like a football. After purchasing our tickets we still had 2 hours to kill. Vicuña is a small town and nothing was open because it was Sunday. We sat on a park bench eating peanuts and pringles and laughed and tried to solve Murphy's complex riddles.  Finally we arrived at Mamalluca Observatory and it was awesome! It's about 1000m above sea level in the Elqui Valley. The four of us had a telescope all to ourselves with our "aficiando" (fan of outer space).  Through the telescope we could see Saturn's rings and moons, Venus and the craters on the moon! It was almost a full moon so the sky was pretty light making it hard to see many stars but it was incredible.  Our aficiando responded without a doubt "YES" when asked "is there extraterrestrial life?" Interesting. He had an awesome green laser pointer that he could use to point out constellations, not available for use in the USA! We had a great time playing with it though.  I absolutely love looking at the stars and night sky in general. You can let your imagination run wild and take you to a completely different place. We made it back to the hostel on a bus and enjoyed a dinner of crackers and peanut butter. We departed La Serena on Monday at noon.  It was such a fun little excursion. These boys are characters who love adventure, quoting movies, and being kids. I'm thankful they'll always be here to protect me and make me laugh (and snort)! 

The moon through the telescope