La Serena Trip

I woke up on Thursday morning eager to get moving. I packed my bags while listening to Salsa music. I ran to the store to get some food for the road, since I knew I had a long bus trip ahead of me. I was ready to go before noon, so I walked out the front door and flagged down the first bus to Santiago that I saw. It was a Jet Sur bus...very comfortable. And, they played salsa music the whole way! ha!

When I arrived in Santiago, I called Leslie, the other volunteer that I was going to La Serena with. We agreed to meet downtown on the ¨shoe street¨. Literally, this street is a string of shoe stores. It is really unbelievable. I don´t think I have ever seen so many shoes in my life. AND, I have never seen so many shoes in my life that I cannot wear! Can you believe that my 9 1/2 shoes size is very rare and incredibly hard to find.In euro sizes I am 41 and sizes here generally stop at 39 or sometimes 40. But, I wanted to find a dress sandal, since I have a dress here and because it is starting to get hot...it might be nice to wear it, since it is a whole lot cooler! Thank God I am a woman! But, I didn´t find any shoes, even after the guy at the store hiked to another store to see if they had a shoe in my size.

**On a side note...they have alot of colored shoes, heels, for women here and I swear for every colored shoe they sell...they have a matching handbag to go with the shoes...cross marketing technique used in just about every shoe store. Pink, purple, turquoise, green, yellow, red, blue....so many colors! I am not sure what the styles have changed to in the US since I have been gone...but we have a whole lotta 80´s going on here! Yikes!**

So, I met up with Leslie and we checked out some stores. Then, she had to go to work for a couple of hours, which was when I went to go catch up on email and blogging....

I met up with Leslie and some other women she works with and we went to an apartment of one of the other women. She and her boyfriend have a really interesting apartment. It is a giant cement block, studio-type, two story, apartment with a huge window that starts at the second story level and runs to the floor of the first floor...so the upstairs is a balcony. In the apartment..it is literally cement walls. There is a small kitchen area. The only thing that comes with the apartment is an oven...the rest of the appliances and furniture (of course) is there responsibility....even the Fridge!

After visiting the apartment and picking up her boyfriend we went to a nearby bar for a beer and a little something to eat before we left. Our bus wasn´t leaving until 11:30pm. Well, in the midst of conversation, someone else said we could catch the 11:45 bus at a closer station. WHY I figured they knew the us system, I don´t know. We left the bar with packs and all...Gustavo, the boyfriend (who is absolutely funny) decided to walk us to the station because he wanted to make sure we found it....and, as he later admitted, he didn´t think there was a later bus so he wanted to make sure we were ok. Well, there wasn´t a bus, so we crashed on the floor of the apartment we had visited earlier and headed out early in the morning.

I cannot say I was mad we had missed the bus. Sure, we lost a day, seeing how it was an 8 hours bus ride, but I got to actually see the terrain as we traveled. It is always weird to know you are on the bus in the middle of the night and all of the sudden you are somewhere completely different and you wonder what you missed.

On the bus, they played a couple of movies and we made one pit stop, where we could get a coffee and snack. AND, of course, use the bathroom. As we got closer to La Serena, the little girls in front of us were getting restless, so they started playing peek-a-boo games with me. Then, one of them, who was aout 6 years old, asked me why I spoke English. I said because it is my language. Then I asked her, why do you speak Spanish? She says, because it is intelligent. ha ha! I laughed for quite a while on that one!

We finally arrived to La Serena. The bus terminal was the cleanest terminal I have ever been too. Knowing this, I was better assured that maybe the hostel close to the terminal wouldn´t be so bad. (I start to wonder about the quality and safety when they are near the bus terminal). The hostel was about a 5 minute walk. Leslie had found it on line. The hostel is called Maria´s Casa. It is fabulous! Here is the link if you want to check it out http://www.hostalmariacasa.cl/index.html I highly recommend it!

When we arrived in La Serena it was about 5 o´clock. We dropped off our things at the hostel, had a cup of tea, then headed out to look around and find a meal. The whole feel of La Serena is completely different than the Santa Cruz area, or the south. Over a bit to eat, we decided to join the tour of teh Elqui Valley. So, we turned in early and woke up first thing in the morning.

We didn´t have reservations, so we walked over to the office, which of course was closed. But, there was a phone number on the sign, so I called to ask about the tour. Sure enough, they had room for two more. They picked us up at the hostel.

On our tour, we had people from Chile, from Australia, and Holland. Our guide, Gorge, was from Chile and he was bilingual, so it was nice. He took us first to see the papaya trees. I have to laugh, because when we got to this store where they sold papaya products, he ran in to ask if we could walk on the property. So, we walk along some chirimoya trees which were mostly dead looking because they had a harsh winter (too cold) so they were suffering. Then, he walks us to a field of artichoke. Then, as he is looking around, he is trying to find the papaya trees. He says...the papayas seem to have disappeared....as if over night they just *poof* when away! We all just laughed. Oh well.

We drove up the road a littl eways further and jorge took us to a look out spot and walked us up the hill a ways to see the cactus and other plants. Then, we got back in the van to see the dam. Then, we did a pisco tour...a smaller plant. Many of the processes are similar to wine making process, at least the first part. Surprisingly, the equipment and buildings weren´t near to the sanitary and upkeep level of the vineyards I have visited. The smashing of the grapes seemed to be less of a delicate process with pisco. The tanks the juice was sent to were huge stainless steel tanks, like with the wine, but they were enclosed in a huge cement cylinder to help with temperature control. I would be interested to see one of the bigger pisco companies plant for comparison. But, it was interesting to see.

The wine goes from the tanques to huge copper ovens where it is boiled at nearly 200 degrees. The alcohol is skimmed off the top, then the remaining is boiled again, and again, until the alcohol has been fully extracted. Then, it is put into the american oak, french oak, or a local tree barrel for a year to three years. Then, it is run into another tank where it is, I wanted to say filtered, but I think that is wrong to say...but it is somehow blended with distilled water then is bottled. I suppose they have to mix the alcohol with something to make it drinkable. After the tour, of course, they have the bottles you can buy. I bought a small one, just to share with the family here in Santa Cruz.

After the tour, we headed up the road to Elqui, which is an incredibly cute little town...very Spanish looking. We had lunch there at a nice little resturant. Lunch was empanadas, chicken and rice, and mote con huesillo (which is dehydrated peaches, stewed, in a syrup, and served with mote (which is barely...I think). We walked around a bit after lunch. Then, headed to Vicuña to see the house of Gabriel Mistral, a nobel prize winner of chile. She is a poet and is actually the second Chilean poet to recieve a nobel prize. The first, or the other one, was Pablo Neruda. I actually didn´t see whatever we were to see while we were there because I was so thirsty and more interested in finding water than walking up to her place. So, I stayed around the square and visited the church.

You know, now that I think about it...I don´t think that was the name of the town....it was something else. (I think i am losing my mind). Vicuña was a larger little town where we walked around and visited a little market. Huh....oops. I will have to think about that one. ha!

We returned to the hostel by 7pm. We had coffee and chatted with other guests at the hostel...people from Spain, France, Chile, and I think that was all...It was fun to hear where they had been.

What I wanted to do for day two was take the boat out to the island where there are peguins and dolphins. But, we decided to stick to budget friendly experiences. So, we walked around and saw the churches of La Serena. There was also a huge market a co-worker had told me to visit. Then, we went to the beach and the light house. Later that night, some guys had told me about there boat trip to the penguins. They said it was fun...but the penguins were just little guys and they didn´t see any dolphins. Then, they reminded me of the desert flowers that were blooming right now, which I am kicking myself for not thinking about until the night we were taking a bus back to our homes. There is a desert phenomenon that happens about every ten years, depending on the rain fall. This happens to be that time. argh! This is why it is good to read and plan ahead! Oh well...maybe I will see it on National Geographic someday. ha!

We took the night bus back to Santiago, arriving in Santiago at 6-6:30 am. From there, I took the metro to the other bus terminal where I got on a bus to Santa Cruz. The bus ride to Santa Cruz was interesting. We made more stops than I had ever had along this route, probably because people were going to work. We stopped in Rancagua for ten minutes, at which time I decided a coffee was necessary. The woman who sold me coffee was speaking English (lots of people like to practice there english). She asked me where I was from and I told her Minnesota. She then told me that she lived in Minnesota for a while and still had friends there. Go Figure! It´s a small world afterall!

I got back on the bus, we stopped in San Fernando. I fell asleep while we were waiting in San Fernando and woke up to the bus stopped on the side of the road, not running, and with a missing conductor. I looked around to see I wasn´t the only person on the bus...but was a bit uncertain as to why we were just pulled over. About 5 minutes later, the bus driver came back, along with his auxiliary person, and we were on our way again. Maybe they needed a coffee break?

I arrived in Santa Cruz at 9:30 ish. I decided to just stay home instead of going to school, since my day is pretty much over at noon on a monday. I cleaned up and went shopping for BBQ things. I prepared some things since the BBQ would be on Tuesday. By the time 7pm came around, I was completely tired and didn´t even go to Salsa class! I was in bed by 9pm.