La Serena
Hi ye,
We left Santiago on Tuesday afternoon after a really nice break in the city. After two hours, we got to the chaotic city of Valparaiso. It is the main commercial port of the country. Again a lady greated us at the bus station and offered us to stay in her house. One shabby building with dirty walls. The funny thing about all these places is that people prefer to have a cable tv rather than getting fresh paint to clear up their walls. Just another cultural difference I suppose.
We spent the following day (22/11/06) visiting Valparaiso and its open air museum, took the Conception Hill lift and just wandered about the streets to Pablo Neruda´s house. We had bought tickets for La Serena and the bus was not leaving before 10:20pm. Because we felft so down on Tuesday night, we thought Wednesday would be one of these long days but we just wanted to save some cash by taking a night bus. However the day went very fast. We even decided to treat ourselves in the evening, away from the dirt cheap food and went for a proper pizza. The waiter was so kind to us. We only asked for things they didn´t have as simple as water. He went out and got us a bottle of water. At the end of the meal, I asked for a chocolate pizza as a desert. Never heard of it. So we decided to go for a second row and have a salty pizza. In the meantime, the waiter had gone out and 10 minutes later, here we were eating our chocolate pizza!! That was a first for his restaurant. Maybe they will be come millionaires thanks to us... ! Then we got on the bus and had one of these long nights swifting positions trying to straighten our legs and back.
La Serena is 7 hours North from Santiago and is supposed to be one of the most popular beach resorts in Chile. We had met one couple back in Pucon who told us they had been there just to enjoy the sun and the pacific ocean.... We got to the city at 6:00am and were lucky enough to find one guy offering us a room. We went straight to bed and then went for a walk in the afternoon. We had everything on: bathing suit, sunblock, sunglasses. The wind was blowing so strong that as soon as we got near to the shoreline we just had to back off... Today the weather is the same. So I think we gonna head off to Argentina by tomorrow. Cheerio.