La Serena

Day 1 – Another Long Coach Journey

Once again, it was a very early start as we had to get to the coach station by 8am, this meant that we had to miss breakfast.  There was no one at reception to book a taxi with so we started to drag our bags down the street, we checked the funicular but this still wasn’t operating.  The upshot of this meant we had a long walk down to the bottom of the hill, at least it was downhill which we hoped we wouldn’t encounter any dogs that took offence to our wheelie bags!

 

At the bottom, we searched the streets for a taxi without much success. In the end, Shell and I split up on two separate streets and eventually Shell managed to flag down a pretty miserable cab driver.  It was only a 15-minute ride but we were pretty glad we did it as we passed through a packed pretty dodgy looking fruit market with mean looking men along the way.

At the coach station, we had some time to kill so we grabbed a coffee whilst we anxiously tried to work out which coach would be ours.  We thought we had done something clever by getting the windows seats on the top deck of the coach. Because it was a whole day on the bus, we thought we would be able to have a good view of the scenery along the way.  However , when we boarded and took our seats we found that the windscreen was completely covered in advertising transfers which obliterated the view.

Never mind as it was going to be an 8 hour journey (Chile has the longest coastline in the world) I thought it was the ideal opportunity to catch up with some blogging whilst Shell did some research.  It was a good idea until after an hour or so of trying to get the laptop to fire up and it repeatedly freezing I realised that the PC had given up the ghost. Yet another bit of tech that was failing (we’re now getting fed up with niggly problems) (more Glenn than Shel!).  So, we had no other option to read and try and get some rest during the journey.

We tried to enjoy what scenery we could see and late in the afternoon we found ourselves arriving in La Serena which is famous for being Chile’s 2^nd oldest city and It’s Pisco vineyards and international observatories for stargazing.  Also, apparently, the top place in the world for UFO sightings!!

At the coach station before heading for our accommodation, we thought we would book our onward travel for when we left La Serena which was easier said than done as we were not trying to book a coach from La Serena but from the next town where we were initially flying to. After a short while we eventually got ourselves understood and managed to get the tickets we wanted.

From the coach station, we then had a bit of a uphill walk for about ½ mile until we found our hostel for the next two nights.  Check-in took a bit longer than normal as they still hadn’t cleaned our room, but ½ later we had got into our room which wasn’t too bad and locked up our bags and were heading back out.

On the way, we stopped at reception where we were able to book a day tour for the following day, before heading out into town to find a bar.  We walked around for quite a while, the town was quite characterful but it seemed to have a lack of pavement bars, in the end we had to settle to sit outside a pizza restaurant to get a drink.

 

Whilst we sat outside the pizza restaurant we took the time to do a bit of internet research to find where the bars were hiding.  We were in luck as we soon found a bar that was around the corner that was cheap and very popular with the student population of the town.

After a couple of diversions, we found the bar, which looked non-descript from the outside, but as you entered it was a nice little courtyard full of locals that was playing some pretty good music.  So we found ourselves a seat and had a few drinks whilst we decided on what our dining options were for the evening.

 

In the end, we thought we would chance a little café/restaurant that we had spotted on the way to the bar, however when we got there we found it to be closed.  We looked around for a bit and found a large parilla restaurant where we ordered the bar-be-qued meat (which the waiter up-sold us) and a bottle of red.

As had happened before,  a huge mound of meat turned up and between us we struggled to eat it all, but we did manage to finish the nice bottle of red before returning to the hostel to turn in for the night.

Day 2 – Pisco Tour

It was again another early start but at least we managed to grab a bit of breakfast as it was a buffet style affair that we could help ourselves to and it wasn’t too bad (no eggs though).

We waited in reception for a while before we were picked up by a mini-bus and on boarding it we were surprised to see Stephanie, the French lady we had met on the Valparaiso walking tour was aboard to.

Driving up the road for a short while we then stopped and the driver/guide got us all out where we had to do a little introduction to the whole group, which I managed to do with the little Spanish I have.  Once again,  we were vastly outnumbered by the local tourists on-board, but at least we had Stephanie to chat to, who had excellent English.

Boarding again and driving down the road for 15 minutes we then had our first stop which was at a mango plantation which had various mango related products.  After a little tasting session, we then got chatting Stephanie for a bit, which was good as we were stopped for 30 minutes and there is a limit to how interesting mango’s are!

It was fairly overcast as we entered the Elqui Valley proper, but our guide assured us that when we passed a certain point the weather would completely change. In the valley it was very interesting as the guide pointed out that all the fields were irrigated from the river that ran through it. Done by a maze of rubber tubing with little holes in them.  The range of produce was incredible from any vegetable you could think of, to all the fruits including vineyards.

As we progressed through the valley as promised the weather completely changed and we were soon bathed in blazing sunshine.  The next stop on the tour was a very large dam which was constructed to control the run off from the mountains so they could control the river flow to ensure that it didn’t dry out and the fields were irrigated all year round.  We stopped here for another ½ an hour where we walked along the dam so we could take some pictures, but it was very windy there so after a few snaps Shell and I headed back to the minibus where we waited for the rest of the group.

 

The next stop on our itinerary was the primary village in the region where we stopped for about 45 minutes.  We walked around the square for a bit, where there was yet another government pay protest going on, before finding a little restaurant nearby where we had a cold drink.  Whilst we sat there Stephanie joined us as she had the same idea.

Heading off again we drove through the valley where the guide pointed out a few of the Nasa observatories before heading into another valley.  Halfway through the valley the guide headed up a small rocky track where he stopped at a viewpoint so we could take some pictures of the valley and the multi-coloured mountain slopes.

From here we then drove further through the valley passing through some very picturesque small Chilean villages.  After about another hour we stopped at what was billed to be the highlight of the tour which was the oldest Pisco manufacturers in Chile.

Pisco is the local spirit which Chile is famous for (but it is actually Peruvian in origin) and is a type of brandy. 

We waited around in the distiller’s courtyard for a while before the guide took us through the distillery and talked us through the distillery process. We learned a few things, however it wasn’t the most interesting of attractions.  The most interesting thing was that one of the original owners had built himself a little bar in the cellars where when he returned from foreign trips he invited his friend to indulge in his produce.  Also,  being somewhat as a poet he had poems (some complimentary/some not) which he had written about his drinking partners adorned on the walls.

It was time for what we all had been waiting for, which was the actual Pisco tasting.  We were all given small shots to try, the first one being the raw Pisco spirit, which actually tasted to me like tequila, not that great.  After this we were then given a shot of the Pisco wine, which was much better and reminded me of a sort of Sherry/Port.

Next up was lunch in a quaint little village and we were shown to quite a large restaurant where we were treated to a traditional three course Chilean meal.  It was nice because we were given options for each course and whilst we ate there was a traditional Chilean band playing.

After lunch, we were given another ½ hour to have a look around the village which had a very quaint little church and square and a somewhat touristy craft market nearby.  As it was very hot by now, Shell and I walked around for a bit taking a few photos and accidentally gate crashing a wake in the church, before finding some shade in the square whilst we waited for the minibus to pick us up again.

It was now time to return to La Serena and although the tour did not have that many great attractions (we’re a bit spoilt by now) the guide more than made up for it with his enthusiasm and giving us a lot of interesting information along the way.  It was also nice to catch up with Stephanie and get to know her better.

It was early evening by the time we got back so we headed to the bar from the previous night to have a few drinks before turning in for the night.