Mini-Vacation to La Serena!

Hi everyone!

It's been a few weeks since my last post (no, I have not dropped off the face of the earth), and I've been on more adventures! I finished my schoolwork and exams about two weeks earlier than the end of the semester in order to be able to travel, and let's just say that I needed a vacation... school in another country and another language is pretty mentally trying. So I traveled northward in Chile, farther than I've ever been thus far --- La Serena, a coastal town about six hours north of Santiago.

Waiting at the bus station in
Santiago with Kristin,
Hayley, and Emily

I left with the other three girls from Grand Valley studying in Chillán --- Hayley, Kristin, and Emily --- at 5 am Monday and we arrived in La Serena around 8 pm; talk about a lot of bus travel. We spent the rest of the night relaxing after our loooong journey and planned what else we wanted to do during our short stay in the city. 

Me with the La Serena sign

On Tuesday we signed up for a tour of la Valle de Elqui, an area that produces a lot of wine and pisco, and also for an evening at a makeshift observatory because the actual observatories were on strike --- a common occurrence in Chile. Then the four of us explored the city a little.  

The Courts of Justice, the Archdiocese,
and the Cathedral 

La Serena is the second oldest city in Chile after the capital Santiago and was founded in the mid 1500s; for this reason, the city has a distinctly colonial feel in its format, architecture, and general flavor. Some of the buildings that we saw during our excursion have been around since the early years of the city and emphasize the colonial aspect of La Serena. After exploring, we spent the rest of the afternoon browsing through the city's markets and shopping.

Cacti everywhere!

In the evening, we journeyed to the vineyard where our observatory evening was to be situated. We passed through the Precordillera, or the pre-mountains, of the Andes and made it to the vineyard after about an hour of driving. I loved seeing the mountains closer than I had before, and also seeing all of the cacti blanketing the hills and mountains surrounding us. 

Red at night, sailor's delight

Upon our arrival, however, we discovered that it was too cloudy there to see stars, unlike the clear skies over La Serena; we rescheduled to return the following night and had the opportunity to take pictures of the beautiful red sunset over the mountains and vineyard, which was utterly spectacular.

Kristin, Emily, and me in the papaya forest

Wednesday we started off bright and early with our tour of the Valle de Elqui, or the Elqui Valley. First we went to a papaya plantation and learned about the growth and production of papaya products, and we also learned a little bit about the chirimoya, which wasn't in season during the time of our visit, unfortunately. We got to try some papaya products, though, which were really good. I'd never had real papaya before my semester in Chile, and I've discovered that it's a pretty delicious fruit.

Next, we once again entered the Precordillera and proceeded to Tranque Puclaro, an artificial lake created by a dam in the Elqui River. We walked along the dam so that we could see on both sides of the dam --- one side to the dry, populated part of the valley, the other side the lake nestled between the mountains. The area was utterly gorgeous; I just couldn't get enough of the rich blue-green color of the water against the deep hue of the mountains and the sparkle on the lake. 

On the dam

Cholla fruit!

After spending a little bit of time admiring the view, we headed back down to a handicraft fair at the edge of the dam to browse through the tourist trap items for sale. I got to try a little bit of Chilean cactus fruit, called cholla, which was actually quite tasty; it  was kind of like kiwi, though it did have some sugar added for extra flavor. I definitely wouldn't be opposed to having it again, though!

Church in Vicuña

We then traveled to Vicuña for a short while, which is the principal town in the Valle de Elqui. It was also the birthplace of Chile's famous Gabriela Mistral, the first and only Latin American woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature to date, and I'll discuss her a little more later in the post. We visited the main center of the town for a bit and visited a few of the shops, but since we only had a half-hour in the city we didn't explore too much.

After venturing further into the mountains, we had the opportunity to stop and take photos. It was incredible to see the lush green of the grape plants stretched out alone the imposing gray of the mountains, and I was thankful for a lovely day to enjoy the sunshine and beauty of Chile that surrounded me. 

GV girls

Me with the huge
barrels of pisco

The next stop on our tour was the oldest distillery in Chile, Los Nichos. Located in Pisco Elqui, the only place in the country where authentic pisco is manufactured. We learned about the distilling process, and toured the buildings. 

Nothing like being in an underground
wine crypt

Our guide told us about the history of the owners and showed us the underground quarters where the original owner kept his wine. Let's just say that he had a dark sense of humor --- he shaped the wine storage areas in the walls like crypts and had skeletons painted all over the walls, as well as statues of Roman and Greek goddesses of wine. Also, we got a few samples of pisco, wine, and, my favorite, pisco sour.

Boat graffiti

After lunch and exploring the town a little, we headed back to Monte Grande, a little town in the Valle de Elqui where Gabriela Mistral spent the first portion of her life. After Gabriela's father left she was only two, her mother moved to Monte Grande. Gabriela's older half-sister taught in the school there, the future poet lived and attended classes there until she was eleven. The schoolhouse where Gabriela lived with her mother and sister is now a little museum, and our tour group visited there for a short time to learn more about the writer. I will admit that I was a bit disappointed with the size and quality of the "museum", but since nothing monumental happened during her life there, and since Monte Grande is such a tiny, out-of-the-way town, I can understand why there was very little to see there. 

Telescope!

We returned to La Serena late in the afternoon with the tour group, and shortly after we turned right back around to head back to the vineyard from the previous night for our evening at the observatory. There was a brief presentation prior to the actual viewing of stars to give us some background information on astronomy and the history of astronomy in Chile, which is quite extensive. San Pedro de Atacama, a desert area in the northernmost portion of Chile, is the home of one of the largest telescopes in the world, but the area surrounding La Serena is pretty good for star-gazing on account of the mountains and lack of huge cities for light pollution. 

When night fell, our guide pointed out several constellations and let us look through the telescope at various star formations, all the while teaching us about the southern hemisphere's sky, which is different from that of the north. We learned the history of several constellations and how to find the southern axis, because there is no South Star, as opposed to the famous North Star. It was awesome to see so many stars above me in that remote area, and I loved learning about how certain formations got their names; I can even point out a couple of constellations in the southern sky now!
  

Lighthouse along the beach

After our late night at the observatory, we spent the late morning and early afternoon of our final day in La Serena at the beach. Although it wasn't nearly as warm, sunny, and beautiful on Thursday as it had been the previous two days, it was still marvelous to visit the Pacific Ocean again and just enjoy being on the beach; I don't think that I could ever get bored of watching the waves crash and topple over each other as they rush towards the shore. We splashed a little in the water (it was very cold, almost like Lake Superior but salty), enjoyed the brief moments of sunshine, and played and wrote in the sand. After a couple of hours, we ate lunch, then boarded our buses back to Chillán.


It was really great for me to take this mini-vacation, especially after the intense school stresses of the previous week. Now I look forward to my last big adventure of my semester abroad: I'm leaving for Peru on Thanksgiving Day, and Argentina after that! Stay tuned for posts about my adventures in these countries!



Thanks so much for reading! Sending my love from Chile!

Gail

In front of Tranque Puclaro

Kristin and me

Papaya plantation

So many yummy papaya products!

The dry side of the dam

Me on the dam

Valparaíso: My Favorite City So Far

Hey all! I'm super excited to tell you all about what I did in what is so far my favorite place that I've visited --- Valparaíso! Due to requests for a larger font, this post appears quite a bit longer than it is, plus pictures. Read on if you dare!

In the kitchen of our hostel

We took a bus from Santiago to the city on Wednesday and arrived in Valparaíso (val-par-eye-EEE-so --- Valpo for short) late afternoon. After making our way to where we were staying, La Nona Bed and Breakfast, we met the owner, René. He was absolutely awesome, honestly one of my favorite people that I've met in Chile. He spoke English fluently, and was extremely helpful with anything and everything that we needed during our stay. 

First view of the city!

After René gave us a thorough explanation of the city, including a bunch of recommendations and insider information, we decided to explore, mainly so that we could find food. We went to Fauna, a fantastic restaurant on Cerro Alegre (or "Happy Hill"), and afterwards we took some  pictures and explored a couple of the little shops on our road --- a pretty relaxing evening. Based on René's advice and our personal interests, we planned what we wanted to see and do during our time in the city.

With "Wally" (Lukas) in what once
was the house of one of the richest men
in Valparaíso during the Gold Rush era

The next morning we got up bright and early to take a behind-the-scenes tour of Valparaíso. The "Wally Tour," as it's called, was completely in English and our guide, who was dressed like Waldo from "Where's Waldo?" taught us a lot about the history of this beautiful city while showing us places a tourist would rarely think to go, such asone of the houses from Valpo's hey-day back during the Gold Rush, the Stock Exchange building, and an artisan shop run by members of Chile's largest native people, the Mapuches. Afterwards, we got lunch in a little restaurant with the rest of the people from our tour group, which, besides the four of us, consisted of two French guys and two British girls traveling through South America. 

One of the streets on our tour; I love the colors!

After eating, we all trekked together up one of the steepest and longest staircases that I've ever faced to explore Valparaíso's Museo de Cielo Abierto, which is an area filled with murals. This wasn't quite as exciting as we'd hoped, however, and we continued up the hill to Pablo Neruda's Valparaíso home. The French and British members of our group wanted to explore more of the city, so we parted ways and my group went into Neruda's house, La Sebastiana.

La Sebastiana

This house had even more of a maritime feel than La Chascona in Santiago; the house is even shaped like a boat, and all of the spaces were tight and narrow to mimic those of a ship. As in La Chascona, the eccentric writer's tastes and quirky sense of humor shine through, from the old carousel horse in the living room to the bathroom door filled with intricate holes, inviting only the most daring to use its porcelain potty. 

This is what Neruda would see from his living room

Neruda had a special love for Valpo and wrote a lot about it (English version). He spent a lot of time in this particular house in front of its bay windows writing from one of his favorite armchairs; I thought it was really neat that there are still green ink spots on the footstool of the writer. I can see why Neruda picked the location --- the view of Valparaíso from La Sebastiana's windows is incredible. Once again, we couldn't take pictures indoors, so here is a link to an image gallery from inside the house.

Graffiti of one artist's interpretation of Valparaíso

We ended our day's adventures by meandering through the streets of Valparaíso admiring the colors, artwork, and graffiti for which the city is famous. Our tour guide had explained to us that many people welcome, encourage, and sometimes pay for the graffiti because it helps to prevent "taggers," or those people who spray paint their names and/or messages wherever they can reach, from putting their ugly writing all over --- when there's an interesting or pretty picture on a wall, it's less likely that the taggers will mess with that area. 

We even saw an artist at work!

Some of the artwork was very beautiful, detailed, and intricate, and made me wish that I had even a touch of artistic ability; others... not so much. But all of the graffiti, good and bad, added to the bold flavor and personality of this city that I loved so much.

My favorite graffiti that we encountered on our excursions

On Friday we started our day by visiting one of Valparaíso's three cemeteries. We visited one of the Catholic cemeteries that overlooks the ocean, El Cementerio Playa Ancha, We were accompanied by one of the security guards, who told us about the history of the burial grounds, how the plot process works, and a couple of the urban legends related to the cemetery. For example, supposedly there's a ghost attached to the cemetery. Émile Dubois is supposedly the Chilean version of Robin Hood, and after he was murdered it is said that his ghost took up residence in the cemetery and can be seen on occasion. His spirit has almost reached saint status, and there's even a portion of the cemetery with a "grave" for Dubois (his body was never recovered) and people pray to him, ask for favors, and thank him for "taking care" of them by leaving gifts at the gravesite. 

The story behind this tomb is that the man made a pact with the devil to be successful in his life, and that when he died if he touched the earth, he would go to Hell. So, he found a loophole --- he had his coffin put on lion's feet above the earth.

Me, Hayley, Jen, Jackie, and Sarinah on our boat tour

After our excursion to the cemetery, we did a little bit of shopping, had lunch, and went for an ice cream dessert in the center of town. There we met up with Sarinah, an Australian girl our age who works at La Nona, and she wandered the city with us. We took a boat tour in Valparaíso's bay and got to see what that sailors entering the harbor for the first time saw: hillsides covered with bright, colorful houses and rows of boats anchored just off the shore. It was so pretty, and I only wished that it had been sunnier so that the colors would have been even more vivid and vibrant. After, we went to the city's food market, which was much bigger than any I'd seen before (sooooo many fresh fruits and veggies!), then returned to La Nona to make homemade pisco sours --- still my favorite drink that I've discovered in Chile.

Our group pre-ride!

Saturday was quite the adventure for me. We had been hoping to do a horseback ride along the beach during the full moon of that night with René and his friend who does horse excursions, but there weren't enough people signed up for the evening ride; instead, we went for a half-day ride starting in the morning. We were joined by about 25 other American and German students studying in Viña del Mar, the sister city of Valparaíso, so our group was quite large. 

I had been quite nervous about the ride because I hadn't ridden in probably over a decade (thankfully, my horse was extremely calm and patient with novice-rider me), but I'm so glad that we went. The ride was beautiful as we went up and down sand dunes and along the beach. Viña and Valpo looked just as gorgeous from far away as they were up close, and I will never forget the experience. I'd really like to go back and do it again someday --- after I've gotten better at riding, of course.

The city from afar

Cooking the meat

In the mid-afternoon after the ride, we stayed at the ranch for a traditional asado, or backyard barbecue. We started off with choripán, which is a type of sausage on freshly-toasted buns and is the staple appetizer for every asado that I've attended... nomnomnom, one of my favorites. We also had thin-cut steak, lettuce and tomato salad, rice, shredded carrots and beets, a Chilean version of potato salad, and, of course, Chilean wine and pisco sour. 

With René during the asado

We ate until we were stuffed, and while we digested we just took in the atmosphere. I'd never been to the Chilean campo, or countryside, before, and I really enjoyed seeing how the lifestyle was different there than in Chilean cities: chickens running underfoot, cats and dogs begging for scraps, grill smoke filling the air, and children practicing shooting guns with their grandpa --- in other words, not quite what you'd see in an urban area. After the asado, we headed back to Valpo to rest, make last-minute purchases, and prepare for our journey back to Chillán.

Catching horses with lassos

I really really REALLY liked Valparaíso: the colors, the artwork, the ocean, the Bohemian culture that is so unlike the Chilean culture that I've seen, everything. I'd love to go back just to explore some more, even though there's nothing specific that I want to see... I guess I'll just have to see what the future holds. From what I have seen, however, I feel like this is one city that I could spend quite a bit of time in --- maybe even live in it :O Again, I'll have to see what the future holds and what God has in store for me!


Thanks for reading! I hope that you enjoyed! Until my next adventure...

Love,

Gail

"Welcome aboard!"

Such colorful houses

I love this picture for its colors

The artists are super creative in Valpo

La Armada de Chile is situated in Valparaíso

Little Red Riding Hood!

Fun Fact: The houses are all painted different colors because
when boats would come into Valpo, they would need to be
repainted, and the leftover paint was used to cover the
houses to protect them from the elements. No two houses
have the same color scheme... Cool, huh?

Lizard

So detailed