Apart Hotel La Goleta La Serena

... to book well in advance) but it was really interesting. Things are spoilt somewhat by the National Geographic cos when you look at a nebulla thru a telescope its not in pretty colours!!! but did see 3 of jupìtors moons, is bands, a nebuall (think it as M42!!) and some constellations - taurus, Orion, the Subaru symbol!! Chile´s one of the 4 main observatory sites in the world. They even went so far to change all their street lighting in the region to ...

After our two days in San Pedro we head down to La Serena via Antofagasta... nothing much to report from Antofagasta apart from a haircut which tunred out to leave my hair much shorter than I had planned... my "mas corto" tunred out to be "mucho mucho mas corto".... I'll get used to it eventually... it's just hair!... we then take a night bus to La Serena.... and we get there around lunch time... our first afternoon there will be pretty chilled going to the beach and ...

... The words from the woman at the info center echoed through my head 15 000 people only 7000 beds. There is no way they are going to find a room tonight. I immediately offered the couple the spare double bed in our room. After a few minutes of consideration and negotiations with the hotel staff they accepted. Juan Carlos and his wife Jaqueline are from Columbia. Juan owns the largest motorcycle magazine in Columbia called de motos. He started his business 10 years ...

... to many times before on the trip, it was important for us to plan a little alone time, a little time apart to miss each other for a change. No matter how much you think you love each other, spending 24 hours a day together for long periods of time, with often no other company takes its toll and with no other release, tensions often begin to surface. The funny thing is that pressure is either released before it ...

... course, it was my own fault for not finding a way to escape, but my eyes simply glazed over and before you knew it, over 45 minutes had passed. He´s really a nice guy, just not someone I feel like chatting with for too long. He spends a lot of time on the internet, and is quite the wealth of knowledge when it comes to different cultures, and world politics. I was quite surprised to find out that he was only 31, because he looked more like he was 45 ...

... myself and i walked to some rocks on the other side where i saw a penguin just a few meters away from me, it was jumping from rock to rock and it just looked at me and carried on, it was amazing! On the way back to shore I also saw pelicans and sea otters along with many other sea birds which were cool and on the way back to La Serena thought the desert area I not only saw wild llamas but was able to ...

... down the beach. I felt like i was watching a movie. The sun began to set as we neared our destination, and I got to see my first west-coast sunset since I visited Cali in 2001. It was awesome. Since then (nearly a week ago) there has been a lot of activity, but mostly I chalk it up to getting settled in. Starting now, I'm going to be updating this info semi-regularly so it should be less patchy and closer to real time. Hasta pronto!!

... reached some sort of agreement and he stopped looking so worried! By the morning we were driving through the dessert where there is litterally nothing - it made the outback look abundant in flora and fauna! The sunrise made the hills look amazing as they went from blue to orange, the distance looked hazy (incorrectly giving the impression of heat) and the landsape appeared to be forming before your eyes as more hills would appear....it was truely sureal!

... living, on the street of Balmaceda. There I bought fish sauce, oister sauce, kaffir lime leaves, galangal ginger, lemon grass, coconut milk, noodles, curry paste and more! Then with some of that, I cooked some dishes for some friends here in La Serena, who had never tried Thai food. I don't think they'll try it again, either, because I was wanting to do so many different plates, and with the stress of it, it didn't really go quite as well as I had hoped. Buh!! :-(<br><br>There was SO ...

... I'd have to carry around in Antofagasta, La Serena and Quilpué would be my simple backpack. Oh yeah!<br><br>After that being done, I went to the bus terminal in Arica to check for trips to Antofagasta and from Antofagasta to La Serena. The ticket to Antofagasta was piece of cake to get hold of - even managed to get this fantastic First Class seat, but the tickets to La Serena were impossible to get. The First Class seat I got to Antofagasta is called Salon Cama, where you ...