Costa Real Hotel La Serena

So we arrived in La Serena around 1pm, Decided to explore the town....it didnt take too long to decide that this was not somewhere we would stay for long. It is meant to be a beach town, so we decided to take a stroll to the beach. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly a stroll by any means but about 30 mins down one very long and boring road! When we got there we thought a nice coffee would help b4 the walk back, but it was deserted ...

... garden store, a mega home improvement store and mega supermarket.. And the people were all behaving like Australians, walking around slowly and dumbly with their shopping, mothers with horrible screaming spoilt kids, people eating too many burgers and ice creams and stacking on the kilos... In some ways it really felt like I had left all I was used to and entered a new kind of wild, a wild of parking lots, and mazda 3s and giant shopping trolleys and 20 different types of beer ...

... afternoon ! The three of us decide to drive into the desert and up on a hill to get a birds eye view of "DAKAR CITY."I lead the way as we ride through sand and loose gravel, four stray dogs start chasing me nipping at my heals. I keep going while Mike and Jaun stop to get their pictures of the city. One of the dogs latches onto my left foot as I am turning. His teeth digging deeper.I honk the horn and it must have scared him for a split second because he let go ...

... bit of legroom.. The level of service is quite high as well; there is a steward on board who is always collecting trash, and passing out pillows and blankets. You don´t even have to close your own curtains to block out the sun, because as soon as the steward sees the sun bothering you, he´ll rush over and close it for you. But still, I think the bus companies could improve their service by hiring girls like Macarena to be stewards on board ...

... noia de Salzburg (Àustria) anem cap a un hostal al centre. Aquesta vegada l'allotjament és molt econòmic però amb el bàsic que necessitem. Hem quedat amb en Giovanni i la Sabine per sopar tots plegats! Després d'un dinar informal i una dutxa calenta i llarga per treure'ns tota la pols que portem des de fa dies al poble de San Pedro, anem al centre de La Serena. És un poble prou maco, agradable de passejar... no hi ha gaire gent als carrers, suposo perquè és ...

... but Chile must take the prize for the biggest flag waving country we've been to for a while. Most homes have a flag, and at most major traffic light junctions there's at least a couple of people selling more flags ...and the aforementioned kites, Spiderman designs seemingly the most popular. Santiago was a really pretty city, at least compared to BuenosAires - much greener and surrounded by an amazing backdrop of snowy mountains, if you can see ...

... and c) probably any other sane person as its like -18 at night! so while sleeping in your warm beds at night please think of me! probably sleeping huddles with the rest of my gap group in 1 bed taking it in turns to sleep on the outside like penguins do to keep warm!!! Oh i forgot to mention that im goiong to be climbiong to the highest altitude of the trip in the next week, with 2500 m at the next place and up to 4000 meters in the desert! so i hear that those who ...

... we are told that there are no flights available to go north, so we think we have more buses to go north, but we met some Americans and they say that there is a ferry right here which goes to Puerto Montt, our preferred destination. Cristóbal from the hostal arranges everything and a few tour later we are on board for four days. We really enjoy the trip and see nice virgin places, spot some seals and even a couple of whales (maybe blue). We met nice people and the last ...

... to my good friend Noler, who has a pickup truck, whether he could maybe drive me over the mountains - it's just over 400 km crossing the Andes, as Villa Union is just on the other side, in an almost horizontal line from La Serena on a map. I'd pay the petrol and they'd stay at my place there, but I already had a house I was renting there. So me, Noler, his girlfriend Paula, and my friends Chino and Gulo left La Serena Friday 29th February and headed for the mountains. That's the next story.

... I went with Mariela, Paulina, Rodrigo, Claudio, Gonzalo, Noler, Chino and Ro, but there were loads of more people we knew and we had a GREAT time. Of course the white, innocent tourist (me!) was used, along with her (mines!) to smuggle all our booze in, and it worked like a charm. All of us grouped together, dancing around the bag of booze in the middle, bending down if we wanted a sip, a bag filled with 1 liter of Rum, 2 liters of Pisco, some beers, Coca Cola and a ...