Hotel Francisco De Aguirre La Serena

... be fair the beach was lovely and huge with lovely sand but there was just nothing there so we took the long boring walk back!

The next day we went on a tour to the Isla Damas to see penguins and sealions. It had to be one of the coldest days, I had on about 2 jumpers, scarf and my waterproof and was still freezing (although we have been told the next day was gorgoeus and sunny, hmm thanks for that...)!
However it ...

Maria's homemade pisco sour

Buy:
1lb lemons
1 egg
powdered and regular sugar
Pisco, preferably 40%

Squeeze the lemons to get 1/2 glass lemon juice. Put in a blender with about one tablespoon of egg white, about 4 tablespoon of powdered sugar, about one teaspoon of regular sugar, 12 ice cubes and 350 ml (1 1/2 C) Pisco. Serves 4.

... Apart from feeling like I had travelled across the world to enter a latino Australia, La Serena was actually pretty nice, a little too many happy couples for my liking on valentines day. But I did manage to find the nice big beach, with crashing waves and spend the day bodyboarding - on my own. However this seemed fitting as I had chosen to leave everyone and everything I knew to travel - I couldn´t expect to be giving roses to a lucky girl on that day.. and that was ok with me.

... persist and keep nipping at my wheels and heels, I glance over to Juan and Mike and they are getting back on the bikes. I blast past them and the dogs chase all three of us for a couple of seconds and then loose interest. I finally get my photo of the "city" and we head back to the hotel. We share more motorcycle conversations and beers. After a long hot day in the sun I go to bed early. January 13th We left for La Serena late this morning after saying good bye ...

... of dudes! I had swiped a copy of the magazine that American Airlines publishes for its passengers on our Dallas-Santiago flight, because it had articles in both Spanish and English - perfect for practice! There was an article about Finnish Saunas, and how there is an annual competition to see who can last the longest inside one. In a 110 degree Celsius sauna, somebody managed to last almost 9 minutes! How is this humanly possible?!!!!?!?? The ...

... s'està supertranquil. Ens recorrem al centre -down town- ja que no queda gaire lluny del nostre hostal. Fa una caloreta, i un solet! La majoria dels establiments estan tancats, doncs, anem una estona a un internet-cafè per buscar informació sobre futures excursions al sud de Xile -ja veureu més endavant- esperem que ho poguem fer-. Són les 6h! Hora de sopar!!! Ens trobem a l'hostal amb en Giovanni i la Sabine. Anem a donar una volta a la plaza de Armas, xerrem ...

... through the smog! Also the locals spend their week nights dancing in the square, and we got a particularly good view of some traditional dancing (think Morris dancing with hankies instead of the sticks) much more fun than Tango! So we're starting to move on a bit quicker now and left Santiago for Valparaiso the following day (according to the Lonely Planet, one of the best 5 cities in South America), but although it's a pretty cool place it's not ...

... take it easy´tend to suffer the most´considering i walk, talk and eat way too fat, and get too excited most of the time for my own good i probably will be having to be rushed straight to the nearest hospital to be chucked into a compression tank!! not to worry you guys, i´ll try my hardest to slow down lol anyway guys i have broken the seal and i am dying too go pee, no toilets here! Pray that i survive the extreme temperatures and altitude!!! Love you guys mucho!!! xxxx

... Anja wins a bingo game and have whiskey for everybody. As soon as we reach Puerto Montt we see the smoke from the volcano "Chaiten", 200 km south, so it´s time to leave this place for a more quiet one, La Serena. Alter another 12 hour or so by bus, we got here and relax a little bit. But we go on.......... // Menuda vuelta que hemos dado! Desde el ultimo capitulo hemos bajado hasta casi la punta del mapa de Sudamerica para luego remontar hasta La Serena, donde estamos ...

... cocktail mixed with mango juice. The place was intensely crowded, as full as it could possibly be and we could barely move, but as it got later, there was a little less people and a little more air to breath. We just got completely wasted - Rodrigo lost his cellphone, some had problems getting back home, including us, but Rodrigo, shattered after long day of drinking, used the last of his energy to call us and let us know where the car was - when we got there, he was fast ...