Mistral Coquimbo

... is that cigarrettes are expensive here and you can tell right away that the government believes that they know better than their citizens and they need to control everyone. Every pack of cigarettes has this picture of a poor old guy with respirator tubes up his nose and in big letters it says "tobacco kills - every year 16,000 people die from tobacco - you can be next. If you want to live, quit smoking" I ...

... climbed the hill neighborhoods and reached the Cruz del Tercer Milenio, this huge concrete cross statue and chapel that overlooks the bay. I rode an elevator to the top and could see the Pacific and the distant snow capped mountains. On the way back I tried to get cookies at a bakery but they didn´t have change for my 10,000 peso bill. It´s only worth $20, so they must keep very little change on hand. Lots of times I´ve had difficulties paying with ...

... by both of us! Dinner proved to be a bit more complex, as I was unsure how safe our neighbourhood is at night, so we settled for food court food, although on our last night we had 'once' at a little cafe called Matias. Their menu consisted of a chicken sandwich, a tea, an apricot nectar, two scoops of ice cream and a slice of cake for $2900 ($7.50). Bargain! For those who are curious to know, no, we didn't starve in La Serena. The hostel also comes with a little bar ...

... chilling out with nice food and good wine, and our own tv! Pure luxury! On New Years Eve we wanted to go out for dinner but we found ourselves faced with the same problem as Christmas Eve - nowhere was open. We seemed to walk around for ages before we found a restaurant that was willing to stay open. It turned out to be a very good one though - chinese so we were happy wth that. We had a nice meal and a ...

... eaten i think. Our appetizer was razor clams covered in melted parmesean cheese and shrimp. It was delicious. We drove the short drive to Coquimbo along the beach road which was beautiful, all sea blues and greens. I couldn't believe my eyes. When we got to my sister's house we were all amazed at the beauty. It is gorgeous, made of clay and wood and very cozy. We all ...

... beds. Immediately I took a nap as I did not sleep that well in the bus. I woke up at about 12pm, took a shower, and then went into town. Seems like La Serena is quite a touristy town, with nice avenues, pedestrian streets and lots of hotels/hostels. It's Sunday, so most shops were closed. I went to ...

... de Elqui was definitely an interesting trip that I was happy to experience, but a memory will be sufficient for me. With it being so far away from Santiago and me not really being interested in camping, I don't see myself going back, especially when there's so much else to see and do while I'm here. All in all though, it was a successful first Dieciocho and now that I know a little more about the country, I look forward to many more interesting adventures!

... rdlich d** Stadt und Pisco Elqui das Tal in dem Pisco h**gestellt wird...so ne Art National Getränk hi** was die Chilenen von den P**uan**n geklaut haben...da die P**uan** ab** mit d** Z**tifizi**ung zu langsam waren und in d** Zeit ein Chilene ein Patent auf das Getränk angemeldet hat ist es seid jeh** ein chilenisches Getränk...gibt natu**lich steit drum!!! Ki**en und ich waren ca eine Woche hi** und was soll ich sagen es war mehr od** we***** die ganze ...

... we went up the Valle del Río Claro, which was very, very pretty. We went further up the valley to a teeny town called Pisco Elqui for lunch in a restaurant. The entrance to the restaurant was interesting. There was a very nice piece of furniture, with a sewing machine on it, which could not have been its original purpose. There is no way that sewing machine would be any ...

... tour). We did see penguins, dolphins and sea lions, but were in the area I would say for less than half an hour. It was very disappointing. But that all lay in the future. We arrived in Coquimbo at night. The town is dominated by an enormous concrete cross, apparently 83m high. It is quite pretty at night, but an ugly industrial looking eyesore during the day. After spending the some time wandering around a decidedly ...