Another charming port town
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2007
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63
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Trip End
Jun 25, 2008
Coquimbo,
Chile
Friday, March 14, 2008
We stayed in Coquimbo at Nomade Hostal, in a huge old house overlooking the harbour with two very rowdy, bitey but lovely dogs (I was convinced the younger one had some fox in him, he had such a narrow face, long tail and wild aspect).
After a rare sleep-in (bliss - who would have thought being on holiday would be such hard work) we wandered around town and watched the pelicans and sea lions in front of the fish market before taking a cheap hour cruise. It is a pretty coastline. On the Coquimbo side I like the look of the rough houses tucked into the hills
Coquimbo town
.After that we walked to the fort a 10-minute walk from the hostel just as the sun was going down.
There are lots of tours you can do in the area but we decided to go out to Reserva Nacional Pinguino de Humboldt, lured by the promise of seeing penguins, dolphins, sea lions, sea otters and seabirds such as coloured-footed boobies.
Bad idea. While we saw most of those things, the distance to the park meant we only got an hour or so looking at the animals and the guide didn't tell us anything we didn't know, though we were impressed that she was fluent in Spanish, English, French and German. We didn't see sea otters, which was the biggest draw card for us (turns out they are very shy so nearly no one sees them). In the trip's favour the beach we were dropped off at was gorgeous. The white sand made it look like the Caribbean but the cold water from the Humboldt current meant the similarity ended once a toe was in. Also, the late lunch of grilled fish (reineta) with a huge plate of vegetables was delicious and seeing dolphins is always a treat. Still, we would much rather have the NZ$70 each back in our pockets.
We stayed behind in La Serena after the tour and admired its pretty architecture and buzz (unusual for Chile) before heading back to our hostel in Coquimbo.
