spring break continued...

Day 3:

After a day on a deserted island and a free facial (wind+salt+salt water+sun+sand), we decided to have a somewhat more chill and inexpensive day and explore the town of La Serena and its neighboring city, Coquimbo (pronounced Cokeembo).

We slept in, showered, had a nice breakfast of bread and jam with hot tea as usal, and got ready to catch a bus to Coquimbo. As we were just about to leave, we met a really cool girl, Rebecca, who became another character on our trip- won't forget her. She's here in Chile to live and work, teaching English at a respectable institute in Santiago that basically teaches Chileans how to be North-Americanized. She travels alone and lives differently than we do because as she explained it, she is here to start her career and begin her adult life- we are here for one semester to see as much as we can and experience as much as possible in such a "short" period of time. I think we all learned a lot from her. As we were just about to leave for Coquimbo, Rebecca asked if she could join us, so she came along and stuck with us all day.

In Coquimbo, we got off the bus and saw some more neat artsy markets. The nice thing about jewelry-selling vendors here is that they REALLY make their stuff. They don't buy chains and string beads...they twist and mold the wire into a chain, cut beautiful rocks to fit the copper that they have hand-shaped into intricate designs, then put it all together to sell for relatively cheap prices. Also, its special to buy copper jewelry here in Chile since copper is a main export...THE main export that all Chileans are proud of.

From La Serena- a few miles away, you can see a huge cross on the top of one cerro(hill) in Coquimbo. We climbed that cerro, from bottom to top, and reached the gigantic Cruce Milenio III. It was really cool and we had a great outlook over both Coquimbo and La Serena from the top of the cerro.

HUGE.

After the cross- we walked back down the cerro, stopped for lunch in the fish market, and made our way back to La Serena.

view from the top.

Interesting thing about restaurants in general: The restaurant has workers who stand outside and FORCE you into their place. Literally, they grab you and try to make you eat there. In the case of the fish market, this woman probably would not have let us say no. She took us to our table and sat us down, recited a special and mothing else, and that was it. We weren't even that hungry but you know- we might as well eat as much seafood as we can while we're here. Although....as much as I like seafood I DESPISE the seafood soup they love here. Its awful- like someone took a net and scooped out whatever swam in they could then boiled and served it. Lauren ordered some (not intentionally, I don't think). I steared clear and just ordered a shrimp empanada....it was alright.

Back in La Serena we stopped for some coffee (Cafe Helado- coffee and ice cream YUM) and walked around through more artesenia markets. We found the nicest, most genuinely talented lady selling jewelry...she was making something when we walked up to her stand. She didn't try to force us to buy anything, just explained how everything was made by her from start to finish- each earring or bracelet or ring completely unique. I wanted a bracelet but they weren't just the right size. Lauren got some really pretty turquoise earrings :) That was cool- she was another character who I think we both learned from, hard to explain.

Later, we talked for hours about lots of things then went to bed exhausted yet again but looking forward to the next day...bike riding through the Andes!

Day 4:

We woke up at the crack of dawn, literally. By 7:00 we were walking towards the bus station in our workout attire, ready to take on the Andes via mountain bike. Our bus ride was cool- we rode through grape-growing-paradise in the valleys of the mountains...I've never seen anything like that before. Rows and rows and rows or carefully aligned plants- what a tedious task it must be to take care of.

Two hours later we were in Elqui Valley where we quickly were paired with bikes and fitted into helmets. Before we knew it we were in the van riding up into the mountains...the ride was much longer than I expected it would be...IT WAS A LOOOOOOOOOONG BIKE RIDE!

....but probably one of the coolest things I'll ever do in my whole life. The van driver left and the four of us (Lauren, Nicole, Ahzha, y yo) took our time on the dirt roads. It was kind of scary at times- my tired were a little skiddy but I never fell (yes!). We went down near the river that runs through the valley, rode through a pueblo or two, saw a REAL cowboy hearding horses, bought some raisins from the coolest little dried fruit place, and finally made it back to the starting point several hours later. I'll admit- at some points during the bike ride I felt like I was in a movie or something- flying as fast as a car down a mountain just smilling hugely...I couldn't believe what we were getting to do! And I think we all felt the same way. Nicole and Ahzha were bursting into song every once in a while- pure euphoria!

A mango ice cream and diet-coke later I was revived and relaxed. The bus ride back was beautiful and the day was completey incredible. Couldn't get better.

But it did. We met up with Nicole's Chilean family after a delicious dinner of NOT pb&j. We had completos- like hot dogs but with avocado and tomato (I'll make them when I come home). Nicole's brothers and the four of us girls left La Serena around 10 and drove to Vicuna where we scaled another mountain, this time via car, and reached the top where we found the Mamalluca Observatory. It was awesome. We were there around 11:30, and it was completely 100% dark- the clearest sky ever. We got to look at the moon through a HUGE telescope...the light blinded us, that's how bright the moon was. Something else that I may never see again!

WHAT A GREAT DAY.

And that was the end of Spring Break. By the next day, we were ready to get back to Vina. La Serena was great, but Vina might be better ;)