Chile

Just spent 4 days in La Serena, a very cute little town 8hrs north of Santiago. Good to be back in civilization. I do want to point out that what I have been living & visiting in the past few weeks was mostly in the mountains and desert, not a full representation of Chile. If you´re thinking Chile is all mudbricks houses and dusty road, not true! La Serena is bustling little town on the water, with impressive colonial houses downtown, a modern plaza, and a cute harbor Coquimbo 10km away.
My hostal, la casa Maria, was the cutest little place so far....with an interior courtyard and garden. The host had so many stories to tell from the dictatorship, it was hard to keep up...really need to improve my Spanish.
Turns out that 3 french travellers on the bus with me from San Pedro were at the hostal too. We ended up touring the area for 2 days together. First we took a local bus up the Elqui Valley, where vineyards grow in between the arid mountains and dusty valley. It´s an impressive oasis where pisco comes from, the national drink...from 30 to 46 proof!! Toured the Capel distillerie, but it´s mostly a tourist trap...the taste is so minute, I tried to get a second... didn´t work. Ugh.
The second day, we opted for exercise...after all these bus rides, we all felt walking to Coquimbo was de rigueur, a 2hrs1/2 hike. Felt great. Along the beach. Not a beach where I´d go spend my holidays (cold water, tons of seaweed), but apparentely in a matter of weeks, it will be packed with Chileans on vacation. We toured the fist market, the biggest one I´ve seen so far, and settled in a restaurant overlooking the harbor and its cute yellow boats (similar to Arica´s) for a fish feast: seafood soup (a la Indiana Jones, better not look too closely what´s in the soup) and reineta fish. The fish is automatically fried here if you don´t ask for a la plancha (no wonder people´s waistlines are a little on the overweight side)...and fillet´d....impossbile to get a whole fish with head and tail, bummer.
Anyways, we wrapped up the day with some scrabble games on the harbor in the sun... a little fare niente.
On my last day, I toured Tongoy, another harbor 1h1/2 away, via local bus. Now that felt like an authentic fishermen´s town...back to dusty roads and brick houses, a grade up from shanti houses. Although there´s a beautiful road along the coast with fancy houses, must be vacation houses for the city dwellers. Everything was closed still....season starts in two weeks. So I ate alone at this beach restaurant overlooking the harbor...very pleasant...basic...and local... felt like the end of the world again, since I was the only soul around and the waiter only popped out of the kitchen every now and then to check on me. Perfect for some meditation...with a pisco sour!
On Saturday, got on a 7hr bus ride down to Valparaiso, a big harbor 1hr1/2 away from Santiago. The town covers 41 hills along the coast. There´s steps everywhere you look and elevators to take you to the top of each hill. Looking forward for some good workouts...who ever complained about a 6 storie walk-up in NYC! More later....time for a hot shower before the boiler goes off...things you have to worry about!