An Update from Antofagasta!

¡Hola! Sorry it has been a while, I wrote this entry yesterday and it deleted itself before I could publish it, have got lots to catch up on! Last saturday, Ashling woke up to a birthday easter egg hunt around our room (organised by Sara), opened her presents and then we all went down for breakfast where we brought out her birthday cake. They don´t do birthday cakes very well here so we built one out of donuts stacked on a plate with lots of candles in them. We spent the day at another lookout, on a hill with a castle built into it, and onto a park for a picnic. While we were sitting on the grass, one of the many street sellers came over to pester us for money and out of nowhere a big stray dog came running and barked aggressively at the man, making him run away a bit scared! The dog then decided he would fall asleep at my feet, and stayed with us for the rest of the afternoon. It was like we had our own guard dog as nobody approached us after that! We had tried to buy tickets for a musical that night but they were sold out, so we ended up in the cinema where we all fell asleep for a while! I blame the time travelling from New Zealand catching up on us!

The next morning we said goodbye to Pado and his Auntie (the one who makes the breakfast!) at our hostel and jumped on the metro towards the coach station. It was a short drive, only an hour and a half to Valparaiso on the coast. We didn´t have any accomodation booked here as the Internet was not coming up with many results, but as soon as we got off the coach, we were in another car being driven to the door of a great hostel in the Cerro Concepcion region, a district that Pado had recommended we stay in. Ashling, Mel and I headed out for a walk to see what was on offer and were immediately impressed with the place. Every corner we turned, there were people sitting on the cobbled paths sketching the landscape. It was easy to see why as the houses were all painted in different colours scattered across a number of hills. Even more impressive is the graffiti which Valpariasiso is famous for, a lot of which is stenciled work (like the stuff Banksy produces). Even the school children were getting involved as one morning we saw them outside their school painting the doors and walls with famous landmarks in the area. That evening we stayed in and watched films in the hostel and got an early night.

On Monday, all five of us went for a longer walk to other side of town. We found a pier and saw a few Seals in the ocean, swimming around and sunbathing. When it comes to lunch time in Chile, we have all become very found of empañadas which are like cornish pasties so we stop off for these very regularly. Our route back to the hostel was a bit more exciting that evening as rather than walking up the hill, we decided to hop in the elevator which is like a train track with small carts that run all day. It was very familiar as I had seen them in the film Motorcycle Diaries as Che Gevara uses one on his visit to Valaparaiso.

The next morning, we were back at the bus depot for our journey further up the coast to La Serena. We had been told it will get warmer the further North we travel and La Serena is a popular destination for Chileans to holiday as there are lots of beaches. We were expecting the journey to take about 5 hours but it ended up being more like 8, so was a long trip but the coaches are very comfortable and they play films to keep us all quiet. When we arrived in La Serena we decided to walk to the hostel as it is only a few km´s from the bus station but with our bags on our backs its not quite as fun. We dont do that often so I can´t really complain! The hostel is great, all built around a central courtyard with a sun terrace on the roof. It has been nice relaxing there, the breakfast is served in the courtyard in the mornings usually accompanied by a bit of Bob Marley in the background. The five of us headed into town and found a nice enough looking restaurant to spend the evening. I ate what seems to be a favourite dish in Chile of steak, eggs and chips. On Wednesday, we visited the archeological museum which had housed a few hidden treasures. In a cabinet hanging on the wall were two shrunken heads staring back at us, with their lips sewn together and lots of hair. They were quite freakish but there was little explanation about them, will have to find out more! Then in the main room they had a Moai on display from Easter Island. We were really pleased to see this as it costs a lot of money to get to Easter Island even from Chile! We explored the town visting a few outdoor markets and churches, this is another place where there are churches everywhere you turn, but they all look very different so not bored of them just yet! For dinner that night we did fajitas and thought we would have a go at making guacamole and it was really great, so we made it again the next night too. We spent Friday on the beach where my kite made another appearance. We went for a short run along the water and then walked back into town to get ready for our visit to the observatory. Only me and Ashling booked on the trip as Sara and Mel had already done stargazing in New Zealand, but I have to say ours was much better! It was quite a drive away and we didnt arrive until about 11pm where a enthusiastic astronomer met us for an english tour. He pointed out the major constelations, showed us different colour stars through the telescope and pointed out clusters. We then went into the observatory to the more powerful telescope and were able to see saturn complete with its rings, and then the moon (the photo was taken through the telescope). It was a 99.4% full moon that night so a lot of constellations were not visible due to it being so bright but it meant we got a great view of the moon! We got to ask lots of questions and really enjoyed the night eventually arriving back in our beds at about 2:30am.

As yesterday was Good Friday, everywhere was shut all day so we just wandered around and spent more time in the hostel and on the internet booking things for America. Ashling and I have booked ourselves into the Luxor hotel (the pyramid one) in Vegas for a few nights at the end of May which looks like great fun. We left La Serena in the evening and got on a night bus heading to Antofagasta which is where we arrived this morning! Booked into a hotel for the night as we leave in the morning for San Pedro. Had a great day walking by the harbour and saw a huge group of seals and turtles up really close. Just popped into a candlelight service in the local church as we will be on a bus tomorrow morning, it was packed out so we just stood at the entrance. Happy Easter!