We woke up to the sweet smell of something delicious and ran downstairs to check out what was going on in the kitchen. There was the housemaid cooking up a storm and serving everyone individually like we were in a 5 star hotel or something. We sat down and she poured us coffees, a glass of orange juice each and brought us a fruit and yogurt salad to hold us over until our personal batch of dolce de leche (a very popular caramel flavored spread here in South America) crepes were ready. They were delicious and we thanked her several times thinking how did we score such an awesome place!
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| Playa Del Sol |
We had to change rooms in the same house though which we didn’t mind because we were changing from a shared room of 6 people to our own private with a TV!!!! Even more over budget, but we figured it’d been 2 months on the road, and we’re starting to feel effects, so we may as well spoil ourselves a bit. By the time we were all settled again it was 12:30, so we headed out for an afternoon at the Playa del Sol.
As we walked along the boardwalk we saw a hill full of villas in the distance, tons of people, restaurants near the beach and artists carving things in the sand for chump change. It was a hot sunny day and after only a few minutes after we found a place to lay out our towels we were ready to jump into the water but it was much too cold and the waves were quite high. So we settled for a couple of splashes and decided to complete another Spanish lesson from our book to help us forget about the heat. Just when we were learning how to say things around the dining room table (like spoon, fork, knife, plate) we saw a guy with a Chi tattoo set his towel down fairly close to us. We yelled out “Ma Shlomech!”. He came right over and started spewing out a conversation in Hebrew and both looked at each other and laughed and told him we could understand but we wanted to let him know we were Jewish too. In Spanglish and a little broken Hebrew we managed to tell him we were from Canada and we were enjoying our time there, and were able to understand that he was from Chile but originally Israeli and he loved it there too.
By 5pm we were ready to head back for lunch (everybody eats super late in these parts of the world) We decided to take full advantage of out flat screen tv and watched movie after movie on the English movie network while taking turns falling asleep. By 10 we realized we were starting to get hungry and decided we would come out of hibernation.
At first we walked around aimlessly, still completely drained from having done nothing at all. We soon came across a crafts fair on the main street so we decided to check it out. We circled around the aisles looking at the Chilean signature crafts. As we made our way to the exit we say many delicious desert stands but nothing to satisfy our hungry bellies, so we kept walking. We walked over a big bridge and noticed the streets were alive with so many people off in the distance, there was a big Ferris wheel and a carnival set up around it. As we were making our way over we saw people eating these huge sandwiches that reminded us of the crazy chorizo’s we had in Uruguay. We got closer to see what the hype was about and sure enough, a lady was selling a Mexican/Chilean hybrid version of them! She called them Churraccos and a told us it was a signature Chilean food. The sandwich was on a fluffy bun with thinly sliced grilled beef, topped with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, guacamole, mayo, ketchup and a spicy cilantro salsa. They were amazing and we were instantly full, even though we only shared one sandwich. We thanked the lady, said “ciao” and headed down the Queen street-like streets toward the carnival.
It took us a while to get there as we had to zig zag down the streets because there were only cross walks for pedestrians on one side, which we found very strange but we finally made it and it was a sight to see. The place was full of flashing lights, food vendors, rides, stray dogs, games and it was crawling with people, mostly children even though it was past 12am! As we started our stroll around the grounds we noticed that the games had prizes that consisted of liquor bottles, chocolate, huge bouncing balls and very odd chuchkah’s. We passed by a mini roller coaster, 2 merry-go-rounds, the big ferris wheel and they even had a mock of the “Drop Zone” at Canada’s Wonderland only this one was 10x smaller a drop. There were even ladies playing a weird version of bingo, using corn kernels to stamp out their numbers. It turned out to be a very interesting and fun evening.
Saturday February 09, Happy Birthday Daddy!!!
We woke up at 9:30am and were greeted with another delicious breakfast at the B & B. This time it was grilled cheese and hot dogs! (David’s favorite). The sky was completely overcast so the beach was out of the question. We had to check out of our rooms today though and do some bus hunting for our next destination anyway.
We set out for the city centre to the bus terminal and found out they didn’t have any buses available leaving for San Pedro de Atacama (our next destination) until Tuesday! What a bummer, it was the first time we couldn't get a bus leaving for exactly where we wanted on the same day. We quickly figured out plan B and settled for tickets to La Serena, another beach town on the way. We figured we would spend the 2 days there, and book the Tuesday bus from there ahead of time. In the end we were happier with plan B as there were a lot of things to see and do in San Pedro and we were still in lazy mode. In addition it would break up the long 30 hour bus ride into two 15 hour ones. So, win, win, all around. After buying the tickets we went across the street to the mini mall to muck around for a bit. There, we found a Chilean version of Lowes/Home Depot called “Sodimac”. You should’ve seen Dave’s eyes light up, so we went in to do some research on how the Chileans go about doing there reno shopping. Let’s just say there level of standards on finishes looked like they were right out of the 80’s!
After doing a quick walk around the rest of the mall we decided to head back to the B&B for lunch and got busy chatting with a couple from Argentina. We had seen them in passing the past 2 days we were there, but because they didn’t speak any English our conversations with them pretty much consisted of “Hi” and “Bye”. We started off forcing out our Spanglish and thankfully Claudia was able to pick up very few English words, but we were having a really tough time. So, we broke out our lap tops! Us on a Spanish translator, and them on an English one, and we managed to spend the next 4 hours in a very funny but real conversation. It was one of the most intriguing and challenging afternoons we’ve had yet!
By 9pm we realized that we only had 2 hours to grab dinner and to walk back to the bus terminal. So we grabbed our bags and the 4 of us set out for dinner. With our lap tops put away, we had no idea how would communicated over dinner but somehow we made it work. We were sad when it came time to say goodbye but we exchanged information and promised to keep in touch. We hugged them goodbye and almost ran to the terminal to make it our bus for 11:30pm.
Sunday, February 10
It was a long bus ride, but we arrived in La Serena by 6 am. We had absolutely no plans or reservations ahead of us so we slept on the floor of the terminal until 8. We remembered one of the guys at the B&B telling us how wonderful a place called Valle de Elqui was, and since there were signs all over the terminal promoting it, we decided to see how much a bus ticket would cost. There was a bus leaving in only a half an hour and it was only $8 a person so we bought tickets and waited for the next bus to arrive. When it did, it was nothing fancy, it was more like the collective chicken busses we grew to love in Nicaragua but we didn’t mind.
The drive to Elqui was 2 hours (as opposed to the half hour we'd been promised) but it was full of beautiful scenery that only Dave can tell you about because Alice continued sleeping the whole way there. Elqui is a valley in between the Andes mountains where they have many wine and pisco vineyard and breathtaking views. Pisco is the traditional Chilean alcohol made of fermented grapes (kind of like tsuike, for all the Romanian readers). When we arrived to town we checked into the first hostel we saw, and lucked out as they placed us in a cabana like room in the back right beside there outdoor pool!
We walked down the peaceful, old fashioned streets and found a patio with a great view of the mountains to have breakfast. We opted for the supreme breakfast which consisted of coffee, freshly squeezed melon juice, eggs and tostada’s. When we were done with breakfast we headed back to the hostel and said we’d rest our eyes for just a few minutes. Next thing we knew it was 4pm and we slept the whole day away!
When we were finally able to gather up some energy we took a walk around the town and picked up some groceries for dinner. Dave cooked us a delicious chorizo pasta with the slim pickings that we found at the mini marts in the tiny little town. We found ourselves lying down reading and before you know it nodding off again but not for long. We were determined to see the stars as we had heard they were impeccable in the valley. It was so clear we could make out the milky way and many constellations. We played cards outside and had a few beers before we yet again, set out for more sleep.
Just as we were closing our eyes we heard the roosters start roosting and it was only 11pm! The entire night was a cycle of roosters roosting, followed by dogs barking, followed by bells ringing. We were up most of the night.
Monday, February 11
Despite the lack of sleep, we were up by 9am and eating our complimentary breakfast of eggs and tea. We figured we’d have another lazy day of reading and relaxing by the pool and that’s exactly how the day went. At 5pm the hostel was serving panqueques (Pancakes) with dolce de leche (obviously) and berry fruits. We figured we’d each order our own because we can’t ever pass up free food and next thing you knew they were asking us for $4 each per plate! We got caught in the scam but it was so delicious that we couldn’t get upset. After a couple of hours we headed into the small town of only 4 streets and settled on avocado hot dogs. We brought a couple of beers back to the hostel and went to bed before 11pm. Just as we were getting comfortable and closing our eyes we heard a rooster start cock-a-doodle-doing, starting a chain reaction among it’s friends, once again. We managed to sleep a little more than the night before, but not by much.
Tuesday, February 12
We still managed to wake up for breakfast by 10am, checked out, and walked to the bus stop where the buses back to La Serena waiting for us and we were able to leave right away. The ride was about 2 and half hours this time, but we made it back to civilization. We had 5 hours to kill, so we headed to the Mall Plaza to walk around, and managed to find, as always, a McDonalds :).
When we got back to the terminal we still had an hour and half to wait for our bus. We relaxed on the lawn and read for a bit, then went to catch our bus. As we approached the bus, Dave was poked in the Canadian flag and asked "Are you guys Canadian?". We answered yes, of course, and were introduced to Bryan and Michelle from Winnipeg. They were excited to finally meet some fellow Canadians as they had been out for 10 months out of their year of travelling and hadn’t met too many. We were mutually excited as we hadn’t met any fellow travellers doing the full year trip like ourselves. We spent the hour and a half (the amount of time our bus was late) comparing stories and bombarding them with questions about all the countries that they had already scene. When the bus finally arrived we were well on our way for our 17 hour trip to San Pedro de Atacama, the driest place on earth. Strangely though, we were a little nervous as we had heard that there was a big storm there the past few days and the desert was flooded. We had heard that many trips through the desert were cancelled. We would have to hope for the best.
Thanks and with love from another long bus,
D'Alice
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