La Serena, Chile

This weekend I went to a town called La Serena and it is about five hours north of Valpo. This turned out to be a series of unfortunate events, but I ended up having a blast and making new friends. The trip started and ended with a five-six hour bus ride at 11:30 at night.

We got into La Serena too early, so we ended up sitting outside our hostel for about 45 minutes waiting for them to open, but the hostel ended up being so beautiful and they made us homemade breakfast.
Look how beautiful it was:

The whole point of the trip for many of us was to see a penguin. We tried all three days that we were there but could not take a boat to the island because the weather was too bad, too windy. On the last day we even made it as far to drive the 2 hours to the port and wait two hours hoping that the weather would change but it would not so we had to head back. After seeing the types of boats we would have had to take (see below) I understand why they would not have wanted us to go out in the water in bad conditions. It seemed like a waste of 6 hours, but we met some friendly travelers in our van and the beach was still pretty. 

Seeing no penguins was sad but we had a lot of fun in the city and in the valle de elqui! The city is really small and beautiful. We spent and afternoon wandering and exploring. We went to the local army base, the craft market, the church, and ate lots of fresh seafood. The fish was super delicious and probably bad for me!

Local Church in La Serena

Melissa and I on top of a castle in front of a monument

In the center park with my new friend

We also went to a local museum where there was a figure from Easter Island, that got me excited for my trip with my mom and godmother Pam this July! See below! The museum had a ton of artifacts that have been found from all over Chile!

The next day we went into the Valle, where we got to go to a restaurant where the food was cooked by the sun and the weather was beautiful, probably in the 80's! The food was wonderful, and some of my friends tried the special of the house, the goat. But not me, I got some slow cooked beef! Sooooo good!

Some of the solar cookers

My main course :)

Then we went further into the valley to try to take a pisco tour, but we got to the town just a little too late. However, I had fun walking around and exploring the beautiful town and having some amazing hand-made juice! :)

Beautiful church in the center of town

That evening we made ourselves a delicious dinner and made our way to the observatory. That was my favorite part of the trip because it was so gorgeous! I got to learn and see all the stars of the southern hemisphere and see new stars that we cannot see in the US. I also got to look through a telescope and see Saturn! So amazing, it was so clear and beautiful. I wish I could have spent the night under the stars.

The next day after our failed attempt to see the penguins we went to the Japanese gardens and had an amazing time took at all the flowers and feeding the ducks and swans.

To end the night we all found our way to the mall to watch the movie "oblivion." Here all the movies are in english with spanish subtitles, so it is really easy to watch :) and the popcorn is sweet and more like kettle corn!

I finally got home at 6 am this morning after my long bus ride, only to find out my one and only class for today is cancelled! I am going to go out with a friend tonight and tryout for the soccer team here! Wish me luck :)

Only 12 weeks left, where has the time gone :( I absolutely love Chile, just not the winter that is coming.