The Moon in La Serena

November 2, 2011

From San Pedro de Atacama we took a 16 hour bus ride to La Serena, a Chilean city on the coast. Surprisingly, the 16 hour ride wasn’t that bad. They time it so you’re on the bus a few hours before going to sleep and then you wake up not too long before getting off the bus. Smart.

The town was basically completely shut down the day we arrived because it was a holiday. We had breakfast at the grocery store. (An American style grocery store with 20 types of jelly and familiar types of bread—funny the things you miss while traveling!) As most everything was closed, the day was a quiet one. We were back at sea level and I did manage a go for a good long run along the beach. That evening we spent over an hour wandering around looking for a place open to eat.  (I’m learning to have a snack before we head out to dinner because it’s often a good couple hours from our dinner meeting time to when we actually get our food, and I get grouchy when I’m hungry! J)

So, there were people in the main little market.
These two are doing a traditional Chilean dance.

Dinner was worth it once we found it!

Helen with our braided intestine. I did take a bite, but one was enough.
Not sure what they fill it with, but neither the taste
 nor the texture did anything for me. Pretty gross, actually.

 The following day we took a tour of the valley, swam in a river, and went to an observatory at night. Chile is home to some of the biggest research observatories in the world. We went to one for tourists, and saw fantastic views of the night sky. We were there too early to see the Southern Cross, but we saw many of the other 68 constellations and had a close-up look at the moon and Venus.

The dam in the valley. When full, it can
supply water for five years. 

View from the other side of the valley.

Aaron's seat on the bus was broken. He reclined the whole trip. Dylan found this funny.

The moon. (This picture was taken through the telescope.)

Random photo:

I was actually pretty excited to have a nice, large towel when I first saw this at the hotel. Turns out, though, someone must have made an order for the wrong size... and decided to fix the problem by cutting the nice, big towels in half. Oh well....