A weekend in the north of Chile: La Serena

For the first time since being in Chile we decided to travel north for the weekend and Thursday night we boarded an overnight bus that was bound for La Serena, a desert city in the north on the coast. We arrived very early in the city and found a youth hostel. After sleeping for a few hours, we decided to take a guided tour to a famous spot on the coast called Punta de Choros where we could take a boat tour to and island called Isla Damas.

The scenery along the drive up to the coast was beautiful and very different from the scenery that we had seen before in the south. It was all desert, sand, and cacti – we even saw alpacas, an animal similar to a llama. Upon arriving at the coast, we boarded a boat for the trip to the island. The weather was beautiful and the waters were clear and really cool shades of blue. This island is famous because of a colony of penguins that lives there. Along the way we saw sea lions, pelicans, lots of different types of birds, and finally many groups of penguins. We were able to land on the island and spent about two hours exploring, hiking around, and taking pictures. We liked the tour and the guide so much that we decided to hire the same company for the next day.


The following day we visited the Valle de Elqui, or the Elqui Valley which is known for producing amazing grapes used for wine and Pisco, practically the official alcoholic drink of Chile. It was really cool to see how the lush, green valley fit inbetween the tall, dry, mountains. We stopped at local stands to try real sun-dried raisins and also visited the Pisco factory. Later at night we were able to visit one of the star-gazing observatories which the desert in the north of Chile is famous for. There are many large and famous astronomical stations there because of the constant clear skies and lack of pollution. We were given a presentation of the constellations seen in South America and then we were able to look through two different types of telescopes to examine groups of stars, the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter. The guide even took pictures of the planets for us through the lens using our digital cameras!




The next day we were tired from all the traveling and decided to sleep in. We explored the small city of La Serena and took a short horseback ride along the beach. We were on the bus again at 5:30 headed home ready for another week of school, but excited that were had been able to see so many new things.