Vacation on Vacation

After spending two weeks in Santiago, it was time to see some more of this long and narrow country. After consulting many guidebooks and locals alike we had settled on the town of La Serena for our weekend trip, it’s a seaside town about 500 kilometers North of the capital, and the basis for all trips into the Elqui Valley. Danny and I spearheaded the operation, and started making plans a week in advance however birthday after birthday and going out every night we found ourselves on Skype at the last minute trying to book rooms for 14 people in a town we knew next to nothing about. Luckily we found a hotel and were able to make reservations… the only thing we needed now were bus tickets. Friday morning two people had decided not to go which left us with 11 students and our professor’s son Poncho. 12 was a good number to travel with.

On our way to class that morning we stopped by the bus station and picked up 12 one-way tickets to La Serena leaving at 2 PM. We went to class and had to slip out a little early as we had a bus to catch. We grabbed some snacks and hopped on the bus where we would remain for the next seven or eight hours. The seats reclined nicely, and it was like sitting in a lazy-boy chair without all the padding; we travel in style. After about six stops we were in La Serena and we made it to our hotel. Time for some serious vacationing;

Showered, changed our clothes, headed out on the town, found a small restaurant and squeezed 12 people into a corner and had a meal and some drinks, walked around in the cold looking for our next stop, walked into a cold dark club with overpriced drinks and too much smoke so we left, found a local bar filled with college kids where we polished off a bottle of cheap tequila and some more beer (the buying power of 12 students will get you pretty far), played some music on the jukebox, walked to a rock & roll bar, befriended a local, bought him a shot, half the group had gone home, the rest of us stayed out another hour.

Next day woke up around 11, went to the mall to get some mediocre Chinese food, walked to the beach which turned out to be a 2 mile walk, bought 5 kilos or oranges out of the back of a pickup truck, went to a light house, spun some fire on the beach, played in the sand, had an afternoon cocktail, back to our place for some pregaming before heading to some world famous observatories, drove up a mountain, bought artesian olive bread off of a chef in the park, headed to observatory, made friends with a Ukrainian woman named Roxalana (who I would only address in the voice of Sting; Rooooooooooooooooooxalana), watched the stars, the Milky Way was close enough to touch, the moon could be held in your palm, and we saw the fabled Llama in the night sky. As I tried to bend over backwards to get a better look I stumbled into a rock wall and did beautiful tuck and roll that would make a stuntman proud, except for all of my change falling out of my pocket in addition to my room key. Went into the observatory, looked at the stripes on Jupiter which made me feel so insignificant I can’t put it into words, I put my headphones on, listened to Pink Floyd, and had a very existential experience looking out into our galaxy. Got back in the van, headed down the hill and went to bed.

Next morning woke up early to head into the Elqui Valley, which is where much of Chile’s agriculture comes from. Headed up the valley to a papaya farm and winery. Papaya in Chile is very different than anywhere else. We had some jelly and a papaya juice, and bought a bottle of white wine made from pisco grapes for us to drink on the bus, and the group bought a really nice bottle for our professor as a gift. Kept heading up the valley where we went to a large hydroelectric dam that produces 5 megawatts of electricity for the city. There’s a metal structure or harp that’s supposed to make a pretty noise when the wind blows up there but it was pretty calm. We continued up to Gabriela Maestral’s house and saw where the Nobel Prize winning poet lived. They grow tons of citrus, avocados, and grapes up on theses hills, it’s really beautiful, and very warm, but all the mountaintops are still covered in snow. We walked around there, grabbed a pisco sour, and then headed down the hill to the solar restaurant. They cook all their food in solar ovens outdoors that are covered in mirrors. Ate some goat that was cooked to absolute perfection. We were all stuffed and tired when we got back on the bus and headed to the pisco distillery, but excited to see where our new favorite spirits originated. We walked around the grounds and tried some 134 Proof pisco that burned all the way down but had a great fruity taste to it. We then bought a few bottles for cheap and felt pretty good on the ride home. Got back to our hotel around 7PM, went out to dinner, got back and watched some TV and then went to bed.

Monday morning we woke up late, extended our checkout time, walked around town and grabbed some lunch. Had some amazing soup called cozuela and drank an awful shot of some apple liquor. Got back to our hotel, sat in the sun for a bit then headed down to the station. Got on our 3:15 PM double-decker bus headed for Santiago. This one was gorgeous, must have been brand new. Had a very interesting conversation over a box of wine, made it back around 9:30 PM and took the metro back to our apartment. Found out that two students had gotten Swine Flu while we were gone, switched rooms with the girls (from our bunk beds to two double beds) and got some sleep for class in the morning.

Great trip, great people, great time.