La Serena and Beyond

One backpack stuffed with clothes, shoes, and my toothbrush and toothpaste. One bus ticket that cost 12.000 (or the equivalent of about $24). One small bag with my papers and folders from the Spanish classes I’d just finished. Three of new best friends: Hazel, Maggie and Tommy. All together we boarded a coach bus (the main means of city to city transportation here), and off we went. For just over eight hours (a bit longer than expected due to traffic), we chatted, listened to music, and watched the countryside fly past on the right and the vast, sparkling blue ocean stretch on forever on the left. At one point, while the sun was setting, and we were passing through a small but brightly painted town, with blue mountains as a backdrop and a forest of greenery lining the sides, a Coldplay song came on. Chris Martin’s voice sang loud and clear, “And we live in a beautiful world (Yeah we do, yeah we do). We live in a beautiful world.” I couldn’t have agreed more. 

It was Wednesday afternoon, and the four of us were leaving Vina del Mar for our first student run adventure. Classes had finished for the day, and Thursday was something wonderful called a Feriado celebrating the Asunción de la Virgen. Because Chile is a Catholic country, most businesses, stores, and schools were closed for the day including our universidad, which translated to a long weekend for us. Our planning would best be described as last minute and not thorough, but nevertheless, we were on our way. Destination: LA SERENA! 

La Serena is located north of Vina. It’s the second oldest city in Chile, and the entire western side of the city is beach. However, because it’s still winter here, the weather was not as beach like as I was secretly hoping, and there wasn’t the usual tourist crowd.  We, courtesy of one of my travel comrades, stayed in a resort hotel, right on the beach, with a pool, a trampoline (may or may not have tried it out..), free (or already paid for) breakfast buffet, free drinks, and a suite. It was classy.  (Here is the view from our balcony.)

La Serena is best known for its observatories and a valley called Valle de Elqui. Unfortunately, because we weren’t able to decipher the local bus system before, and because we didn’t have much time in the city, we didn’t make the 60k journey to see either. (Guess I’ll just have to go again..!) Our trip was by no means a failure though, and we had much to do, much to see, and much fun in general. We went to a museum both days. The first one was a well known archeological museum where we read tons of signs in Spanish, saw an incredible amount of tribal art work and pots and everyday items, learned about shrinking heads (and saw some too!), befriended the museum puppy, and found the only other Moai that’s not on Easter Island. (Some of you may remember from earlier, I mentioned that there were only two Moai not on the island. Apparently this one didn’t like the weather in Europe, and so it returned to Chile. By accident, we found both!) The other museum we went to was in the house of one of Chile’s presidents. The first floor covered Gabriel Gonzalez Videla’s life and his legacy in office. He was president from 1946 until 1952, and he helped to draft the Chilean constitution that is still used today. The rest of the house (it was huge) was full of art work. I learned a decent amount from reading (or attempting to in most cases), and I discovered something new about myself too; I really like paintings of onions. (Here is...a picture of a painting of onions!) 

We ate lunch at local restaurants, and we participated in the traditional Chilean meal called onces which is similar to tea time plus a light meal. One afternoon we walked around the downtown of the city which was adorable and full of local shops. We explored stands of homemade crafts, checked out what kind of store Ripleys was (the store where there are massive protests in Vina del Mar), listened to some live street jazz, and enjoyed the atmosphere of a bustling Chilean city. The other day we went for a long walk, up a long hill, out of the downtown area. There, the houses were all one story and small, and they reminded me of my initial preconception of where I’d be living. From what I’ve seen in Vina, Leguna Verde, and La Serena and on the long drives I’ve been on, Chile is definitely first world and third world at the same time. There is an incredible amount of contrast in income levels and lifestyles, and it’s interesting to see because they are right next door to eachother. I definitely want to see and learn more, especially in relation to how this impacts Chilean life and culture. Anyways, back to the walk. At the top of the hill, we found a park and had a delicious picnic lunch. The view was beautiful! And at least in my opinion, it was completely worth the walk.  We probably covered 6 miles that afternoon which warranted, we decided, a night of relaxation and Spanish TV. (Below is a photo of where we had lunch-with my friend Maggie sitting on the fence. And below that is the light house near our hotel)

Communication usually wasn’t difficult, and between the four of us, our Spanish was enough. There was one time when the waitress really struggled, but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t our fault, especially since when Hazel ordered a coffee, she brought out a can of instant powder and a class of hot water. That restaurant was interesting to say the least, but it introduced us to Chilean soap operas, so there’s the silver lining (if you’re into waaaay to much drama). On our way to La Serena, we got off at the wrong stop, but thanks to Tommy, we made it back on the bus before it left us 88k from where we wanted to be. On the way back, it turned out that our tickets were for Sunday, not Friday like we thought we bought, but again we were lucky, and we were able to exchange them easily. Other than that, everything went smoothly. We all agreed when we returned to Vina at 6am on Saturday, that it was a wonderful trip :) 

I took a nap when I got home, and when I woke up around 9, I was surprised to hear the voices of young children. Surprise! My host Uncle and two of his children were staying with us for the weekend. The girls are twins, 7 years old, and I’m pretty sure they never stop talking. Everything worked out though, because although I understood very little of their rapid spew of Spanish, (especially when they were both talking at the same time!) it didn’t matter; they never paused or asked to see if I was understanding. On the rare occasion when they did ask me a question, it was basic and much slower, and I could answer. Score. It was also nice to spend the afternoon with them at the beach, because children are the same everywhere. We played with the waves, chasing them and getting soaked when we didn’t run fast enough. We went for a mini hike and rock scramble along the shore to find enough sea shells to fill both my coat pockets. We ate Chilean cheese puffs with a garnish of sand. And we giggled. None of that needs more than the basic Spanish I have, so I was set. That night dinner conversation happened. My mother often had to re-explain things at a much slower pace, and Cata translated a word here and there, but I was part of the family and part of the talk. And that’s more than I could ever ask for. (Here is a photo of me and the twins at the beach near our house) 

So there you have it, my first long weekend in Chile up until Saturday night. We just finished Letters to Iwo Jima (in Japanese of course with Spanish subtitles), and I’m finishing up writing before bedtime. I've had a couple of moments where I've been frustrated because I can't understand, but as a whole, I'm still so new to the language and culture that I love it all, even the struggles of speaking. Also, if you ever have any questions, or if there’s anything you want to know more about, please don’t hesitate to ask :) 

Goodnight!