La Serena

It was time to head north so we took a 7 hour bus up to The beachside city of La Serena. We spent three nights there enjoying the city and the beach with the highlight of visiting the Elqui Valley. The Elqui Valley is about an hour out of La Serena city which we explored by treating ourselves to a full day tour. We don’t usually do tours as they are quite expensive and to see the same things is pretty easy to do ourselves with a bit of organisation.

We were feeling a bit tired and couldn’t be bothered cycling around the Valley in the 30 degree heat so opted for the mini van to take us there.

The tour included:

• Transport to and from the valley
• Visiting the Elqui Valley Dam,
• Tasting some papaya juice
• Seeing the process of Pisco making and sampling som
• Visiting the museum of Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral
• A three course lunch at a restaurant where all the food is cooked in solar ovens
• Visiting the small town of Pisco Elqui
• Several stops at amazing look out points

Not too bad for $55NZD each!

La Serena City

La Serena beach

Elqui Valley Dam

Pisco

Pisco Elqui town

Solar ovens! (The food was delicious, Matt had solar cooked goat 🙅)

Antofagasta

After three days we continued to head North and took an eleven hour bus to Antofagasta City. We booked in on the most luxurious bus we’ve ever been on so it was very comfortable, especially as we had the very front seats on the upper level with incredible views.

Lux bus (The only way to travel from now on 🤑)

We booked an Air BnB in Antofagasta for three nights to just chill out and relax. Did lots of walking, about 10kms a day down to the beach and back to our accomodation. We have been spending our down time trying to learn some Spanish more formally which I think is helping. We can confidently order bus tickets without using any English now woo hoo!

On our last day we went to the seafood market, had fresh crab empanadas and watched the sea lions down at the pier. It was super relaxed here in a unique location of having the desert mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.

There are dogs absolutely everywhere in Chile. Although they don’t have official owners, they are community dogs that everyone takes care of and feeds. They are incredibly friendly and seem in pretty good condition, except for some are very overweight and it’s like they need an owner to walk them. We always have one hanging out with us, especially close to the beach.

Speaking of dogs, throughout our time in Chile we have heard about these ‘completo’ hotdogs which are a hotdog in a bun topped with fresh avocado and tomato salsa. We arrived half an hour early at the bus station on our final day so found a roadside stall that did not disappoint.

We are currently five hours North of Antofagasta in the Atacama Desert 🌵. Post to come.

Chilling in Antofagasta