(I really meant to post this a month ago . . . sorry! I have to warn you that it's kind of long, too.)
As promised, I’ll fill you in about my adventures during the past long weekend, which was a vacation for Independence Day here in Chile. The 18th (September 18) is known as Las Fiestas Patrias (Patriotic Festivals) and is the most celebrated holiday of all of them all. It seems likes everyone travels to be with their families, just like Christmas in the US. Characteristics of the 18th include:
- traditional and national food: empanadas, sopaipillas, carne, completos, and chorillana
- lots of drinking: red wine, chichi, cola de monos, pisco, and the usual
- the national dance: the cueca
- fondos: parties with barbeques, dancing, and singing
- military marches
- Chilean games: trompo, emboque, volatín (kite) –
Typical chilean games
I spent the holiday (Thursday thru Sunday) traveling north to La Serena with my friend Danja from Germany. She, too, is studying here, and we wanted to get out of Santiago to a less-populated place. On Wednesday night at 11:45pm we boarded a bus to take a 6-hour bus-ride to La Serena. We spent the time getting to know the city and taking day-trips to other nearby places. Here's the story.
Me and Danja.
Thursday, September 18
After we arrived at the bus terminal in La Serena, we walked to Hostal en Punto, the hostel where we were going to stay. The city was dead. Seriously – there was NO ONE. I know that usually everyone is sleeping at 6:30 in the morning, but there are also usually at least a few people up and about . . . but not here. I guess it’s cause the parties start on the night of the 17th, so everyone is still in bed. We had a really tough time looking for a place to eat breakfast and pass the time (we couldn’t enter the hostel until 7am). In the end, we ate breakfast in the hostel when we arrived and then left again at 9am to walk around La Serena.
There was NO ONE.
Even though the weather wasn’t very nice, La Serena was beautiful Y we really had a great time walking around in La Plaza de Armas, going to the fresh-air market, the main street and the Army Regiment building on the top of a hill. At this building, it normally costs USD$8 to enter, but the guards let us in for free. As soon as we stepped onto the grounds, the military band started to play and march, but there was no one else around – a private concert for us! Each soldier inquisitively looked at us, probably thinking, “who are these two gringas looking at us?”
The private military concert.
They continued marching past us to the city center por the holiday ceremony. We, too, went to the ceremony, but I found it to be very different from the parades in the US that happen on the 4th of July. In place of a parade, they danced the Cueca with a traditional band, they sang the National Hymn of Chile while raising the Chile flag, they retold Chile’s history to the crowd, and the military group came to perform some special routines. I really enjoyed watching the little kids dancing the cueca – every person knew how to do it! Definitely not like that in the US – I wish we, too, had a national dance!
Dancing cueca.
After resting a bit at the hostal, we spent the rest of the day walking to the beach and then to Coquimbo, the city next door to La Serena. The beach was beautiful, but there was hardly anyone around, especially considering that it was a holiday. The few people that were there were peacefully passing their time strolling along the boardwalk, riding bikes, eating ice cream, or flying kites. Some were headed for La Pampilla in Coquimbo. This is the largest party in all of Chile to celebrate the holiday. A designated area the size of four football fields was filled little stores to buy clothes, artisan trinkets, sweets, fruit drinks, jewelry, food, alcoholic beverages, EVERYTHING you can think of. We only stayed for 2 hours – we left at dark because it’s pretty dangerous at night, especially for two single gringas. But we apparently didn’t miss an big celebration . . . there at La Pampilla the biggest celebrations (with music, dancing, fondos, and everything) happen the on 20th because this is the day in the year 1818 when La Serena actually received the news of Chile’s independence – two days after it happened in Santiago!
The beach (with a ton of wind!)
Friday, September 19
We woke up super early to take a tour north to Isla Damas (Lady Island). The tour promised transportation all the way to the sea point, a boat ride with a view of penguins, special birds, sea lions, otters, and possibly dolphins, a rest on the island’s beach, a delicious lunch, and return transportation. After the 1 ½ hour trip in the van (a private tour with 10 other people) with spectacular view of the land, desert, ocean, and flowers, we arrived at Punto de Chorros and from there boarded the boat to head to the island. We were in luck – we got to see dolphins! They were swimming together next to our boat (there were two or three) and jumping for our entertainment. The protected island was beautiful with ocean animals of every type. It’s a natural reserve, so no one is allowed to step foot on the island. There was another island next to it, however, with a beautiful beach and clear blue water like the Caribbean. We spent an hour there, climbing a hill, taking pictures of the flowers and cactuses, and just relaxing on the beach. We wanted to spend the entire day there!! After lunch, on the return trip, we stopped in two different places to take pictures of the flowers. Yes, I know that I’ve mentioned flowers many times . . . it’s because they were very special: it had been 5 or 6 years since the desert had been in bloom, but this year they had received so much rain that there were a ton of flowers. And how precious they were!
Sea lions.
So fun!
La Isla Damas
El Desierto Florecido (the blooming desert as it is referred to here in Chile).
Saturday, September 20
This day we slept in to recuperate from the voyage to the island the day before. In the afternoon we went to Valle del Elqui (Elqui Valley), about 2 hours by car to the east. This valley is known for its vineyards, the birthplace of Gabriela Mistral (famous Chilean poet), pisco production, and papayas. It is a valley of great contrasts: abundant and green vegetation along the Elqui River that runs through the valley, tall and dry mountains without any plants, the Andes in the background still covered with snow, and the spacious vineyards that cover the valley and mountains. It is a precious place. We spent the entire day in the valley – trying a local drink (papaya and pisco) at the distillery, bought some specialty trinkets from the town, walked along the winding roads, and took a local bus (without space to sit down) to another town to eat dinner. We realized that after three days of vacationing we only had enough money to pay for the return trip to La Serena plus USD$4 each to eat dinner. On the bus Danja said to me, “I wish I could find money, like when you find forgotten money in a pocket or someplace like that. Ya know? How awesome would that be . . .” 25 minutes later, when we were looking at the restaurant menú, she found CLP $10,000 (USD $20) in a secret compartment in her wallet. What luck! With the extra money, we wanted to by pastel de choclo (a traditional food – corn cake), but they didn’t have any more. So, we had to eat the typical cheap sandwiches that we had eaten the day before. In exchange, we spent the extra money on homemade Tres Leches ice cream – yummy. :-)
The contrasts of Elqui Valley.
La Serena Libre: the local drink of Pisco and papaya.
At the end of the day, 11:45 at night, we boarded the bus to make the return overnight trip to Santiago. We were very tired but also really happy cause we had such a good time. If I had all the time and money in the world, I would travel like that every weekend. Unfortunately (the word in Spanish is my favorite: desafortunadamente) I don’t have that. But this journey was definitely worth it. What an incredible experience!
The tired . . . but happy girls. :-)
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