La Serena Weekend

"My soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me."
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Thursday night at 11:30PM, we boarded an overnight bus to La Serena, beach town, popular in the summer for a quick getaway. It was about a 7-hour trip, complete withtrying new cherry flavors of Chilean soda, a lost bus ticket, and uncomfortable sleep. When the hostel owner came and picked us up from the bus stop at 6 in the morning, we knew we had picked a good hostel. We were right. Hostels are the best thing ever. Like $13/night, and everything a hostel has minus some cleanliness. But you usually get to meet new people and have access to a kitchen and such, so it makes up for it I'd say. We arrived at the hostel and promptly fell asleep, only to be shaken awake at 8AM and told a tour bus was picking us up 8:30 to see Valle de Elqui.

We saw a papaya orchard (on Friday alone, I had papaya juice, canned papayas, and papaya ice cream - so good), a pisco factory, a beautiful dam... the whole valley is rooted between the mountains. Just as we were finishing up in our final stop on the trip at the end of the day, we began to feel the raindrops and boarded in the bus for a final hour-long trip home. Most of us took naps or rested and listened to rainy day music (personal choice: Once soundtrack - great rain music). We got back and wanted to make some dinner, so we thought we'd find a Jumbo and get some pasta and some avocados for dinner. Six of us set out into the rain to find said Jumbo, having only a vague direction in which to walk, but figuring it was so big we'd run into it anyhow. We found a mall, but saw no sign for a Jumbo, so we asked someone working in an ice cream shop for directions. Meanwhile, two of us six broke off to get money from an ATM, and we agreed to meet at this Jumbo. She told us it was just outside the mall, that way. So we weaved through the mall and made it outside, and still no sight of a Jumbo sign. So we asked an elderly lady, and she pointed us in kind of the opposite direction, so we set off again, a lit more confused, and a little wetter. We wandered into a clinic. We found the front of the mall again. We asked someone else, and they turned us around. We were sopping wet. And every once in awhile the Katherines (technically Kathryn and Katherine) would call, just as confused as we. And then it was there. And it was grand and we bought lots of salad things and guacamole things and pesto pasta things and breakfast things. And THEN we were walking home, crossing flooded streets and hugging the wall, and a car flew by, splashing water up that hit me and two others and left us standing there dripping wet, shocked, and sad. And then another one came by and hit a fourth person and it was just a mess, and we hurried to the hostel to cook and get dry. This night may be the cause of my cold right now. Coupled with general low temperatures in my life.

This is what the flooding looked like hours and hours after the rain had stopped the next day. The cars are driving around the edge of the street to avoid drowning.

So Saturday morning, there was talk of taking an expensive tour out to an island, but it was cancelled due to weather, so we had the day to explore. La Serena is a lovely little town, and we had some really great empanadas for lunch. Nom nom nom. And then three of us walked down to the beach, and it was just before sunset, so it was really lovely.

We had yet another failed tour due to the weather (this time we'd hoped to go to an observatory that night) Instead, one of the girls proved to be an excellent cook and served us these fantastic omelets and couscous on the side and we sat around and had a fun night in, telling stories. Though most of the stories were about injuries.


We got up, packed up, stored our things, checked out, and trekked back out to the beach to try our hand at horseback riding. One hour, $12. Could be much worse. My oh my, though. I don't regret it, and in some ways it was really really nice. Especially when we were walking.

So I get on this horse and she's so well trained, just standing still until the others go and I'm so comfortable and it's all good. And we walk for awhile and it's just lovely. I have my camera bag and my purse across my body, with Kathryn's wallet and my cell phone chilling in an open pocket, but it's tight, so it's fine. Besides, we're just walking. But then we were trotting. And I was gripping the saddle, and not the bags. And the wallet was hopping. And then I caught it in mid air, and convinced the horse to get back into a walk (I doubt I convinced her, she probably decided on her own - I have no control), and put everything in a zippered pocket. As soon as I'd taken care of that we were off again. Let me point out, a man gave me a hand to get on the horse, and he followed our group, but he gave us no emergency instructions, or general this is how you stop a horse or direct a horse instructions. We figured they would just follow each other. Like American tourist horses do. So yeah. We were off again, as in trotting again. And we were going. And we weren't following the beach anymore, we'd veered right. There was a pond ahead though, of course we'd be stopping when we hit this pond right? But then we were STILL going and then we were in the water and everyone was laughing at my crazy horse and I was holding on for dear life and then he stopped, dropped her head, and began drinking the water. And the horse man comes and tells me how to make her turn. 

And then all the horses got really confused and wanted to go back and we were all running in circles and at one point my horse progressed from trot to GALLOP and I was gripping the saddle and there was one bounce where I was fairly sure I would fly off. No one reminded me about how hard you need to squeeze your legs when you are on a horse. But this time it was not just me. Basically there was a frenzy until horse man began grabbing horses left and right and finally getting everyone walking in the same direction. Then he showed us how to stop the horse - another important lesson I could have used at the beginning. The rest was mostly the same. My horse grew to hate me, because all he wanted to do was run after the two horses that were always up ahead, and all I would do is pull the reins as hard as I could and try my hardest to keep her walking. When we got back and hung around to pet the horses and pay horse man, he told me my horse's name was Tormenta. Oh. That explains it.


To finish off our trip we took a bus down to a harbor town called Coquimbo, since it was just a dollar each way. My this harbor was beautiful, and we had a great seafood lunch, with sea bass, ceviche, and my crab parmesan.

And then we took the bus home. And now? All of my shoes are wet or broken. Except my flats. My host family is wildly stressed out about my cold. When I first mentioned my sore throat, madre had a phone in her hand in a flash, ready to call a doctor, before I stopped her. Took some convincing. I guess it doesn't help that I got home today and got in my bed because my feet were so cold from the flats. In addition, I spent yesterday more sore than I'd ever been in my entire life. Every step I took shot spasms of pain up my back, and trying to cross my legs was like trying to squeeze an invisible ball of pain between my thighs. Damn Tormenta. It was significantly better today though. I will be reading a 25-page article on domestic violence for my research internship tonight. And it's all in Spanish. And tomorrow afternoon we are going to Villa Grimaldi, a concentration camp from the Pinochet era, which I'm really excited for.