Today was the day we had to head to La Serena. A daunting five hour drive stood before us....
I'm kidding.
A five hour drive is nothing.
Until you remember you're in a foreign country with unfamiliar customs and why are there so many bikes on the highway? Is that a horse? What is that person doing waving a white banner? Oh! Are they selling something?? What is it?? I just see white!
Is the entire highway a toll road?
Where are the gas stations? That's just a restaurant.
And another one.
^^^^^^
Only a few thoughts and utterances that were heard today by Katelyn and I.
And by heard I mean that was our running dialogue.
Well we also had, 'Wow! Look at the scenery!"
Which we were happy to have because leaving Santiago, we were a bit apprehensive about our drive.
As we were checking out this morning, our hostel guy was telling us that it's a boring drive.
It was actually funny. He asked me when I was heading back to the states and I was like..."The 5th?"
"Did you know there's an eclipse?"
"Oh yes! That's why we're leaving for La Serena today."
Dude looked so relieved it was very endearing. And then we talking about the drive up there and asked for tips where he said it was going to be boring.
The first...hour was yeah. Not inspiring. But then we went through a tunnel here and BAM. Mountains and slanting rays of sunshine falling onto the rolling mists below. As the sun rose and evaporated the fog, we saw gargantuan mountains rising to our rights and ascending sharply into the sky. The mountains were craggy and sandy and covered with cacti.
It was something.
Then we took a brief detour to a chinchilla reserve where the second we pulled in...and I mean like IMMEDIATELY the guide beckoned us over to an area where there was a chinchilla hanging out outside of its burrow. It was so cute.
We then had a brief introduction to Chinchillas, all in spanish, and we were....well I didn't really get any of it.
I'm sure it was very informative.
Then we were taken into like.... a subterranean room where it was pitch black except for the very faint glow of a green tube light that had chinchilla exhibits.
He pointed out the ones and we nodded and ooed and awed but there is still this giant language barrier.
Duolingo failed me!
I kid, it was me, I failed me.
But the impact is still the same.
After the chinchillas, we went back to the main road and, by the way, on the way to the chinchilla reserve, we saw goats and sheeps just hanging out on the highway. It wasn't THE highway, but still. The speed limit was minimum, 80km/h.
No accidents were had by goats, and on this same road, we also saw some small towns that might be overlooked by the average tourist. Or maybe I'm projecting. Who knows.
Back on the Pan-American Highway more tolls were passed, one even gave us a flier about the upcoming eclipse, and we then passed more restaurants except this time we did stop at one! We got some empanadas and honestly it was the best spanish I've spoken all trip. We got a meat and cheese one each and went back on our merry way. For 2 km. Then I had to stop for gas.
Except here, they do have a full service situation going on here. Like, I got in line behind a bunch of other cars (it was the first gas station after like....150+ km.) and eventually I pulled up, and a guy in a gas station uniform came up to my window, asked how much I wanted (llena! Or lleno? Full. I asked for a full tank.) then he had me pop open the gas cap and he filled it up. I also got a road map of Chile because our phones have been super spotty and I didn't want to risk losing any sense of navigation.)
It was actually pretty painless.
But to be fair I had prepared for it last night.
Internet man.
It's the best.
It was about the last interesting thing that happened until we arrived in Coquimbo and La Serena. (Except for the sweeping scenery and the appearance of the ocean and the dramatic cliffs that the waves crashed against. I honestly think the Chilean coast is the prettiest coast I've ever seen.) Traffic picked up and instead of arriving at our hostel in like 20 minutes (once we made it to La Serena) we made it in....40? Honestly it wasn't THAT bad, especially compared to Atlanta traffic.)
We arrived at our hostel and after getting our things inside, we took a quick break before we started walking around La Serena.
Except.
As crowded as traffic was, La Serena is DEAD. Like the streets are dark and the shops are closed.
Maybe it's because it's Sunday, but Katelyn and I were talking about the eerie similarity between La Serena at 7:30 and Santiago at 10pm.
Everything is closed.
For major cities, we kind of expect...not everything, but at least some things to be open. Restaurants, bars, maybe some clubs.
But nothing.
Food shops were shutting down in Santiago before we made our way to the play, and were closed afterwards.
And La Serena, we only found one restaurant open.
Luckily it was a good restaurant but we didn't really have any other options.
Especially not within walking distance. We might have been able to call a pizza place, but, we found this place.
We also found 1 club.
We think.
It had a neon or LED strip around the door, but there was no one outside of it and the music wasn't very loud, but there was a sign above it.
It was just odd.
But, we make do, and it's an adventure!
But the hostel beckoned (since literally nothing else was) so we called it quits for the night and have just been getting to know our fellow hostel....ers.....guests?
We've got a delightful woman from Germany, Helene who has been traveling all over South America for quite a bit now and surprisingly, is NOT- here for the eclipse.
Just total happenstance! She's not sticking around and I don't blame her. If traffic is an indication then there are a lot of people in the city-plus the news-
La Serena-despite all appearances-is crowded.
(Just not at night.)