La Serena!

Friday was a lecture on poverty, again in Spanish. Chile apparently has one of the lowest poverty rates in all Latin American countries, as a result of sensible social policies. I enjoyed the lecture, especially the part concerning what can be done in the future to alleviate poverty further, but thoughts of the beach clouded my mind. Finally, we left at 1245 to catch our 2 PM bus. I grabbed a couple bags of chips and an empenada at the bus station, but lunch was light that day since we were in a hurry. On the bus ride, I finished all 350 pages of Neruda´s memoirs, an enormously engaging and captivating autobiography of the poet´s life and travels. He led a triumphantly varied and down-to-earth existence, living in Burma, India, Europe, and many other places all the while campaigning for people´s rights and social equality. Despite his wealth in his later years, he never stopped fighting for common people around the world, and especially in his Chilean homeland. A powerful, inspirational book if I have ever read one.

The bus ride took longer then expected, as we made several stops along the way. We finally arrived in La Serena around 10 oclock, after 8 hours on the bus. After rejoicing on our freedom, we sought out the hostel we had booked, Hostal Jofre, which was only a couple blocks from the bus station. I ended up sharing a room with the Professor´s son, Francisco, a younger dude who starts college in the fall. The first night, we explored the city a little bit, ending up at a smoky little local bar, and being denied entrance to a club on the way back. A less then eventful night, but we had no worries. We had given the travel brochures a brief glance, deciding on a trip to the stars that Saturday evening and a tour of the pisco region on Sunday during the day.

Saturday I was up early, practicing poi in anticipation of burning on the beach. I was soon shirtless, as the sun came up early and the temperature quickly became quite warm. We finally all assembled shortly after 12 oclock, and we set off, with food being the first priority. We ended up at the mall next to the bus station, as the easiest option with the most choices. I had an awesome pizza and garlic bread meal from the local "Telepizza" chain that proliferates all over Chile. Upon returning from the bathroom, the strangest thing happened; I got a punch in my arm, looked over, and it was Alessandro, one of my new buddies I had been hanging out with the last weekend and Monday! Him and Nick and Gonzalo had been eating lunch at the same food court, some 20 odd feet away! I couldnt stop laughing at what a small world it turned out to be, I mean I had known they were headed to La Serena at some point but running into them at a random mall?

After lunch, we walked 20 minutes down to the beach, the beautiful Pacific. The day was sunny and warm, although the water could have been warmer. Only me and Danny had the cojones to get into the water, or perhaps we were the only ones who brought bathing suits. Regardless, I was slightly cold afterwards, but warmed up to the idea of spinning fire on the beach (something I´ve always wanted to do)...Obviously it is not the same as spinning in darkness, but nonetheless I spun in daylight, followed by Josh, Danny, Chelsea, and Kelly who all wanted to give it a try. We eventually absconded to a nearby beer shack on the ocean, to enjoy a beer in the afternoon sun, before returning to the hostel, where I took a much needed hot shower.

That evening, we prepared for the observatory. I grabbed a quick take out dinner, and more importantly a bottle of pisco and Coca cola, respectively. We all drank a little too much on the bus ride, but hey it was Saturday night right. I ended up chatting with a couple Mexican girls who were sitting next to us, in Chile for studying, one of whom said she spun fire as well. We finally reached the observatory, a magical place with the most impressive views of the stars I believe I have ever seen. I even took a picture of the moon through a closeup telescope view, incredible! I was determined to spin fire there, since it seemed like the perfect spot and our guide said he didn´t care, but two minutes into my burn a security officer came over and told me to stop. I was sad, but had to respect their rules there. We finally entered the observatory after an hour wait, and were treated to more amazing views of the stars and Jupiter...That night when we got back, everyone was too exhausted and tired to think about going out, especially with the early departure of our valley tour scheduled for the next day.

The Elqui Valley tour was another fantastic, amazingly surreal excursion through the mountainlands of Chile, through one of the only regions in Chile to produce grapes that are used in Pisco. Our first stop was at the Elqui dam, a giant construction that revealed epic, grand vistas of the lake behind it as well as cacti and more mountains. We passed through Vicuna, where we had stopped to buy tickets for the observatory the night before, before heading onwards. Another stop was at a local wine shop that sold marmalades and wine produced in the region, both of which I purchased as gifts. We also all pitched in to buy an expensive bottle of wine for Annie, our professor, as a way of saying thank you for being so awesome.

Lunch was at a funky solar powered restaraunt, with solar heaters out in front heating the food that was served to us. After this, we hit the distillery, which we were all excited about. We were shown the vats, distillation process, and given samples before being brought to the store, where I purchased a "Fuegos" brand bottle of Pisco that had been made right there on the spot. We were even given a couple free complimentary bottles of Mango Sour Pisco as a thank you for buying so much (pretty much everyone in our group bought a bottle or two, it was too unique and special of an opportunity to pass up)...Again, not much happened that evening as we were all exhausted from the long day trip. I was not looking forward to the long bus trip we had to make back to Santiago the next day, nor the idea of going back to class. Regardless, what a fantastic weekend!