It is a long way from Valparaiso to San Pedro. The manager of my hostel in Valparaiso suggested that I broke my journey in La Serena.
Hostel
I arrived in the city late in the afternoon. It took me a while to find the hostel. To be more precise it took me awhile to get into the hostel. I walked past it a couple of times before I realised that I had found it. The place is just a regular house.
Old and New
La Serena is one of the oldest cities in Chile. It is also one of the fastest growing cities. As a result it is place of two distinct parts: the original old town, and the newly developed areas.
The old town is quiet pleasant, with narrow streets and some very restaurants and cafes.
The new part of the city is not far away. There are two huge shopping centres. One in particular houses the largest supermarket I have ever seen.
Tour to Marine Park
There is not too much to see or do in La Serena. The manager of the hostel suggested that I take a tour on a Marine National Park to the north of the city.
The bus came to collect me quite early. There were only five people of the tour- a young English girl, an American women and a Chilean couple. The American woman turned out to be an Astronomer working for NASA. She was visiting one of the telescopes near to La Serena. She explained she really got to see a telescope. Most of her work involved programing a computer to enhance images of space that were sent to her over the internet.
She seemed to be very pleased to be able to travel anywhere. She explained that she, like many Americans got only two weeks holiday a year.
As we travelled north to the Marine Park, the astronomer took photographer and an extraordinary rate. This clearly amused that young English girl.
After almost 2 hours travelling we finally arrived at the marine park where we joined another couple of tour parties on a boat. The boat took us out to an island where we saw sea lions, penguins and sea otters. We then saw a pod of dolphins. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip.
It was very late when we finally made it back to La Serena
Heading North Again
My bus north to San Pedro left in the late afternoon the next day. This gave me the opportunity to do some much needed laundry.
Flickr Link
https://www.flickr.com/photos/twwilko_photos/sets/72157652282147435
billrider2013 