La Serena Investigative Report

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door...oh wait, that's La Iglesia de Santo Domingo...

La Magica de la Naturaleza

Can I ring your bell?

The bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere! If I didn't have my
girl scout nature guide & my compass, I would have been super scared.

Trekking through La Serena

The group at Hostel Jofre

Presidential candidate Marco Heriquez Onomami

About to catch our 11:30 pm bus to La Serena

El sanctuario a la Virgen Maria de Lourdes

El Mercado Recabo donde puedes comprar cualquier cosa en el mundo

Niki y yo en un mar de flores

As you know from the previous post, our investigation report on our cultural experience in La Serena this past weekend was a total success. The trip turned out different than I would have though but I learned a lot through the experience. For example, if you are going to take a bus 7 hours to a place known for its observations and pisco factories, you guys should plan to visit these things before hand. Because there were two groups of 5 going to La Serena, it was hard to try to be the leader and tell everyone what the plan was. So I just went with the flow. But looking back, I never want to spend $30 on a bus ticket and $15 on a hostel and even more on food to just walk around the town. Fue una lastima que no pudieramos visitar el observatorio ni la factoria de pisco ni una isla en la que vive los penguinos (yes...penguins!). But I plan on going back and the important thing is that we got what we needed to make a great presentation. We talked to many people from La Serena who showed us that tourism is a huge part of the economy in this town and their primary goal albeit tacit was to make el extranjero siente comodo en su cuidad. One guy that we met was a waiter at a restaurant who wore an American flag pin on his shirt. He ended up talking to us for about an hour about his views on politics and why he always looks forward to talking with Americans. Amidst his intense sharing of opinion, I got to a point where I could hardly keep my eyes open. This wasn't due to the quality of conversation but rather to the fact that we had left Santiago at midnight and arrived in La Serena at about 6 am, scrambled to find a hostel, and then went right to exploring. Fighting my heavy eye lids, I took to walking around La Serena while my collegues continued gathering information from the waiter Manuel. I found my way to a minimart con el prepositio que pueda comprar un cafe para despertarme. I ended up talking to the clerk who told me that back in the day, they would create myths about La Serena to bring tourists and foreigners to the area. He told me the story of El Tesoro de Francis Drake which is said to be hidden somewhere but no one knows where. Thus people began to come to La Serena with the hopes of finding this hidden treasure. He also told me that there are tunnels under the city from the churches to other places. I discussed these two interesting facts in my presentation today because those are types of things that I love learning about...the mystery, the magic, the culture.

Being in La Serena made me realize why I decided to come to Chile. When Megan and I were in Costa Rica, we stayed in a small mountain town for the first 3 days and it was there that I found myself reviving my Spanish. This happened so effortlessly because 1) I HAD to speak Spanish. There was no other option. But more importantly 2) There is a certain compassion I find amongst the people of a small town no matter if it is in Phelan, CA or La Serena, Chile. I LOVE that compassion because the mentality of the city folk is hard for me to handle. Being able to get out of the city for a while and feel the fresh air of a historic beach city to the north was a great experience for me. I am progressing with my Spanish but it will always be difficult to talk to a stranger. You never know how fast they are going to talk or whether they will have patience or WHAT! But the people in La Serena whether at the restaurants, the open air artisan market, the hostal, or the minimart made me remember why I decided to come to Chile. This made the trip worth it.

Finally, when we got back from exploring the city, I laid down to take a "nap" (Lee Lee, if you are reading this, you are already one step ahead of me) and didn't wake up until 7 am the next morning. Annie and I started talking about how we wouldn't have time for any of the stuff I mentioned before and just as we were getting frustrated about the fact that we hadn't planned well enough, Niki came in to suggest me go horseback riding! Long story short, we decided to go! We took a bus 30 minutes from La Serena which dropped us off on a random country road which we had to walk down for about 15 minutes with all of our gear. When we got to the place, it was a genuine Chilean ranch and our guide was a genuine Chilean cowboy! Mom, I could not help but think of Man From Snowy River the entire time I was there! :) We went up into the mountains and let it be said that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience...unless of course I do it again. But you get the point. All in all, Annie and I agreed that the horseback riding "made the trip". Like I said, we plan to return to La Serena to see the famous observatory, pisco factory, and penguin island. But for now, I can revel in the fact that we truly did investigate that beautiful city (founded in 1544 by the way!!) and had fun doing it.