Serenity Now!

Santiago - La Serena

La Serena, the town we are leaving today, actually means "Love Night Song" according to Babel Fish (yes, I still use Babel Fish). I´m going to call that a Serenade, which makes sense because the point of this town are the lovely stars which have attracted the best observatory teams from all over the world.

Four Things I love about La Serena

1. Maria
Imagine living amongst incredibly noisy Brazilians who leave the door open to your room while they turn the light on and yell into their phone and have conversations with people out of the window. A window remains constantly open to the sounds of the street, including reggaeton and people screaming in Spanish because it´s raining (like "BOM-be-Bom be BOM-be-Bom be WAAH-ha-hahHEE Hombre estoy MOJADO be-BOM." Now is that annoying to read? Imagine hearing it at 4 am).

Now imagine being placed in a house where there are no sounds at night, you pay 9 bucks for your own bedroom, and in the morning a lovely, matronly woman is there giving you fresh papaya juice and fruit and directions. The house that she keeps is more like a courtyard with fruit trees, and our room opens into the courtyard. Did I mention she insisted upon doing our dishes for us? Did I mention she loves Simon and Garfunkel? Did I mention that I can understand everything she says because she talks slowly? Man, what a break.

Ok, so yes, I was drinking wine in my nice cosy bed.

Fresh squeezed Papaya juice in the morning?!

2. Pastel de Jaiva

Crab stew with mayonaise? Delicious. I´ve had it at least twice and hope to have it two more times before I leave Chile.

Edit: Josh refuses to even take a bite. I am more angry at him for this than for anything else he has done this trip.

Yum Yum Yum!!

3. Valle de Elqui

Impossible to pronounce, the Elqui Valley is perhaps one of the most picturesque slivers of agricultural real estate that I have ever seen. Imagine the vineyards of Italy or France but in between huge, snowcapped peaks and surrounding clean blue lakes. We had two really terrific excursions here. The first was in the dark, and while we didn´t see the valley itself at this point, we did see the universe (see Josh´s post). The second was a trip taken on our own initiative, and while the town at the end of the trip was notable only for its...well, nothing, we did climb a small hill that gave us a terrific view of the valley and the many internationally famous observatories that ring the valley.

View of the mountains from Vicuña

4. Josh is happy

Despite a scare with his wallet (he left it in the bedroom while we were at the supermarket) and the fact that he broke the fridge (too much force), Josh has been having a pretty good time here. Really, so have I (how can I not be with the beach, perfect lodging, sunshine, sky observatories, crab stew, and Tuscany in the Alps?). Josh especially has been in high form, loving the fact that all good decisions made over the last four days have been his decisions. Anyway, I figure I have some vacation capital that I can use to get him to do a few extra big hikes or perhaps a misadventure or two.

Josh, doing one of the things that Josh does best.

One Thing I Hate About La Serena

1. Whether it´s a map of Chile or a Walkman (I lost my Ipod and am having it sent to me later down the line), I can´t find a darn thing I want in this town. Sheesh.