Torres del Paine

Unexpected internet!

I'm going to try to sum up my trip to Torres del Paine in one post... so there will be a lot left unsaid. A brief intro: Abby and I flew south from La Serena to Punta Arenas, from where we traveled the three hours to Puerto Natales and met Will, the other boy on the Midd program in La Serena. The next day our journey began.

Here's the schedule we followed:

This map was fun to annotate.

Los Torres del Paine

At the park entrance we were lucky enough to be able to view the Torres del Paine clearly, albeit from a distance.








Day 1: Refugio Paine Grande -> Refugio Grey
We arrived by catamaran to Refugio Paine Grande, where we ate lunch.

view from the catamaran

We then hiked to Refugio Grey. The hike was a fair amount of uphill hiking and unfortunately my head started to bother me, but thankfully after some short breaks the headaches went away. Unfortunately my camera battery died shortly into the hike.

The views, however, were unbelievable. I had never seen a glacier before - I'd assumed Glacier Grey would be white or gray (as the name suggests), but instead was astounded by the interplay of different shades of blue, gray, and white. The various colors beautifully complemented the folding texture of the glacier.

Day 2: Refugio Grey -> glacier lookout -> Refugio Paine Grande

We heard that beyond the refugio there was a good mirador (lookout) that offered a closer view of Glacier Grey, so before heading back to Refugio Paine Grey, we decided to go in the opposite direction for one hour or so, until we reached the mirador. The hike to the lookout was mostly uphill, roughly following the shore of the lake that the glacier borders. When the trail popped out of the forest or turned more rocky, we could get a view of the glacier. When we were at the mirador I finally got a closer look at the glacier. The blue hues confounded me... So I did research and discovered that, according to NASA, "The coloring is due to the ice’s absorption of red wavelengths of light and scattering of blue wavelengths of light as it is transmitted through the ice." More information here - that site is worth checking out, if only to see the aerial view of the glacier.

On our way to Refugio Paine Grande we got to appreciate de nuevo the beautiful views of Lago Grey and the striking mountains on the opposite side of the trail. Forested sides quickly gave way on the steep slopes to snow-capped peaks.

Day 3: Refugio Paine Grande -> Mirador Francés -> Refugio Los Cuernos
We made excellent time as we passed by the impossibly blue Lago Skottsberg. Weather was perfect, which allowed Will to somehow spot two huge birds (condors?) flying around the peaks of los Cuernos del Paine ("Horns of Paine") FAR off in the distance.

We arrived at a campsite and dropped off the packs there, taking only a smaller backpack to go eat lunch in Valle Francés, the middle "prong" of the W. It was mostly uphill - and therefore tiring - on the way there, but absolutely beautiful. At first we walked along a river of glacial runoff, so the roaring of rushing water accompanied us along the trail. We walked for about an hour into the valley, until we were far above the river. We heard incredible, echoing booms as enormous chunks of snow and ice fell from the heights of the mountains in the valley, encountering glacial ice and rocks on their descent. Every once in a while we heard a particularly deafening one, and the heads of everybody at the lookout would turn in unison to watch the huge chunks fall gracefully into a cloud of snow and finally disappear.

Panorama of Valle del Francés, looking north

Panorama of Valle del Francés, looking south

After lunching we headed back to the campsite and worked our way to our next destination, Refugio Los Cuernos. En route we stopped by Lago Nordenskjöld for a break to enjoy the view, since we were making such good time. Its shore was entirely rocks and Will wanted to try skipping some.

Lago Nordenskjöld

Day 4: Refugio Los Cuernos -> Refugio Chileno -> Mirador Los Torres -> Refugio Chileno


This day started out a bit rainy, which only served to emphasize the beautiful greens of the scenic hillsides. Will and I decided that the hills with amazing color alterations between bright and dark shades of green looked like they belonged in Norway... despite the fact that neither of us have ever been to Norway.

When we got to Refugio Chileno, we discovered that we had shaved at least two hours off of the estimated 6 or 6.5 hour journey. After resting for around an hour, Will and I decided to do the hike to el mirador de los Torres to see if we could get a glimpse of the elusive Torres del Paine. Abby's knees were causing her a lot of pain so she wisely decided not to join us.

The Torres are often viewed as the culmination of the W circuit... but are usually shrouded in clouds. Though exhausted, I found a reserve of energy because I knew I would beat myself up later if I didn't go. On the way up if it's clear you can supposedly get a glimpse of los torres. I couldn't because they were swimming in clouds. But at the top, by some stroke of luck (maybe it was the 10+ four-leaf clovers Abby and I found on the trail...) there was a gap in the clouds when I arrived at the top, through which I had a relatively unobstructed view of the famed peaks. I hadn't expected to see them so close - they were more imposing than I had imagined, which was a humbling experience in person. A bit below the mirador was another one of those lovely lakes. It seemed perfectly natural that it should have its home among the boulders, too, though I originally thought it looked out of place. We only enjoyed the rare view of los torres for about fifteen minutes  - fog returned quickly to claim its territory.

Here's the evolution of the Torres as I saw it. After 20 minutes or so, you couldn't even see the lake.

 

 

Day 5: Refugio Chileno -> Hostería Torres
We hiked down from Refugio Chileno to Hostería Torres as the final stretch of our W circuit. Unfortunately, the hike to the mirador the day before really messed up one of my knees, so I limped the entire way down. Thankfully, it was our easiest day.

At Hostería Torres we took the shuttle to the park entrance and then headed back to Puerto Natales.

People
We ran into a ton of really cool people on our trip, ranging from Dan the Man to somebody who knew a professor from Bowdoin and the professor's parents. Some German patent lawyers urged Abby and Will to patent some of the ideas they are utilizing in Middlebury's Solar Decathalon entry; we played hearts with a fellow Midd student in Abby and Will's year; an Australian woman gifted us a book, two oranges, and an apple; we found a lot of people who we would have invited to play cards with us; etc.

Everybody was incredibly friendly, too - you said hello to basically everybody you passed. Sometimes Abby, Will, and I decided to say hi in different languages rather than the standard English and español (by the end of the trip we covered at least five others, I think). Other people also got creative: we went by one group of 7 guys going in the other direction who said their holas in ascending notes, forming a nice scale.

We came across travelers from Germany, France, Australia, Holland, Japan, Korea, Brasil, Israel, Argentina, India, and more.

Fire
There was a big fire in the park about one year ago (read about it here), and the evidence is still easy to spot. Charred trees dominated some of the landscapes we hiked through, and we passed dozens of "zonas en recuperación."

Quick post

Hello dear readers!

I'm currently all packed to begin my travels. Abby is here with me in La Serena and we leave tomorrow morning to go to Patagonia.

I've had an excellent time during her quick visit. We went to the beach to hang out with friends and play a informal game of frisbee one day.

Today we went to the Japanese Garden in La Serena, then later went for a day trip with some friends to Valle del Elqui. It was a wonderful day.

I probably won't have internet for a couple/few weeks, but on my return I will post more!

So I will wish you all an early Merry Christmas and an on-time Happy Hanukkah.

Chileno

How to Speak Chilean

Use Palabras y frases Chilenas
You have to change a bunch of words, as such:
frijoles -->  porotos
aguacate --> palta
novio/a --> pololo/a
prometido/a--> novio/a
cacahuetes --> maní
to party --> carretear
a party --> carrete
maíz --> choclo
aretes --> aros
cometa --> volantín
bebe --> guagua (pronunciado "WAH-wah")
camiseta --> polera
hoodie --> polerón
estómago --> guatita (pronunciado "wah-TEE-tah")
fresa --> frutilla
etc

... and there are some words unique to the country/region:
weón
po
cachai (cachar)
flaite
al tiro
bacán
etc

Aspirate esses.

take out syllables.
para --> pa'
nada--> na'
etc

Add diminutives. For example, though I may say in this blog that I have "té" with my family, that's never true. We actually have "tecito." Agua? Nope, aguita. In your math class you may say punto (point) but in mine we say puntito. You may think your face is a cara but it's actually a carita. If a mom is addressing her daughter, she often says "mijita" (from "mi hijita," which comes from "mi hija" - my daughter). You get the picture.

I decided not to post swear words, but I could have a post dedicated to them.

And, of course, there's a lot more - I might edit this to add more.

El Cerro Grande

The first week I got to La Serena I decided that I wanted to climb el Cerro Grande (big hill) that overlooks La Serena. You can tell that it would offer an excellent view - the ocean and city to the west, inland mountains to the east. Will and I tried to make plans to do it multiple times, but it never worked out for some reason.

I've also found it somewhat hard to come across Chileans who are interested in doing that sort of thing. Some of my friends expressed interest in going, but we never arranged it. So when another friend mentioned that he been up el cerro recently and I mentioned that I wanted to climb it before I left, we made plans to do so.

Imagine: Though the summit has a lot of electrical towers and antennae, you can just walk around them so they don't mar the view. You can see the entirety of La Serena - both the main part of the city and the neighborhoods that are on the outskirts. Everything looks so small; it feels odd to be standing on the top of the hill looking down when the opposite is usually true. Far in the distance you can make out Cruz del Tercer Milenio in Coquimbo, but it blends into the horizon. The haze that comes with such distance blurs the shoreline a bit, and the immensity of the ocean blends with the sky. When you walk around the electrical towers to look down upon the other side of the scenery, you see Valle del Elqui spreading out before you. Fields of crops are just blocks of greens and browns; they slowly give way to the surrounding hills and mountains that loom above the valley.

Beautiful, no?

Unfortunately, that imaginary scenario is just that for me: imaginary. Although the sky was perfectly clear on the walk to the foot of el cerro grande, halfway through the trek up, clouds started rolling in... and by the time we got to the top, we couldn't see anything. But I think that's what it would look like.


Anyway, here are the pictures I took:

beautiful day!

Then the clouds arrived. 

:(

I had mostly wanted to do the hike for the view, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Every week multiple people tell me that my Spanish is quite good. The problem with their comments is that people generally ask me the same standard questions: what are you studying? What classes are you taking? How do you like Chile? Why did you choose to study in Chile? I meet a lot of new people every week - friends of friends, friends of the family, classmates, etc. So although I don't have a script for these answers, I've navigated the territory many times before and I'm comfortable in what I say when I answer them. I don't need to hesitate to think something through or wonder if my grammar is right as I explain that although I study neuroscience and math in the US, I mostly just have random classes here.

I hiked with my friend Sebastian, from my Climatology class. Sebastian and I became friends because we live near each other and some days we'd find ourselves walking the 20 minutes home, so we'd walk and chat. Sometime in October we realized that we both headed home at the same time on Fridays, so we arranged to wait for each other at the university and walk home together. After weeks of those conversations, we had covered those basic grounds and were able to talk about more interesting things - whether music, writing, hiking, or something else.

The total time for the outing to el Cerro Grande was about 5 hours - ample time for many conversation themes. We ended up talking about existentialism, God, Chilean culture, US culture, school systems, and more.... my Spanish has clearly improved, though even still I often had trouble expressing what I wanted to say. But it was very nice to have an extended time to talk about more than just basic topics. It gave me a chance to learn new vocabulary and actually practice my conversational Spanish.

Valle

This past Saturday morning I went to Valle del Elqui with Will, Nelly, Leyla, Kathy, and the two Chilean girls'  boyfriends. (side note: we were planning on leaving at 9:00, and I got there a bit late at ~9:10. Didn't matter because people function on Chilean time. The people who lived there were still waking up, and the others didn't get there 'til about 10. We ended up leaving at about 10:30.) It's a pretty drive of just over an hour, but I was tired after a late night and slept through a fair amount of it.

We arrived at the cabaña, nestled in a small valley between two big hills and about five minutes by car away from the main town of Vicuña.

It was HOT in Valle del Elqui - probably in the mid eighties, maybe up to the nineties. Since it's farther removed from the coast than La Serena, I suppose it heats up a lot more. I was able to wear my jorts for the first time in months, which felt pretty awesome. There was  a pool as a part of the little complex of cabañas, which I had planned on swimming on Saturday but didn't get around to it.

... I was too busy reading on a lounge chair in the sun.

I exhausted my supply of four books written in English a week or two after arriving in Chile, so I was reading in Spanish this time around. I've been making slow progress on Harry Potter y el misterio del príncipe (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). I had a sheet of paper and a pen with me to write down vocabulary words - from Saturday to Sunday I wrote down over 400 just from reading.

We went to Vicuña to pick up some food items we hadn't brought with us - including ice cream. The ice cream there was phenomenal. We got four flavors: canela (cinnamon), coco (coconut), vainilla (you can figure that one out), and mango (passionfruit. kidding. mango, obviously). I had a lovely moment where I mentioned that I didn't like coca ice cream. Which means: "I don't like cocaine ice cream."
... oops! Everyone laughed and then someone corrected me. Could have been worse.

Saturday evening Will and I walked up one of the nearby hills to get some pictures of the sunset, which wasn't as stunning as we had hoped but the view itself that the vantage point afforded was well worth it. Quite spectacular.

You could see the moon! 

I loved the double gradient in this scene - the sky and the mountains.

We went down the hill before it was too dark and enjoyed barbecued food that David was making. It was an early night for me - I ended up getting 10 or 11 hours of sleep, which hadn't happened in a long time!

I woke up feeling well rested. Hopped in the pool, read some more, and overall just relaxed. We had leftovers from the asado for lunch and then packed up and drove home. A lovely weekend!

Día de Acción de Gracias

(a week late! sorry!)

Last Thursday, unlike all of the students in the US, I had class. Three classes, actually. Somewhat of a bummer. But after finishing up at 4, I went over to Will's house and we made a pumpkin squash pie. The local market and the supermarket didn't have any pumpkins, so we made do with a European squash.

Cuttin' Squash

Mashin' squash

Mixin' squash

Pourin' squash
 

We had bought a crust from the grocery store, but it was quite shallow, so we ended up keeping the outer shell to add more space. Some leaked out the bottom... But it worked. We removed it when we took the pie out of the oven and it worked perfectly - the pie held its shape (towering over the tiny crust).

Will prepared the turkey, and his host mom prepared a salad and mashed potatoes. Somehow Will even managed to find (good!) cranberry sauce at the supermarket. It was a tasty meal.

the set-up

We ate the cena a la gringo (... American dinner) with Will's host family - his host tía, Nelly, and the two other Chilean students staying there, Leyla and Kathy - as well as Kathy's boyfriend and a friend of Leyla's.

Eatin' squash

It was a delicious meal and the company was excellent, but I did miss being home with my family.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year because it combines some of the things I love most - family, friends, and good food. This is the first year I can remember that we haven't hosted Thanksgiving at our house in CT. My favorite tradition (though discontinued at this point) was always Thanksgiving hockey. At home, Abby and I would usually make pies the day before Thanksgiving, and hopefully get a game of frisbee in with our friends. Then on Thanksgiving Day I looked forward to when people started arriving - when enough cousins and friends were there, the hockey would commence.

There's something perfect about warming up while playing hockey on a brisk, November day, then going inside to be tempted by the smells wafting out from the kitchen. But inevitably you end up waiting for hours more than expected to try the food...  Even if we say we're going to eat at 4:30, it usually ends up being 6:30 at the earliest before we can taste the delectable creations.

So to all my U.S. readers: I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgivings!

(And now we can all start listening to Christmas carols without feeling guilty. ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬)

La Rabia

This past weekend a stray dog bit me. I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when el callejero crossed the street, followed me a few steps, then bit my thigh. The dog unclamped its jaws, barked a couple times, then trotted back across the street.

I was perplexed, to say the least. I'd never heard of callejeros biting anyone. They sometimes follow people to beg for food, but this behavior was definitely odd - especially considering that it was completely unprovoked. The circumstances were sketchy enough that I couldn't rule rabies out, despite the fact that the bite didn't break my skin. There have been cases, though few, of people contracting rabies just from infected saliva.

I talked to Middlebury program employees, then the program director, then with my parents, who talked with a doctor back home... And said I should get vaccinated. So last night after returning from my internship I sheepishly approached my host mom and said that I had been bitten by a dog... and would she please drive me to the clinic?

The clinic was packed. We waited a long time just to "sign in" and talk to a secretary, who then told us that it would be hours before I could be seen. Instead of waiting through all that, early this morning I went to the university health center to see if they could give me the vaccinations. Also, the there doctor reiterated (as have most people here, including my host mother, the secretary at the clinic, and the secretary at the ULS health center) that it was probably not necessary to get the vaccination because the bite hadn't broken my skin, but conceded it might be best to do the treatment just in case.

The ULS departamento de salud estudiantil (student health center) couldn't administer the shots, but gave me the prescription/doctor's order necessary and directed me to the hospital. In the emergency room I had to wait an hour and a half to get treated there, but eventually did get the first dose.

My hospital room:

Attention!!! Don't throw up in the sink - use the trash can.

Though it's very unlikely that I did get rabies from the dog, my theory was better safe than sorry.
Or, Más vale prevenir que curar.
(which literally translates to: better to prevent than need to cure. The best English equivalent is "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.")

The spanish dicho (saying) is an interesting analogy. It doesn't quite suggest the same thing as "better safe than sorry" because it implies that you CAN get cured even if you don't take preventative measures. Whereas with rabies, if you decide to confirm you have rabies by waiting until symptoms appear... well, you're out of luck. If symptoms appear, it's fatal and there's nothing you can do about it. So preventative is really the only way to go. Más vale prevenir que morir!

Más dichos:
In Spanish there's a saying: "El perro que ladra no muerda," the English equivalent being: "A barking dog seldom bites." I thought that made this situation kind of funny, since the dog both bit and barked. (I suppose in English the expression says 'seldom' instead of 'never' for a reason...)

Anyway, this Saturday I'll be going for my next dosage, and then again a week from now, two weeks from now, and four weeks from now.

DELE

In a couple hours I'm going to Santiago for the weekend, since tomorrow I take the DELE - a Spanish exam for extranjeros (foreigners). If all goes well, it can go on my resume and will basically assert that I'm fluent in Spanish (yeaaah right). Yikes.

However, I will make a real post on Sunday! Last night Rachel, a friend from Bowdoin who is studying in Valparaíso, came to La Serena, and we had an excellent night. So, tales to come!

Across the Andes: Argentina

What happens when two Germans, two Frenchmen, a Finn, and an American take a bus to Argentina?


(it sounds like an interesting joke. Let me know if you come up with a good punchline.)

My journey started off badly. I got lost going to the apartment of my travel companions to eat dinner together before our trip started, and ended up wandering around dark, unlit streets at 9:30pm, clearly looking like a lost gringa. I was not thrilled about that situation. However, I eventually made it to the apartment and enjoyed a delicious dinner and dessert with great company.

We walked to the bus terminal and I slept through most of the first bus. We arrived in Santiago when it was still dark, then an hour and a half later got on the second bus to take us to Mendoza. I slept for about an hour or two on this one, but when I woke up and looked out the window I couldn't shut my eyes again. We were driving through the Andes - an awesome sight, in the meaning that it inspires awe*. Not the trite "awesome" that I usually use.

We passed into Argentina!

 We were lucky to spend 3 hours in aduanas (customs)! Yippee... But we were allowed to wander around outside of the bus for about half an hour of that, which was lovely.

Once we were on our way again, more beautiful vistas greeted us:

When we got into Mendoza, we walked to the hostel to drop our bags off, then headed to the local tourist office to get some ideas for plans for the next few days.

Friday morning we got up early to catch a bus to Potrerillos, about an hour and a half outside of the city, to do some hiking. Unfortunately, we had been given a screwy bus schedule and we ended up having a couple hours free before the next bus. We bought some lunch food to take with us and went to see the lovely Plaza de España, pictured below.

Louis... how French! 

We then headed to the bus terminal and ended up arriving at Potrerillos at 11:30am. We asked around where were good places to hike without a tour guide, and didn't receive very helpful answers. However, we ended up taking one man's advice and picking a rocky hill/mountain and forging our own path. It was a bit treacherous (especially on the way down!) but the view was phenomenal.

What a great lunch spot!

On the left you can see a red river - I'm assuming that the color comes from clay in the ground. It flows into the impossibly blue lake in the center of the picture - but the two don't mix, creating an interesting visual effect. We stopped for lunch a bit below the top of the ridge line of the mountain we were on - "lunch" meant loaves of french bread paired with cheese, accompanied by bananas and apples.

Miraculously, we descended the rock-strewn slope without twisting any ankles or sustaining any injuries. We headed to the blue lake after, in hopes of cooling ourselves off, but it wasn't swimmable, unfortunately. 

The next day, we spent the morning exploring the city. I went with Jan, one of the Germans, to the large park on the western side of Mendoza, then climbed the hill that affords a marvelous view of the city and its surroundings.

I love the makeshift crown.

View of Mendoza from Cerro de la Gloria

Monument to the Ejército de los Andes

Panorama from Cerro de la Gloria

After exploring some of the plazas and parks in Mendoza, we all went on a tour of the bodegas (wineries) of Maipu. Maipu, in the Mendoza Province, is well-known for its abundant wineries and excellent wine. First, though, we went on a tour of an olive-oil factory. That was both interesting and delicious, as it culminated in a taste test of various types of olive oil paired with bread.

Tours of two of Mendoza's many bodegas ensued, both ending with wine tastings.

Wow. Huge.

 When we returned to the city after our tour, we went out to eat for the first time in Mendoza rather than cooking in the hostel. We ate outside, since even at 9:45pm the weather remained in the 70s. This meant that we were serenaded by street musicians hoping for tips throughout dinner, which was a blessing and a curse depending on the performer. We slept soundly after another full day.

Unfortunately, I had to get up early to leave on Sunday due to a test Monday morning, but the others stayed in Mendoza until Sunday night. Though getting up at 5:45 didn't really agree with me, I was glad to be traveling during the daytime to be able to enjoy the wonderful paisajes on the return trip.

I wish I could have stayed in Mendoza for longer! I would have loved to get to know the city more, since there was so much to do. But as it is, I had an amazing trip that was well worth the many travel hours it entailed.

*Awesome. Awe-some. Some-awe. I don't understand why the word is not "awefull" - full of awe. But instead, we have awful... which is on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum.

One of the many reasons I'm glad I'm a native English speaker. It must be brutally difficult to learn English.

Más feriados

Yet another long weekend, which means more traveling! Thursday is Día de Todos los Santos, and Friday is Día de las Iglesias Evangélicas y Protestantes.

I will be going to Mendoza, Argentina this weekend with a bunch of other international students: two from Germany, two from France, and one from Finland. Can't wait!

Alexander von Humboldt... and his penguins

Thursday evening I went to the second showing of the five-part series of  cine alemán (German theater/movies) this semester - "Die Besteigung des Chimborazo" (El ascenso al Chimborazo - I don't think it even has a title in English). It was about Alexander von Humboldt and his journey up the unsummited Chimborazo, in Ecuador (shoutout to Abby - you should totally do this).

I liked the film. It was in German with spanish subtitles, and I found (for the second time) that being able to read the subtitles was actually much easier than movies in Spanish without subtitles (reading has no accent, I suppose). But I still didn't understand everything. Humboldt's expedition never made it to the top, ending in a dramatic scene of everybody with frostbite and severe altitude sickness about to die (... have fun, Ab!). I don't think they did die - well, I know Humboldt didn't - but the movie ended with that small detail left ambiguous.

Learning about Alexander von Humboldt was especially interest since on Saturday I went with three students from the Middlebury in Chile program and our program director + his wife to the Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt. We first went to Punta de Choros, a small fishing village about two hours north of La Serena, where the tour started.

Guanacos, seen en route to Punta de Choros 

Punta de Choros

Punta de Choros was a relatively small town, quiet this Saturday morning. There were some fisherman up and about, but I didn't see many people in general, despite the fact that it was almost 11am.

We set off on boat and toured the coast of Isla Choros, with our guide pointing out various features of the island as well as the wildlife there. Punta de Choros is known for its biodiversity - especially for its concentration of Humboldt penguins - so it was really nice to have a guide to describe what we were seeing.

Humboldt penguins hanging out next to Isla Damas

You aren't allowed to land on Isla de Choros, but Isla Damas is open to visitors, so we alighted there. In order to preserve its biodiversity, visits are limited to one hour. That allowed just enough time to walk a loop of the island, which was beautiful and absolutely teeming with birds.

From the shores of Isla Damas 

As the one-hour limit approached, our tour guide hurried the group back onto the boat. A pod of bottlenose dolphins was approaching, and if we hurried we would be able to follow them. We managed to stay with the dolphins for about 15 minutes, I'd guess. They were playful - some coming right up to the boat and jumping alongside, or swimming under. 

Dolphins! off the coast of Isla Damas

 After the dolphin pod headed in a different direction, our boat turned back towards the mainland. We had a delicious lunch (I'm in love with all of the jugos naturales offered in Chile) and then drove back to La Serena.