...We Headed In A Northerly Direction

On Monday we got on a 7 1/2 hour bus journey to La Serena.  Anna suffers from panic attacks...and I am a control freak who doesnt like situations that are beyond my control!  So you can imagine the deep breathing that was having to be done when we discovered thast the road that the bus station is on was closed off that morning.  it was 10:02, the traffic was awful because of the closure and our bus was due to leave at 10:05!

But luckily the bus was late too, so we even had time to grab some sandwiches for the trip.  And I`m very glad, as I don`t think I would have survived 7 1/2 hours without food!

Me and Anna`s immediate impressions of La Serena were...not amazing.  It is a colonial town, and to be honest the central part feels like it could be any colonial town in Spain.  I actually took 0 pictures of La Serena itself, although I should really have snapped a few of it´s 29 churches...

On our first proper day there we decided to venture into the Valle Elqui, the valley where the grapes that make Pisco (Chile´s natioal spirit) grow.  Funnily enough, we did not go to a Pisco distillary, but to the town of Vicuña.  Vicuña is about an hour away from La Serena and it was very quiet, being low season.  We thought it would be nice to climb a hill mentioned in the guidebook.  The only problem was that there was NO directions to it!  But in true Project Trust volunteer style, we just looked for the nearest hill and started wandering in it´s direction.

Luckily (actually, it had nothing to with luck, but more to do with my amazing sense of direction :) ), we ended up on a little path that led to the top of the hill where there was indeed some good views, despite the mist.

Sunbathing on the roof.

Anna doesn´t like heights :)

And in true Chilean style there was a statue of the virgin on top of the hill.  I´m not sure that I have been to a town yet that hasn´t had a Virgin/Christ/cross on top of a hill somewhere!

Unfortunately I am on timed internet use!  So you shall have to wait for the rest of our travels so far: Copiapo yesterday and San Pedro de Atacama today!

...I Took Off On My Travels

Hello!  Sorry it´s been so long since my last post, me and Anna have been all caught up in themayhem that is pre-travel preparations.

But we´re here now!  We have officially left Colina for a month!

Our first stop is Valparaiso.  I´m sure you´ll remember it from the last time, the city with all the houses stacked up on the hills. Yes, well.  We both loved Valparaiso and wanted to pay it another visit.  So we made it our first port of call on our travels.  We arrived here on Friday afternoon and leave on Monday morning.

It´s been nice having our first stopover in a place that we´ve been before.  We don´t feel guilty about just chilling out for a bit, because we´ve seen all the main sights already.  So we´ve just had a nice few days of settiling into this whole travelling malarky and I am now really looking forward to the rest of our month´s road trip.

Have some more photos of Valpo:


Random horse in the big city!  Love it :)

What a welcome

One can never have enough street dogs!

An acensor and a random statue of Christ.  That´s got South America written all over it.

Playing with my camera and it´s b/w setting :)

Can´t forget the cats.

And the stairs!

Why not dry your clothes on the roof?

Life in Chile would not be the same without bread!  (Panadería = bakery...bread bakery)

Next we are heading further north to La Serena.  Talk to you all from there!