The last few days have been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. La Serena was beautiful. We stayed at a hostel called Maria´s Casa where Maria (a 50 something lady) was too hungover to welcome us after partying too hard with the previous backpackers the night before. Her son Fernando was more than helpful in giving us a run down of the town. We drank in a Chilean old man sports bar, went to the local museum and saw real life mummies and a genuine easter island head. At night we splurged out and had a three course seafood meal with a good bottle of Chilean sav blanc for $50 for the both of us.
The next day we headed inland to a small colonial town called Vicuña. It looked like the setting for an old spaghetti western. A very cool little place. We are currently in Copiapo about 5 hours north of La Serena. It is a mining town and very boring. The people are nice but there´s not much to do except drink and wait for the bus.
I have become obsessed with jewel encrusted belts and buckles so I am now on a mission to find them. Nadia is hunting jewellery bargains. In a day or so we´ll be in the Atacama Desert and can´t wait!
