Where in the world is Lani?

Hola Amigos & Amigas!

Ang & I enjoyed our last few days in La Serena by visiting the local Archaeological museum to take in some Chilean history. After trying to buy tickets for 5 minutes we realised that on the weekends that entry is free (hey - at least it didnt take us 10 or 20 minutes!) and we had a good stroll around. The museum was featuring loads of results of digs done in Chile over the last few hundred years, including full skeletons in tombs, original Chilean jerwellery & other implements from their time on earth. It was fascinating, but the definite highlight was discovering a statue as made famous by Easter Island (Rapa Nui). It was amazing, and we were even more suprised that we could do up close and touch the statue and get our pictures taken alongside it! There was no glass, no security guard and no red ropes!

We were also fascinated/grossed out by the shrunken heads & mummifed bodies display. It was one of those moments where you couldn´t look away, but you couldn´t keep looking as they were pretty freaky! My spanish was tested as all the explanations were hard to follow. When i have some time i would love to find out how they actually explain shrunken heads & why their mouths were sewn up & the heads are perfect mini versions of what a human head looks like ewwww.

In the evening we farewelled our newest travelling buddies - Liz from Holland and Adrian from England. We had been travelling with them since Valpa and it was sad to see them go, but we have the possibility of meeting back up with them in the Galapagos which is good!

On Saturday (our last day in La Serena) we thought it would be nice to do a bbq with our 2 new gal pals from Norway. I think the bbq we cooked the other night had built us up a good reputation and the Norweigans were keen to see if Aussies do indeed have bbq-ing skills in their blood. What started as a quiet barbie for 4 ended up as a massive night for the whole hostel. There were 4 other Aussie´s staying who joined in, as well as a couple of Belgians, 2 yanks and a partridge in a pair tree! We had a great night, and the only bummer was that we had to leave at 11pm to get to the bus station for another great overnight bus ride back to Santiago.

We arrived safe and sound, sleep deprived but ok. Our hostel here is the other side of town to where we stayed on first arrival so it gives us an opportunity to see the rest of the city which is nice. Looking forward to getting some sleep after (the 2nd of many) 7 + hour bus rides across South America.

Ciao!