Pisco and La Serena

La Serena has to be one of the highlights of our visit to Chile - not for any spectacular scenery or fantastic adventures, but for the relaxed atmosphere of the hostel we stayed in and the ease with which we could get around to see the sights of La Serena and the surrounding area. It was also good to get out of the dry desert landscape.

The hostel (Casa de Maria) just consisted in rooms out of the back of Maria's house, and we shared the kitchen and other facilities with Maria and her family as well as numerous other tourists of all ages and nationalities. It had started when Maria took in an Israeli student off the street years ago - out of a concern for his well being, and the next thing she knew he was recommending her to his friends, and travellers have been turning up on her doorstep ever since, some coming back repeatedly for years.

Evenings invariably ended in us all sharing several bottles of the finest Chilean vintage (so long as it was under $2!) and swapping travel tales or hearing stories of Maria's life under the dictatorship here in Chile or of travellers past.

From La Serena we took a boat trip out to the Parque Nacional del Pinguino Humbolt to see penguins, dolphins, sea lions, cormorants and various other marine wildlife. it was quite a contrast to the Galapagos - the animals weren't all lined up waiting for us to take pictures and the boat was a lot smaller and the seas a lot rougher, a regular soaking from the waves seemed to take our minds off any sea sickness!

We also took at trip into the Elqui Valley, which is the centre of Pisco production (pic below of wine being distilled into pisco) in Chile - where we had a look around a distillery and sampled one of the premium pisco brands - pretty grim unless served with lemon and ice in a Pisco Sour (the national drink). Peru also claims Pisco as it's national drink, but it seems Chile claimed it for it's own by renaming a village Pisco Elqui and claiming they make more and better Pisco than Peru... lawyers are probably making a lot of money out of the row, but I don't think it's doing any harm to Pisco production and consumption in either country.