Monday, 18 March 2013
Our first stop was at
Coquimbo and
La Serena, Chile, a couple hundred miles up the coast from Valparaiso. Coquimbo is the port town where the ship docks, and is of no particular interest. La Serena is about 10 miles north of Coquimbo and is famous for it many old churches and its beaches (which we did not get to).
We didn't book an excursion, since all we wanted to do was stroll around La Serena. Our first order of business was getting from the dock in Coquimbo to La Serena. I had read that there were frequent buses between the two towns and the fare ran about $1. So we set off from the dock area to find the bus stop in Coquimbo. This, of course, led us to a walk through most of Coquimbo--we would ask someone where the bus stop was, he/she would point us to a location, and when we got to the location there was no bus stop. So we then asked a person at that location and he/she pointed to another location, etc. After about 5 misdirection episodes we found ourselves standing near a line of taxis, along with another American couple who had apparently been following us, thinking we knew where we were going. One of the taxi drivers offered us a ride for $20, which by this time we gladly accepted. (More on this later).
Anyway, about 15 minutes later, we found ourselves in the main plaza in La Serena, and began wandering through the town, which was very pleasant. Below are a few shots.
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| Plaza de Armas in La Serena |
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| Cathedral of La Serena on the Plaza de Armas |
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| Window in La Serena Cathedral |
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| Inside La Serena Cathedral |
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| Pedestrian street in La Serena |
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| Santo Domingo Church |
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| The souvenir market in La Serena |
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| Another view of the Cathedral and Plaza de Armas |
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| Iglesia La Merced |
After wandering around town for a couple of hours, we were ready to go back to Coquimbo. Once again we headed for the location where buses and shared taxis was supposed to be, and this time we actually found it! So, we got a shared taxi and went back to Coquimbo for $2, which was $18 less than we paid to get to La Serena.
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| A quick stop for churros near the dock in Coquimbo |
By late afternoon we were back on the ship and headed for Arica.
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| A view of Coquimbo from the ship. |
Next:
Arica, Chile
