Chile - La Serena

La Serena itself was nothing special, but two very nice things happened when I was there. Firstly, I shared a room with really nice people with whom I instantly clicked. The first night we met we went out to eat together, and then the next day I went on a trip with the half-Polish half-Swiss girl. We went to see the chilean "poor man's Galapagos" - Isla Damas & Choros :) It was again my favorite type of a trip, using cheap local transport instead of overpriced packaged tours. Oh the thrill of figuring out where to catch the unmarked bus from, and the self satisfaction when you actually manage to get to the place :-P we saw some dolphins, sea lions, penguins, otters, pelicans and lots of other birds. I don't even remember the name of the girl, but I remember she was pleased she tagged along on this trip and super excited about seeing the dolphins :-P

The second nice thing was that I tried surfing!!! I hesitated a lot, and I didn't have anyone to tag along with me, so I almost didn't do it. But I did and it was great fun! My instructor, Carlos, was very nice, and I wasn't too bad at it! I managed to stand up on the board the second time I tried, and continued to improve bit by bit. My back was quite sore from the movement, but it was worth it. Definitely would like to try it some more in the future.

Oh I just remembered, at the hostel in La Serena there was a very young couple of Brits cycling through Chile and staying in tents. This was one of their very few nights in a hostel, because the needed to fix some holes in their equipment. I just remember thinking how horrible it sounded, and the girl didn't seem to thrilled either :-P