La Serena & Santiago

" We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls."
~Bill Bryson

Wednesday, November 27th 2008

I spent 3 days in the beach town of La Serena and longer than I planned in Santiago. The stop in La Serena was planned ahead, but getting there at 23:00pm wasn't so it was no wander that the hotel we depended on was full and we had to crash the night at another one, slightly more expensive, that our helpful taxi driver helped us find. I didn't do much in the the town proper other than to walk the beautiful streets around the city center, catching glimpses of the white beaches and shopping around for various bits and bytes. My visit had three peek points - the first one was a simple lunch of fresh bread, Philadelphia cream cheese and German pickles which was pure joy in the small hostel garden. The second attraction was a visit to a nearby star observatory, called Mamalluca, where between 23:00pm and 2:00am I got a great guided tour of the sky and had a chance to peer down powerful telescopes and see first hand the magnificent views of outer space. The third peek point was a visit to the local shopping mall - a place I usually dislike but looked like a modern wonder after the long months of small shops and markets of Peru and Bolivia. After soaking enough sun and civilization (and buying a tent) I joined Kathy and Dennis for the bus to Santiago.

I enjoyed Santiago mainly due to Sammy. Or more precisely Charles, who use to own Sammy, an Australian Cattle Dog, until he lost him to cancer few years ago. Charles came to Santiago from the US five years ago and started Hostel de Sammy in Santiago where he successfully achieved to live up to his vision of staying at the hostel that is much like staying at a friends house where you have a comfortable place in which you can rest after a long trip. For a moderate fee I got a great bed, great free breakfast, pool table, table football, at least 4 actually working computers with fast Internet, and a living room with hundreds of movies to choose from - making Sammy the best Hostel I stayed in South America so far. Add a short excursion to a nearby park for a few days, great subway system and the best places to gear up for my second part of my adventure where I expected to carry everything on my back - and the time flow a lot faster than I anticipated. I played a lot of pool, got hooked to the Internet and said goodbye to Kathy and Dennis after more than a month of traveling together on the morning of December 6th when they left for the Easter Islands. I found new friends in the hostel and went to the bohemian town of Valparaiso with them, where I met old friends from Huaraz: Gilli and Harel and returned to hostel Sammy after one night disliking the town despite the praise it got from the lonely planet and different web sites. I stayed another 2 days in Santiago and continued south with Gilli and Harel as my new/old traveling companions. It was a well deserved stop and if you ever come by Santiago, I hope that Charles and his hostel will still be there for you as well...