Vicuna and La Serena

02.06.10

We had travelled over night from Valparaiso to La Serena arriving around 6:00 then got our next bus a couple of hours later to Vicuna. On the bus matt got woken up by some old lady prodding him trying to show him a flyer for her hostel. When we arrived in Vicuna we managed to get the lady to cut her price by a couple thousand pesos and agreed to go there.
The flyer and name ying-yang b&b hostel conjured images of a peaceful haven with scenic views and relaxed atmosphere. What we were greeted with was a house crammed with what seemed like here whole family and the most irritating chinese music. Nether the less we booked our two days at the agreed price (which actually turned out to be her normal price) and went for a little nap.
Once up we booked a tour to the local observatory for the night, renowned for having some of the best star gazing in the world and then headed of to climb the hill that over looked the town. The hill view was kind of disappointing and at the summit there are a load of mobile telephone antennas so not the nicest looking. Killed a bit of time before we had to catch our bus up to the observatory Cerro Mamalluca.
www.mamalluca.org

The observatory was absolutely mental. There was no headlight allowed there just these green and red lights on walls to guide your way. This meant you could look up anywhere and see the clearest sky without anything impeding your sight. The sky was amazing, never have I been able to see the milky way as clearly as I could there. The sky was covered with clouds of really tiny stars as well as the more prominent ones. We were lucky there was no moon out either as this effects the clarity of the sky apparently.
An english speaking guide then took us inside to tell us what we would be able to see and some of the principles behind what we were about to look at. As we were in the southern hemisphere it meant we were going to be able to look at a different stars to that you would see anywhere in the northern hemisphere as well as the constellations we did know would be upside down.
We were then taken up to the telescope room to look more closely at the stars and planets. The best for me was looking a Saturn, it rings and it moons but looking into some of the stars inside the milky way was cool to.

3.07.2010
Woke up early to get our breakfast we were paying for and were given bread and jam which pissed us of, as you can imagine. Thought matt was about to blow his gauges at the old lady at one point. It was then we discovered that everything in this "hostel" came with a price. Extra butter, jam etc, extra showers you name it there was a price on it.
The plan for the day was to head to Pisco de Elqui to take a tour of the distillery and taste some different piscos. We arrived and went to the nearest distillery which was mistro pisco. After booking in and paying for the tour we were told that the tour would be in spanish which was a little annoying. The tour took maybe 45 minutes but we didn't really take much from it as we were frantically trying to read the tour in english on a sheet they gave us. It basically took us through the history and production process. As it wasn't the right season the distillery wasn't in use so we couldn't actually observe the pisco being made.
When it came to the tasting part of the tour it dawned on us that we would have to drink the stuff neat and that we actually didn't like it that much, so instead of the graceful swirling round the mouth and spitting out we just opted for necking it as quick as.

4.07.2010
We headed off today back to La Serena and booked our self in with a hostel. The hostel was kind of run down but it was cheap and run by a really nice family who helped us with our washing and even sorted me out my own room at no extra cost so I could escape bigz snoring for a night.
Had a look round the town and went down to the beach but had to then head to the buses to go back to Santiago as we were soon to head off to peru.