Penguins.  Who in their lifetime ever thinks they are going to see penguins in the wild?  We did!!

  La Serena countryside

  Clouds and cactus outside La Serena

Our driver was prompt at 8 am, and after stopping at a few other hotels to pick up other tourists, we were on our way.    La Serena is overcast/foggy at least 90% of the time, but about an hour out of town, the sky was clear, and we were again treated to desert landscape.  We were headed about 123 km north to catch a ferry that would take us out to Isla Damas and Isla Choros, where we hoped we would see penguins and dolphins.  Many times, due to bad weather and high seas the trip is cancelled, but the call from the coast was everything was fine.  At Caleta de Choros we met our ferry, a small wooden boat, that would take us out into the Pacific Ocean.

The ride was a bit cold.  The sky was very overcast, it was damp, but luckily no rain.  It was hard to believe we were headed into the Pacific Ocean to see PENGUINS!!!  Our first stop was Isla Damas a bleak, desolate island that we were allowed to explore for about thirty minutes, which was just long enough.  The island has a very small, rather pretty white sand beach, but the rest of the island was rocky, had a few birds, mostly vultures, and a lighthouse you can climb up to.

  Beach at Isla Damas        

  Walking on the island                    

  The boat that brought us here

                         Flora  and……

  Fauna

         Lighthouse  wearing everything we have

  Rocky coast 

   Boat ride to the island

La Serena is on the Chilean coast.  We awoke to the worst weather we have seen on our entire trip, overcast and foggy.  We would come to find out that this is the normal weather for La Serena.   Getting a taxi from the bus station was easy and we headed to Hotel Costa Real.  This hotel was more expensive, but it was close to the Plaza de Armas where most of the tourist information bureaus were located.  From there we could make our arrangements to see the Mamalluca Observatory and the highly anticipated Humboldt Penguin Reserve!

The taxi stopped in front of the hotel and as the bellhops came out to help with our luggage.    Of course we had no reservation, and didn’t even know if they would anything available.  I told Dan I would go inside and see about a room.  My plan was to talk to them before our ragtag, just off an overnight bus group with our ragtagbackpacks descended upon the lobby.  This afterall was not a hostel, but a businessman´s hotel.  We needed to have a sense of decorum.

I gave a friendly smile to the woman behind the desk.  ¨I´d like to see about a room.¨

She looked over my uncombed hair, my several layers of clothing, including the Peru sweater I had been wearing for nearly a month now.  I could see her looking over my shoulder, a bit alarmed as she saw Dan and the kids enter the lobby.

“Do you have a reservation?” she asked haltingly in English.

“No.”

Again the look of alarm on her face.  “Just a minute please.”  She called for backup.  The manager came to the counter, equally alarmed. Again I stated I needed a room.  Again she asked if we had a reservation.  Again I said no.  Again she looked distressed. 

“Do you have a room available?”  I mean really, reservation or not, you either had a room or you didn’t.  End of story.

Finally she came up with a room option.  A king size bed, they would bring in a rollaway bed, and there was a sofa in the room.  She gave me the room price, which included a breakfast buffet.  The price was very reasonable, considering the location and the fact this was listed as a five star hotel.  But I had to ask.

“Can you give me a discount?”

The manager looked at me as if I had asked if  could sleep in the lobby.  She said she could take $1o (US dollars)  off the price.  Sold! 

Our room was incredible.  First it was huge.  The biggest room we had yet.  Located on the second floor, it overlooked the small outdoor swimming pool.  The bathroom was large and beautifully tiled, we had a minibar.  But it was the sight of the stereo system and 48 inch flat screen TV that sent me scrambling for the phone to book another night. 

After showers, and dragging ourselves away from the TV, we walked toward the Plaza for lunch and to find a tourist office.  The guidebook suggested a cafeteria, near a really nice grocery store.  We feasted!  Roast beef, turkey, chicken, mashed potatoes, you name it.  It was like being in a US style cafeteria for about a quarter of the price.  We loved it.  Afterwards, we walked around the city, doing some window shopping. 

La Serena is Chile’s second oldest city.  Of course it has the usually beautiful tree lined, well enjoyed plaza, but we were also in a major shopping district.  Everyone was well dressed and I felt a bit out of plaza in our Peru attire.  The Chileans, for the most part, totally ignored us, as if we didn’t exist.  It was so surprising to us.  When you dealt with them one on one, they were mostly friendly and helpful, but out on the streets, the atmosphere was different.  We mostly wandered that first day, taking in the sights, enjoying the cool air, going to bed early.  The next day, we found El QuiValley tours, where our very friendly, English speaking tour guide, sold us the tour to the Humboldt Penguin Reserve and the Mamalluca Observatory. After another great meal at the cafeteria, we were in bed early as the van to the penguin reserve would arrive at 8 am the next morning.

One of the things we enjoyed most about this trip was setting our own pace.  We were supposed to stay in San Pedro only two nights, but we so enjoyed the town, we exchanged our bus tickets to leave the next afternoon.  As luck would have it, there was no charge.  It was hard to leave San Pedro.  We loved the food, every place we ate seemed like a gourmet restaurant.  It was a bit expensive, in South American terms, not US.  The days were warm, the nights cool.  We met a couple from Bulgaria, who spoke great English, and who had 2 children back in Bulgaria the same age as our kids.  It was great to talk to them and compare life there with life in the United States.  They were encouraged to see how well our kids travelled.  Interestingly, we didn’t see any other families on our trip.  San Pedro definitely attracted a younger twenty something adventure crowd, or an older, pre-retiree crowd.  But the people we met, especially the twenty something group, were very happy to see our kids exploring the world.  They all wished their parents had done that for them.  I really think that says a lot. 

The next afternoon, we said a sad good bye to San Pedro and began our 17 hour bus trip, our longest yet, to La Serena.