La Sirena, Chile
We arrived in La Sirena in a bit of a nipply morning. Like a good backpacker would, we decided to walk to the hostel of our choice. And ofcourse, we had problems finding it. Come on South America, put street signs up. Rompiers mis polottas! After a while we finally find it annnnnd they don´t have room. So we opted for a different and cheapre one that was super legit. And we got to watch Chilean TV in the room. Always good for laughs. Things were looking up.
After a nap we decided to check out the town and see what there is to do in La Sirena. There are two cool tours you can do in La Sirena: Isla Damas and the Elqui Valley tour. The Isla Damas are a trio of islands that is jam packed with wildlife. I´m talking penguins, dolphins, condors and tons of different birds. The Elqui Valley is a spiritual valley that is notorious for UFO´s, olive ranches and where pisco sour originated. Yes Julio, the Chileans patented it first, so I don´t want to hear a peep out of you.
That night we decided to check out the nightlife of La Sirena. I´m not sure if all the attractive girls were hiding that night but we definitely didn´t see any that night. Accidentally going to a gay club to start out didn´t help either. Note to self, check out the bar for about 5 minutes before ordering a pitcher. Maybe that´s why everybody was staring at us when we walked in. After drinking that pitcher in record time we check out a nightclub. Nothing to write home about there either. We practiced our Spanish atleast. I swear, that´s the only reason we talked to those girls. Finally, we decided to cut our loses and call it a night.
The next day we slept in and missed the bus for the tour. We had to book it and catch a local bus and eventually catch up with the tour. Once we caught up we headed towards the actual Elqui Valley. It is chalked full fruit and olive orchards and tons of pisco vineyards. Pisco is a hard alcohol that is the national drink of Chile. It is made from very sweet grapes. The sweeter the grape, the better the pisco. We checked out a nice little town in Elqui Valley that had a museum of Gabriela Mistral, a famous poetess that pioneered women rights in Chile. It had some interesting insight in Chilean history. All that Chilean history really made a guy hungry, so we headed for lunch and then took a peak at a pisco brewing factory. We learned how pisco is made and we got to try some. Wooo! That 80% pisco really wakes you up. What a great way to finish the tour.
We weren´t able to go to Isla Damas the next day because the rift was to hard and the coast guard decided to close the dock. We decided to hit up the beach instead. La Sirena had some nice beaches along its coast. It´s a long walk but you get to watch dogs barking at hub caps along the way. This definitely makes the walk worth it. Seriously though, I don´t know what they put in the garbage that the dogs eat there. They are loco! Another dog dug up this quarter full bottle of Pepsi and was freaking out. It would scratch and dig at it and run around. So of course I grab the bottle and throw it towards the ocean. Then the dog would grab it and bring it back. I´m like ¨sweet¨ get to play fetch with a stray dog. About an hour later we take some photos of the sunset with the nearby lighthouse and head back to catch our bus. And this time, neither of us are tipsy...
...but seriously, the one thing I´m never going to forget about Chile is the dogs...
After a nap we decided to check out the town and see what there is to do in La Sirena. There are two cool tours you can do in La Sirena: Isla Damas and the Elqui Valley tour. The Isla Damas are a trio of islands that is jam packed with wildlife. I´m talking penguins, dolphins, condors and tons of different birds. The Elqui Valley is a spiritual valley that is notorious for UFO´s, olive ranches and where pisco sour originated. Yes Julio, the Chileans patented it first, so I don´t want to hear a peep out of you.
That night we decided to check out the nightlife of La Sirena. I´m not sure if all the attractive girls were hiding that night but we definitely didn´t see any that night. Accidentally going to a gay club to start out didn´t help either. Note to self, check out the bar for about 5 minutes before ordering a pitcher. Maybe that´s why everybody was staring at us when we walked in. After drinking that pitcher in record time we check out a nightclub. Nothing to write home about there either. We practiced our Spanish atleast. I swear, that´s the only reason we talked to those girls. Finally, we decided to cut our loses and call it a night.
The next day we slept in and missed the bus for the tour. We had to book it and catch a local bus and eventually catch up with the tour. Once we caught up we headed towards the actual Elqui Valley. It is chalked full fruit and olive orchards and tons of pisco vineyards. Pisco is a hard alcohol that is the national drink of Chile. It is made from very sweet grapes. The sweeter the grape, the better the pisco. We checked out a nice little town in Elqui Valley that had a museum of Gabriela Mistral, a famous poetess that pioneered women rights in Chile. It had some interesting insight in Chilean history. All that Chilean history really made a guy hungry, so we headed for lunch and then took a peak at a pisco brewing factory. We learned how pisco is made and we got to try some. Wooo! That 80% pisco really wakes you up. What a great way to finish the tour.
We weren´t able to go to Isla Damas the next day because the rift was to hard and the coast guard decided to close the dock. We decided to hit up the beach instead. La Sirena had some nice beaches along its coast. It´s a long walk but you get to watch dogs barking at hub caps along the way. This definitely makes the walk worth it. Seriously though, I don´t know what they put in the garbage that the dogs eat there. They are loco! Another dog dug up this quarter full bottle of Pepsi and was freaking out. It would scratch and dig at it and run around. So of course I grab the bottle and throw it towards the ocean. Then the dog would grab it and bring it back. I´m like ¨sweet¨ get to play fetch with a stray dog. About an hour later we take some photos of the sunset with the nearby lighthouse and head back to catch our bus. And this time, neither of us are tipsy...
...but seriously, the one thing I´m never going to forget about Chile is the dogs...
posted by Kean @ 5:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home