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| Driving to La Serena we stopped off at a famous empanada stand where they only serve empanadas fritas de queso (fried cheese empanadas). That is the only option. Yet it draws hundreds of people a day. We waited for 30 minutes in line, but it was totally worth it. Also, RIP my baby sunglasses. You fit my face so well. |
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| in heaven |
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| Coquimbo |
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| Relaxing |
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| Good crew |
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| Where it all went down |
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| Good music, good people, good days. |
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| La Serena |
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| Empanada de mariscos |
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| Valle de Elqui reservoir |
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| check, check, and check. |
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| There is a single religion, the religion of love, it is a single caste, the caste of humanity, there is one language, the language of the heart, there is a God and is omnipresent. |
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| Packing in |
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| Hey Hewie |
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| To be such a small dot amongst unassuming grandness provokes a great deal of meditation. |
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| our inclination both in body and mind |
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| Buenos días |
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| complete contentment |
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| terracing |
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| sleepy Pisco Mistral |
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| lunch with friends in Santiago |
The past ten days were spent in some of the best company I've had the honor of sharing in Chile. I whispered see you soon to the cold sleepy South and hightailed it fifteen hours north by bus and auto to the beautiful vibrant beach town of La Serena. I was not alone as there is a mass exodus of Santiagoans who migrate to La Serena and the surrounding area for Fiestas Patrias. This is Chile's Indepedence Day, which formally is on September 18, but in practice is celebrated for a straight week. The week was filled with asados everyday with more meat than I had eaten in a month, too much Pisco, too many hangovers, and too little sleep. It seemed that the more Pisco that was poured, the better my Spanish was sounding. Fifteen friends rented grandma's pad for the week and set up camp. There was no shortage of sunshine, good music, or food. I think I gained about five pounds this week.
I spent two days in Valle de Elqui which is a dry arid desert and is believed to have healing spiritual energy. There are many small hippie towns along the way, reminiscent of Madrid, NM for those that may be familiar. Many backpackers trying to hitchhike along the road had Jack Kerouac echoing through my head, “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” My friends and I eventually pulled the car over and donned packs to head out along a road they had taken before. We crossed streams and barbed wire with snow peaked mountains ahead of us. Eventually stopping at a mountain we decided was the right one and began the vertical ascent up. It was pretty treacherous and the sand was deep, but we finally made it to a flatter top in about an hour and a half. We pitched our tent, started the fire, and waited for it to get dark. The stars were our entertainment for the evening. As soon as our eyes were fully adjusted, we laid down on the ground stared up at the Milky Way and constellations that don't exist in the northern hemisphere. The brilliant sky and the deafening silence that only comes from being high atop a desert mountain left my friends and I without words. As the fire died down the cold finally seeped in and the hot 90 degree day dramatically dropped to 40 degrees chasing us into our tent. We woke up, broke down camp, and practically skiied down the mountain in 30 minutes trying to dig our heels into the deep sand. In 24 hours I had a deep tan. It was time to leave the sun because we did not bring enough water. To end with Jack Kerouac, “Happiness consists in realizing it is all a great strange dream.”
