Isla Damas



Sea lions in a Reserva Nacional Pinguino De Humboldt



The lighthouse in La Serena



Some of the old Spanish architecture all over town in La Serena



Burning away on the busiest beach I have ever been to in La Serena



Today we went on a tour through the desert for an hour or 2 up the coast to visit some islands in a Chilean National park. We took a boat around the Isla Choros and Isla Damas, and saw wild sea otters, sea lions, penguins, dolphins, cormorans, and other cool wildlife. The sea lions reeked so bad, they just lay on their rock and rot in the sun all day. While driving through the desert we saw some juanaco's, a tan coloured relative of the alpaca. The land is so barren, with just a few cacti and small evil looking shrubs. We came across an oasis in the middle of the moonscaped land, it was so bizzare, with orchards of olive trees. Tomorrow we are headed to the Elqui Valley where the Pisco, national booze, is brewed. After that, we hop on a bus and head 23 hours up the coast to the Chilean border town of Arica, and hope to get across the boarder that night into the Peruvian border town of Taca. I am in absolute produce heaven here in Chile, I have been existing off of peaches, ruby grapefruit, bananas, and strawberries (1 kg for $1). And we are not talking bland, ripened-en-route, steriod-injected Canadian fruit. The avocados are amazing as well. So far, no stomach sicknesses, even with non-peelable fruit, but I don´t think I´ll be so risky in Peru. It actually seems like the parasite I probably contracted in the Dominican Republic (or the one from Austrialia that I never got rid of) has subsided, I haven´t felt this good for months. Apparently the ozone is really thin here, that is why we burnt so bad, also why the area is home to many of the world´s top observatories, as the skies are always clear at night.