Coquimbo...mmm

The magnificent Andes!
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We safely arrived at Santiago airport, having had an excellent flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil. We had clear skies as we passed over the magnificent Andes mountain range, flying level with some of the mountains. The range just seemed to go on forever!

After getting harangued by about a thousand taxi drivers, who just wouldn’t take no for an answer, we caught the airport shuttle bus to one of the many bus stations, luckily arriving at the right one!

ghostly figures roaming around!

More of the Andes!
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We caught the bus and started our eight hour trip up to Coquimbo. The scenery had completely changed from Brazil to rolling hills and vineyards. We arrived at Coquimbo in the late evening and caught a taxi to our hostel. When we told the taxi driver which hostel he appeared less than impressed and stated something about the place being haunted!!!! Sure enough when we arrived I heard a tune in my head, have a guess…du da da dum…click click…du da da dum…click click…the Adams family!!!

The Adams Family home!
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We finally managed to get into the place and some confusion as to when they were expecting us and were given the tour. The place was an old mansion with high ceilings and long dark corridors and freezing!!! With no form of heat and resisting the urge to burn the wardrobe to stay warm, we slept, keeping one eye open for any ghostly figures roaming around! The next day we went into the town to see what it had to offer. Found a little fish restaurant for lunch and had a seafood soup, it was gorgeous, fresh off the fishing boats that morning! Other than that we were struggling to find much else to do, as the night life appeared non existent and we seemed to be the only tourists in the area! We tried to get some tours to national parks booked however we seemed to be getting told stories every time we asked for clarification. Mad was still freezing and asked for a heater for the night, they were all broken!!!

Creepy corridors!
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The following day we headed into La Serena and to our shock we found other people!!!!!! Shocked by this and already forming concerns about the place we were already staying at we checked out the numerous tour agencies who were more than happy to help us out. After that we made the easy decision to haul our asses out of the Antarctic and into La Serena. Eventually finding a nice little hostel near the centre of town, Hostel Gregoria. So we gathered our things together, had the uncomfortable “we’re leaving because your hostel isn’t fit for human life yet” conversation, paid up and left!

Doors made for bigger creatures than ourselves!
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Here endeth Coquimbo!