Coquimbo

I haven't blogged for a week because I've been a bit busy with other things. Last weekend I found out that I'm now officially a qualified teacher of English as a foreign language! So I've made a new CV and got my first job application sent off.

But now I've got some time to blog, and I'm going to write about the city of Coquimbo. Before going there, I thought Coquimbo was just the name of the region, so it was interesting to find out that it was also the name of a city on the coast right next to La Serena.

On the beach, there are big letters like the ones in La Serena. As you'll see in my next post, they are very common in this region!

However, the centre of the city is very different to the centre of La Serena. Unfortunately, one noticeable difference is that it's not as affluent. The other big difference is that it's built on very steep hills. With its colourful houses, it looks quite a lot like Valparaíso.

I was surprised to see that there was a mosque in Coquimbo, as there isn't a big Muslim population in Chile. It's called Centro Cultural Mohamed VI and it was a gift from the king of Morocco. On the evening of the day we arrived, we drove up to the top of the hill where it's situated. We didn't get out to look around, because the area didn't seem entirely safe. But we got a decent view of the building from the car the next morning.

The other major landmark in Coquimbo is also a religious one. La Cruz del Tercer Milenio is a huge cross on top of a hill, that can be seen from La Serena. You can take a lift up to the top to see views of the whole city.

We were lucky to meet an especially cute resident of Coquimbo at the cross!

Coquimbo is a very interesting city to visit, as it has both unique cultural landmarks and a great beach. It also offers many impressive views from the top of the city and from below.

Next I'll be writing about our trip through Valle del Elqui, a valley in the Coquimbo region which was chosen by Lonely Planet as one of the top ten travel destinations for 2019!