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!

La Serena

So I finally got to go to La Serena after trying to go three times before! It's a bit of a long story, but when I was studying in Chile, I reserved a place on a tour to La Serena and Valle del Elqui, which was cancelled and moved to the following month. Then when I tried to confirm my place on the new tour (as well as on another tour to the Atacama desert) the company were completely useless. Every time I contacted them, they said they would get back to me, but they never did. I never paid anything, so it was their loss! Coincidentally, on the weekend when the tour was supposedly taking place, some of the people I went with to Algarrobo for the first time were planning to go to La Serena too. Once I realised I wasn't getting anywhere with the tour company, I wanted to join their trip, but I think by then they'd given up on the idea. So I ended up visiting Viña del Mar instead.

But I'm very lucky, because I got to go to the Atacama desert in January and now I've also been to La Serena, Coquimbo and Valle del Elqui, thanks to my amazing boyfriend! He drove us there and back and all around the area, which was a lot of driving, because it takes at least six hours to get there from Santiago. So, Claudio, if you're reading this, I have a message for you: eres el más bacán! 💗

One of the first things you see when you arrive in the city are the big letters that are great for photos!

A short distance away is the lighthouse, the best known landmark in La Serena.

After we arrived, we looked for a cheap place to stay and found a really nice little apartment by the sea.

That afternoon, we went to the beach to swim in the sea, which was a bit crazy, because the water was really cold. But it wasn't as freezing as the sea in England, so it was fun for me!

The next day, we went to look around the city centre. There's a Japanese garden there that we wanted to visit, but it was closed, probably because of the protests. Through a gap in the fence, it looked liked a bigger version of the one in Santiago.

La Serena is the fourth biggest city in Chile, so the centre is quite big with a lot of interesting architecture, which I found out is neocolonial in style.

I really enjoyed visiting La Serena at long last, and I would definitely go back!

In my next post, I'll be writing about Coquimbo, a city right next to La Serena but different in many ways.

Pueblito Los Domínicos

On my second day in Santiago, my boyfriend took me back to my old university, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD). I hadn't been there since July 2018, so it was a bit strange to see it again. I swear it's got bigger than it was before. We walked around the back of the university, which I hadn't done before, and found a little park with two nice dogs!

Although my semester in Chile was amazing overall, my experiences related to the UDD were a mix of negative and positive. But I can definitely say I learned a lot from my time there!

On the way back, we went to Pueblito Los Domínicos (Los Domínicos Village). I had heard of this place before but I wasn't exactly sure what it was. I had thought it referred to the park outside Los Domínicos metro station. It's actually behind the church in the park, and it's like a little world that's completely different to the rest of the city. I used to get on and off the metro at Los Domínicos every day to go to and from the UDD, so it seems weird that I'd never been there before!

There are lots of shops there selling all kinds of arts and crafts that are native to Chile. There's also a waxwork museum and a insect museum. We looked at the insect museum, which was horrifying! There were preserved dead bodies of huge, nasty insects, some of which could apparently be found in Chile. 😨😱

But overall, the village is a really nice place to look around. It feels like walking into the past.

There was one thing I especially liked about Pueblito Los Domínicos - the fact that there were loads of cats there! 😻

There was one cat there who reminded me of my dearly-departed cat Pickle. I stroked her a bit but she wasn't quite as friendly as Pickle!

This is Pickle, for comparison purposes:

So, to sum up, I would recommend Pueblito Los Domínicos, especially if you want to buy souvenirs or if you love cats!

Next up I'll be writing about a city in the north of Chile, La Serena. I was supposed to go there three times before, but none of those trips ended up taking place, so I was curious to discover at last what it was like...

Exploring Santiago Again

I got back from my recent travels on Thursday evening and I have a lot to write about it all! Before blogging here, I wanted to get the final assignment of my TEFl course submitted, which I managed to do yesterday. Now I'm catching up on some extra reading from the course while waiting to find out if I've passed.

It was a very busy couple of weeks spent in three different countries - four if you include a flight transfer in Italy! My week in Chile turned out to be a lot more adventurous than I was expecting, as my boyfriend and I ended up taking a spontaneous trip to the northern region of Coquimbo, in addition to seeing lots of places in Santiago and the Metropolitan Region.

This post will focus on the time I spent in Santiago. I was slightly worried about what the situation would be like there because of the current protests, but I was never in any danger. In general, life is going on as normal, but some places like supermarkets are closing early, and it's advisable to avoid certain areas of the city after dark. I saw and heard some protests going on both in Santiago and La Serena, which all seemed to be peaceful and non-violent. It's clear that changes need to be made to deal with the problem of inequality in Chile, and I hope that the protesters' wishes will be realised.

The time I spent in Santiago with my boyfriend and his family was really lovely, and I hope to return very soon. Even though I lived in the city for four and a half months last year, I still discovered some amazing places there that I'd never visited before.

On the day I arrived, my boyfriend and I went to Parque Metropolitano. It's best known for Cerro San Cristóbal, where you can see the statue of the Virgin Mary. However, there are many more things to see in the park. This time we went to the Japanese garden, a place I'd wanted to go to for a long time but had never got round to visiting. It's really pretty and tranquil with amazing views over the city.

Later that day, we went to Parque Bicentenario. We had been there before on a wintry evening in June 2018, so it was nice to see what it was like in daylight!

A new place I discovered on this trip to Chile was Parque Quinta Normal. It's a huge park with a lake and several museums.

One day we went to the train museum, where you can see lots of old trains and even go inside a few of them.

Afterwards, we went to the science museum, which was much more exciting than either of us expected. We only had half an hour there before the museum closed for the day, so we came back again on my last day!

During my week in Chile, we also went to Pueblito Los Domínicos in the east of Santiago. I'll be writing about that in my next post...