March 12 - Coquimbo

So, what's a Coquimbo?  It's a city just to the southwest of La Serena, sort of like Vancouver and Burnaby. You can't really tell where one ends and the other one starts.

We rented bikes for this tour, since it was the better part of 10 km away.  Getting through La Serena to the beach wasn't too bad and once on the beach there is a bicycle path adjacent the road.

Here I am, with my South American bike helmet.  Actually, helmet use by cyclists is pretty good, but they didn't offer them to us.  These bikes had the most uncomfortable seats imaginable.

Behind me are the endless beaches between La Serena and Coquimbo.  Most are "Playa non apta para bano," not due to sewage, but due to riptides.  Surfing is apparently OK.  You can swim at the beaches nearer Coquimbo.

I forgot to take a closeup of this, but it is (apparently) the largest monument to the Christian faith in South America.  83 meters high and 40 wide at the base.

We got to the Coquimbo waterfront, obviously a fishing port.  Loads of small boats anchored out and larger ones ties up to the jetty.

So, what the Heck is this???  It looks like a relic from Pirates of the Caribbean.  I asked the girls in our hostel about it - they hadn't seen them but assume they are "just for you tourists."  Oh, good!

There wasn't just one, there were two of the silly things.  Note the 'dead bodies' hanging from the rigging.









Back to the wharf.  There was a large fish market here, with all sorts of goodies from the ocean.  Outside the market, there were a number of people set up on the wharf, the sidewalk, anywhere they could find a spot.

Yummy looking critters, eh?

A number of the stalls were selling freshly made ceviche.  Laura wouldn't go for it, and I'll admit I wimped out as well.  However, consider this:  here you can see how they are making it - when you order it in a restaurant you can't see where they make it.  Hmmmm.....

Here's a question for you:  With all this fresh fish being cleaned, what do they do with the offal?  Why, feed it to the local sea lions of course.  It looks like these guys have figured out how to get an easy lunch.

Would you do this with a sea lion that must be 8 or 10 times your size?

And right across the street from the wharf was another market, selling everything from vegetables to clothes to hardware (I forgot to check the price of galvanized lag bolts).
The prices of the vegetables were cheap.








This trip was yesterday.  Today Laura and I kicked around La Serena again, visiting the local archaeological  museum and climbing a hill to where the 21st Infantry Regiment has its barracks.  Unfortunately, some twit forgot his camera.

La Serena is a nice little town and worth a visit.  But, if we were biking I wouldn't go 500 km out of my way from Santiago to come here (lazy slob that I am).

Last comment - nobody has even tried to guess the items in our contest.  C'mon and guess.  Some more hints:  Item 1 - What do you have to do after a 6 hour bus ride?  If you have to pay, how do you get through the turnstile?

Item 2:  Arroz (Spanish word)