Day 258, 259 - La Serena - Saturday 30th June, Sunday 1st July 2012

This morning we arrived in the "supposedly" beautiful seaside town of La Serena. After a pretty good night sleep on the bus we pulled up to the terminal, collected our bags and made our way on foot to El Punto hostel. The hostel had loads of great reviews on tripadvisor and was just outside the main square and ten minutes from the beach. So, with a skip in our step we arrived to the hostel, only to be told by a grumpy German that they had made a mistake and our beautiful double room had now been reserved for someone else. I actually think I saw some steam come out of Sophie's ears!! She was not happy but luckily we got saved, as we were walking out the hostel (whilst I was putting the flames out around Soph's ears) we bumped into this Chilean guy that stopped us and asked if we were looking for somewhere to stay and if so, his mother had a really nice hostel around the corner. I thought it was a bit too lucky, but Soph and I seemed to trust him. After a five minute walk we arrived at Casa Maria. We did indeed meet his mum and were shown to a nice room with a cosy double bed in a little shed at the end of the garden - plus it had a hot shower!! Ok the place was pretty basic but it was cheaper, nice and just as close to the action as the other hostel. As it was still early we decided to go for a walk around the town and grab some breakfast; it was completely empty! It was way too early and everyone was in bed with the exception of group of lads who were covered in paint and off to work. They decided to serenade me and Soph (I think it was really just for Soph's benefit) with the Brazilian song - Nosa by Micheal Tello! We have heard this song everywhere and can't get it out of our head - everyone in Latin America knows or sings it too! So with empty stomachs we headed back to the hostel for a shower and then went back out again to the main plaza for breakfast. We walked all around the mall and shops and then had an early dinner at Chilean restaurant. I had the Chilean national dish of steak, two eggs, chips and a pile of fried onions chucked on top, Soph had an awesome fish chowder followed by fish in sauce, all washed down with a litre of crystal beer!

The next day we decided to visit the beach. Now seeing as the town of La Serena is a seaside resort and where the Chilean people spend their summer holidays I was looking forward to it. Ok, now how can I describe it without being horrible… Ok it's like a rundown Benidorm!! It didn't help that the weather was bad, but there is a lighthouse at the forefront of the beach which features on all the postcards. Well if the lighthouse was in Brighton for example it would have been condemned 40 years ago!! We thought that at some point we would stumble over some really nice part, so, we walked, and walked, and walked… three hours later we were still in-between massive high-rise flats and the grey beach! We decided to give in and returned back to the town which is really very pretty. The old churches and restaurants are brilliant. We also went to a few markets, they were really good too. By the time we got back the Euro 2012 final between Italy and Spain was just into the second half so we sat with a hot coffee and sandwich to watch the game, Spain were awesome, 4-0! So to sum up La Serena, the town, churches, markets and people are brilliant the beach is… well you get the picture!!

Forgot to mention that our first breakfast (we couldn't really work out the menu) consisted of the traditional La Serena speciality of a double coffee accompanied with a huge piece of lemon meringue pie and another huge piece of coffee and chocolate cake - how is everyone in La Serena not fifty stone!