Another holiday, another trip

May 21st was Día de las Glorias Navales (Navy Day) in Chile, and added an extra day to our weekend. Jason and I are anxious to get as much traveling in as possible during the year, so we take advantage of every holiday that appears on the calendar. Unfortunately, the incredible length of Chile limits our affordable (read: bus transportation) options. Iquique, where the battle being commemorated by Día de las Glorias Navales took place, is waaaaaaay outside of our travel limit limit, at roughly 25 hours. So we went to La Serena instead.

We left Santiago at midnight with friends Lucy and Ishani and pulled into La Serena at 6:30am. The town is a popular beach resort during the summer, and my students assured me that the water stayed warm enough for swimming even this late in the season. This was in no way proven correct; one of the first things we did after arrival was go shopping for extra sweaters. We were cold and wiped out from the overnight bus ride, so our first day here was pretty low-key. We wandered around town, visiting the plazas, craft market, and some of the small city’s 29 churches.

Jennifer