Sunday, September 8, 2013

Getting comfortable in La Serena Chile

Our flight here was OK. We had a problem in the San Francisco airport at the check in at the airline counter as they insisted we needed to pay the entrance fee to them and not in Santiago Chile. They had us literally running all over the airport trying to find out how to accomplish this. After 45 lost minutes we came back to the counter and said this is not right and we know we pay the entrance fee in Santiago. We catch the eye of a manager and she says you are right! the entrance fee is paid in Santiago Chile. So for our inconvenience they gave us $25 to buy some food at the airport and $100 off our next ticket. The entrance fee was $160 per person paid in Santiago with a credit card.
Our next run around occurred in Santiago when we could not find the place to pay the fee and our plane from Texas was an hour late so once again we were pressed for time. By the time found the counter and also went through immigration we had no time to get our bags as we had to run to catch our plane. We were the last aboard and hoped our luggage would meet us in La Serena. Our luggage did not meet us but was sent to us later that day. So all in all not the worst flight ever and considering we have never been south of the border I think it went pretty good.
From there we went to our accommodations. We had gotten a place to stay from a friend who lives here. It was right on the beach but very old and full of mold, the windows did not close and well too many problems to list. Just not a place an American would want to live in. The worst of the problems was the cold. As it is end of Summer in America, it is start of Spring here and can be very cold and wet. Heating, or  Calefaccion, as it is called here, is mucho importante!


This picture is of the heat that was used in the apartment we stayed in for 4 days until we could find an apartment that had a safe standard of heating. If you look at the name of the gas cylinder it says Abastible. All I could see was Combustible! The heat from this thing was minimal and so dangerous. It had an open flame in front and you had to wheel it around the place to get the heat in different rooms. As the floor was very uneven is was frightening. Imagine wheeling around an open flame attached to a large can of gas, that is what our heating was. Also the canister has to be replaced and that is a big hassle too. So just remember the word, Calefaccion. When you look at places to stay here try to find one that has a safe heating system. Try to stay in a building that is at least 10 to 5 years young.


This was the view from the balcony of the apartment. Not bad. But you can see the mold on the balcony and the place next door being a newer building does not have this problem. Like andy beach community you need to be aware it can be damp so you need a place that has modern construction. Ok enough about this 4 days we lost, we did find a beautiful lovely clean dry modern place to live and the view is awesome. We are so happy here we just sit on the balcony, when Papa has the time, and ohh and ahh at how beautiful La Serena is.
The people here here very cool. I like them. They appear to be health conscious and have no overt obesity problems like in America. They live active lifestyles and walk to most places. The food here is very fresh and so delicious. The milk is fresh the eggs are so good with yellow yokes like we used to have in America 20 years ago, if you can remember back that far when eggs had real yellow yokes. Ok so I like eggs! The bread is also good and fresh too and they offer many varieties. But more on the food later.