27th January 2013

Beekeepers beside or camper at La Serena airport

Well, Claire is back at the side of the ‘camper master i.e. Jan’ since Thursday evening last.  She arrived into La Serena airport ‘La Florida’ at about 19:00hs local.  Jan was there waiting for me since about 16:00hrs that afternoon.  As he had no luck with the internet in La Serena itself, he was hoping for access in or around the airport area. Alas this was not to be. I was delighted to see him looking so well as when I left Chile on the 9th. His wounds are almost healed and the headaches and vision problems have now all cleared up. We stayed this night by the airport itself.

 On Friday 25th January, it was back to normal as far as camper chores go, grocery shopping had to be done, the next task to be carried out was opportunistic on our part, Jan had spotted a ‘gas’ dealer and was hoping that he could fill the spare gas tank at a dealer located near the airport. When he made enquiries, it transpired that the place was only a distributor and not a filling station so we left without success.  Our next stop was to fill the camper with water. We headed back up north about 7 km north of La Serena to a ‘Copec’ filling station and we filled up. We had remembered this place from our first visit there about three weeks previously.  Once we had filled up, our plan was to head south to a place called Coquimbo, about 10km south of La Serena.

We reached the beach area ‘Bahía Herradura de Guayacán’. The road itself is about 8-10m higher than the beach.  We were not sure if  it was possible for a camper to

Building in La Serena

 overnight on the beach. While strolling along the promenade, we spotted two policemen on motor bikes and we decided to ask them.  They informed us that it was possible.  We drove down onto the beach and planned to stay for the three nights 25th/26th and 27th. The primary reason for this break was to carry out some  outstanding domestic chores which are overdue in the camper e.g. laundry, cleaning etc.

 The bay is beautiful, very colourful and this weekend by co-incidence is a full moon which in turn has had a major influence on the current here in the bay.  A lot of the time, it is just soft gentle waves but when the tide is in there is a short period of high rolling waves.  The combination is stunning to both listen to and see.

Bahía Herradura de Guayacán

There is a constant bird population here of gulls, pelicans and this morning we saw vultures.  Most of the visitors to this beach appear in the evening (on work days) and at the weekend from about noon onwards.  A majority of the people stay here until dark. There are plenty of the local yellow coloured skiffs.  There is a varity of water sports from snorkelling, fishing, body surfacing and jet skiing. It is a very well attended beach but not crowded.  A truly lovely area.

The highlight of our stay here was meeting a local family Pedro & Ines Campos Arizabalo and their children.  They had lived in Scotland for at least a year in the past and had extremely good english.  They invited us to there home for a ‘introduction’ to Pisco Sour, their (ubiquitous) national tipple and thereafter for a bite at a local restaurant.  The entire experience was an education and joy to both Jan and I. 

When we returned to the beach to continue our domestic chores, we saw some of the sea urchins being de-shelled at the shore edge and also we saw another local wheeling about a wheelbarrow load of huge bi-valve fish at least 30cm long; they reminded Jan of the ones he saw at the Costa Brava in

Our Gracious Hosts

Spain, the Pinna. 

  We finally managed to get internet contact here so I have done a quick update just to keep you all posted on our travels.  I hope to upload some fresh galleries of photographs of our crossing from Argentina into Chile about four weeks ago and also, Jan has some lovely photographs of the Dakar Rally as soon as possible.