La Serena - Las Tacas
Temporada Baja - Tourist "Booty"
Sunday September 9
"Temporada baja" is the low season with respect to tourism in Chile. August and September are clearly temporada baja, with the exception of San Pedro de Atacama, where the streets are crawling with tourists during the northern hemisphere's summer holiday. Everywhere else we've been outside of Santiago, hotels and tourist facilities have ranged between closed and sparsely populated. If it weren't for the occasional business or nurses convention, even more of the nicer hotels would probably be closed outright for the winter. Privacy is nice, but sometimes the solitude has been more than we might've liked.
Where we've been staying for the last week is a good example. We rented a two bedroom apartment in the beautiful beachside resort development of Las Tacas, located 15 minutes south of the city of La Serena. La Serena and the nearby beaches are a very popular tourist destination for Chileans during their summer. During South American winter, the visiting Europeans seem to avoid it (along with Arica, Iquique, Parque Nacional Lauca, etc...) and head straight for San Pedro de Atacama. Chileans are obviously busy working and going to school, and a gorgeous albeit chilly beach with frigid seawater doesn't seem to motivate Santiagans to make the 4-5 hour drive for a short holiday, as they can find similar attractions closer to home.
The resort of Las Tacas features a tennis club, marina, renowned restaurant, swimming pools, casino, and disco - all of which is enthusiastically acclaimed by our guidebooks and their website. Nowhere is it mentioned that they are all shut down and closed during temporada baja (although the prices are significantly cheaper). Even the tennis courts are unavailable, which to us is a bit of a curiosity. I asked if we could play, and the woman at the reception/sales office made a few quick telephone calls.
"Sorry, because this is the low season, the tennis courts are not functioning."
Hmmm, we wondered, just what do tennis courts have to do to "function?" Have nets, I suppose. We noticed the lack of them when we later drove by.
So instead of getting furious and going to stay at some other deserted beach, we made the most of our time here in Las Tacas. As we couldn't sail, swim, golf, play tennis, drink, dance, or gamble, we whiled away the hours unloading, repacking, schoolworking, and washing many things - such as assorted clothing, equipment, and both the exterior and interior of the truck.
Having a living room, patio, and large empty beach to work in and on, Tom and Anna were able to perform several geology and chemistry experiments that would be impossible to do in a typical hotel room, and very difficult even here at Las Tacas if the place were humming with tourists. And even though we couldn't swim or play tennis, we still ran around and kicked the soccer ball on the beach for P.E.
Four sunny days in the beginning of the week made quick work drying the clothing of those of us who got right on top of our laundry duty. Then the weather turned colder and drizzly, and Anna (with help from her dad), got stuck moving clothes all over the place trying to dry it. Eventually, we resorted to using the small gas heaters for the quick-dry process which requires much attention if you do not wish to ignite your socks and burn down the building. I'm writing this on Sunday morning, we leave tomorrow, and Tom still hasn't started on any sort of clothes washing. It is still foggy and cold, so if he washes things today, they'd still be wet tomorrow when we need to leave (unless we stay up far into the night baking them one piece at a time over the small heater). Tom doesn't seem to be concerned or upset by the dilemma - it's more like he's glad to have an excuse not to do a chore, regardless of what his clothes smell like.
Tom has a simple travel philosophy regarding clothing. He wears one set as long as possible until those around him start gagging and making threats about things he cares about (like being fed, being allowed to enter a hotel room or the car, etc...). Geoff had a similar but less objectionable approach - bring enough clothing to last for two months and wash it when you get home. It almost worked but not quite. He eventually broke down and rinsed a few socks and his underwear, more than once even. We haven't found a self-serve lavenderia anywhere yet, but we have broken down and paid full-service lavenderias in Iquique and Pica to wash large loads of everything for all of us. Here in Las Tacas, we gave our dirty jeans and a few heavy tops to the laundry service - things that are difficult to get clean and dry using the bathtub and back of a chair for washer and dryer (yes, the laundry service was still "functioning" in temporada baja) - and the bill was over $25. Hmmm, I wonder which is worse, smelling Tom in dirty laundry for another week, or forking over big bucks to get the rest of his laundry washed? I hope the sun comes out today!
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Literally speaking, we had to get here somehow, and that somehow involved driving from the Hacienda Los Andes west to the coast, and then north for about an hour up to La Serena. We passed the Pichasca National Monument shortly after leaving Hurtado, and spent an hour walking around to see what it had to offer. This place is famous for plant and dinosaur fossils, as well as numerous significant archeological discoveries.
Real and original petrified tree trunks at Pichasca National monument.
Real original non-petrified cactus.
This was the only remaining remnant of the dinosaur fossils that were found here and have apparently been mostly removed. At least they left this one, really big, totally intact fossil for the paying tourists to see. Amazing!
This cliff overhang creates a large, natural, cave-like shelter, in which many artifacts and remnants of ancient cave-dwelling people were found. They even discovered the huge spear tips that they used to kill the dinosaurs, and piles of dinosaur bones discarded near the blackened ceiling where a cooking pit must have been.
How the ancient, native Chileans lived.
The beautiful resort of Las Tacas.
One of the reasons we didn't swim in the ocean - rough surf! (the other was the 13 degree Celsius water temperature)
There is a special "gull family package" during Temporada Baja here at Las Tacas.
The only guests in town... Actually, late in the week, a couple of other bewildered-looking families showed up.
Science on the beach.
Left: Measuring impact craters made by "meteors" of assorted size and mass.
Right: Searching/mining for a magnetized piece of "ore" using a magnetic field meter.
PE class... boring, but effective.
Lynn took advantage of some free time to try and figure out how to make her telescope camera work. She eventually succeeded in taking several slightly fuzzy pictures of a very distant antenna tower. Hopefully stars, nebulae, and galaxies are next.
La Serena is Chile's second oldest city, and as such has a rich and varied history. In the early days when it served as a port for Spanish gold mines, noble British adventurers/pirates repeatedly sacked the town with the blessing and encouragement of the British throne. Sir Francis Drake looted and pillaged here, and it was in large part due to the booty he took from La Serena and presented to his Queen that he got the "Sir" put in front of his name. Inside the modern city, there remains a large collection of colonial stone churches, although some were damaged and/or destroyed in a massive earthquake in the 1970's.
On Friday the early morning fog never burned off and it stayed dreary all day long. Lynn and I left the twins responsible for themselves and their own homework progress and drove into La Serena to shop for souvenirs. After carefully perusing the various stalls in a large open-air market, we bought replica Diaguita pottery, simple clay dishes, two baskets, two little carved wooden folding stools (made in Peru), and assorted knick-knacks. Unlike Sir Francis Drake, I, who have not been knighted, paid for the goods and services which were provided to me and my family here in La Serena.
A street and the Plaza de Armas in La Serena.
Two of the old churches. The one on the left was built in the mid-16th century. We don't know about the one on the right (didn't find a commemorative plaque).
Dark and drizzly and 50 degrees F. Good weather to stay inside and read! (or do math or study Spanish or learn some American history...)
It is now a little after 11:00am, and Tom and Anna are in the living room finishing up a science lesson. I just heard Tom make a side comment - something like "Hey, I still haven't done my laundry and I need to do it today." Perhaps he would actually prefer to wash his clothes vs. smell horrible. And just now the sky is lightening up a bit like the fog and clouds might actually burn off today. Hope springs eternal.
-Rolf