La Serena - Valparaiso - Viña del Mar - Santiago

Originally, we hadn't planned to make a stop in La Serena, but since we wanted to be in Valparaiso on 4th October to meet my mom, we had some time to bridge. We also didn't want to sit on a bus for over 20 hours to get from San Pedro de Atacama to Valparaiso.

When we arrived in La Serena, we were amazed. The streets were clean and tidy. The houses were beautifully colorful and had proper roofs.

Unfortunately, we couldn't book a hostel in advance, as we usually did, because there was a power outage in our hostel in San Pedro the day before and we didn't have a SIM card yet. But we quickly found a place to stay with an older lady. La Serena had a really pretty city center and a huge modern shopping center. But the best part was the incredibly large supermarket, where we could have spent hours. In the last 4 weeks in Peru, there were only small minimarkets where you could only buy the essentials, and suddenly we had a huge selection. However, I quickly noticed how industrial and almost American Chile is, as even the bananas are imported. After spending three days strolling, cooking, sleeping, and shopping, we continued to Valparaiso.

This time we had already booked a hostel, which was located right at the bus terminal (above a butcher's shop), so we could pick up my mom the next day.

Valparaiso has several neighborhoods that are located on a hill, so you can overlook the entire city. One of them consists of many colorful houses with cafes and restaurants. The neighborhood where we stayed was less beautiful, but the hostel was one of the most beautiful we have had so far.

Viña del Mar is right next to Valparaiso, so we could take a bus to the neighboring town in one day. There is a dune in the middle of the city. But it didn't get any more exciting than that.

After two days, we continued to Santiago. Santiago reminded me a bit of Barcelona, ​​only lacking the narrow streets. In the evening, Emily and I met our friend Juan, whom we had met in the jungle in Peru. In my opinion, Santiago is truly a city worth seeing. On Sunday evening, 7th October, we took an overnight bus to Pucón.