Sunday, February 2, 2020

La Serena/Coquimbo, Chile

We arrived in port this morning and took a taxi from the port in Coquimbo to the historic town of La Serena. This is our view from the balcony of the ship.


The town of La Serena founded in 1544 is known for being Chile’s second oldest city. It is now a very popular holiday resort with many of the high rise condominiums along the coastal drive. We drove the length of the beach from the ship to Old Town La Serena and it is very much like Fort Lauderdale or Miami with some very upscale looking restaurants and hotels as you can see in the background. The entire drive is divided between the two cities of La Serena and Coquimbo.


There is an area that suffered from the 2015 earthquake and resulting tsunami and that is currently being rebuilt. Our cab driver told us people from all over Chile, Argentina and Ecuador vacation here.
While we were in the Plaza de Armas or main square we visited the Cathedral of the city of La Serena.

The door to the church was very impressive wood carvings.
Unfortunately the picture Steve took with me doesn’t show some of the local problems.
Much of the area has been marred with graffiti including statues and buildings. Many of the words were anti government and church. Our cab driver told us the youth of the country are opposed to working but enjoy demonstrating for social justice. A sad state for the country because it has the potential to be a very nice American tourist area.As we walked back to the ship we went through the local fish market with the fresh catches.

On our balcony writing up the blog post we were entertained  watching a local tourist company running Pirate ship tours right past our balcony.








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