May 2nd, Coquimbo / La Serena, Chile.

Japanese Gardens, La Serena, Chile.

Today my tour guide (Miriam) escorted me into the city of La Serena, which neighbours Coquimbo where she has her AirBnB and showed me around the sights, including the Japanese Gardens and a museum which was the former residence of a Chilean president - Gabriel Gonzalez Vitela (?) - with some interesting artifacts from back as far as the 1500s, including a copy of a map drawn by some early seafarers which showed the approximate outline of countries such as New Guinea, the West coast of Australia (only) and parts of other countries that they passed but only recorded shorelines of using the only navigational aids they had in the day (sextants). Quite interesting to think that they passed those shores even before any other European had landed on them. Lots of old works of art hanging on the walls, of course, of former military leaders, wives, family and so on. Lots of marble, lots of antique furniture, the usual adornments in a museum. It was good to have an English speaking guide to lead the way and do the translating. Tomorrow she has suggested we visit a popular beach not far from here, about 20 minutes walk, she says. It's usually cloudy here in the morning until about midday when it clears  to a fine sunny day - I enjoyed stretching out on the bench on the front porch in the sun after we got back from our expedition into town - although the air is cool there's plenty of radiant heat in the sun if you can find a sheltered spot to enjoy it. 

I cancelled my accommodation in Vicuna when I discovered from the address that it was actually in El Molle in the commune of Vicuna (as they describe regions here) - Vicuna is also the name of the city close to the observatories I want to visit but El Molle is quite a way from Vicuna and I may simply do a tour from here directly to an observatory and back to here and stay here an extra night or two to accommodate that (at NZD$15 per night here it may work out cheaper than a bus and accommodation in Vicuna, as well).

I'll keep you posted - all for now.