Around half the world in 180 days: Singing Carabineros and llamas in the sky

We arrived in Santiago on a typical sunny, and smoggy, day, and had great views of the Andes as we flew in. We spent the next few days exploring the city. This included a visit to Cerro San Cristobel, which was almost above the smog line and had great views of the city and the mountains behind. We were followed around by one of the many street dogs. On our wandering around Santiago, we saw packs of dogs chasing cars, a load of marching, singing Carabineros (policemen) in the main square, hummingbirds and of course more smog!

From Santiago we got a TurBus to La Serena, about 7 hours north on the coast. Chilean buses are like business class on a plane, and that's only the third best tickets! We did see some eonomico buses though with hay on the roof. La Serena is a chilled out town on the Pacific coast, which is really busy in summer but quiet this time of year. We checked out some cafes and the two museums in town, as well as some beach visits. We took a tour up the Valle de Elqui, east of town, and visited a brewery, which did good stout, a pisco (made from grapes but tastes a bit like cheap vodka) distillery, and had lunch at a place that uses only solar ovens and water heaters to make the food. In the evening we went up the the observatory at Mamalluca, and looked at Saturn and some nebulas and stars through the telescopes, then our guide told us about the Inca constellations of the llama, baby llama and snake. The Inka were the only people to use the dark patches between the stars to mark out their constellations. Check it out; the snake sits just below the southern cross and the mother and baby llama are nearby!