In the morning I left Valpariso for La Serena. The bus was going north for 8 hours. I wanted to go to the Atacama Desert next, but I didn't want to sit in the bus for that long, so I stopped in this little seaside resort. 

Nothing spectacular in this city

The city is rather unspectacular. On a market I tried the typical empanadas of Chile, which are bigger than the ones in Argentina. I did not go into the water, as it was quite windy and the water was not really warm.

I changed my hostel after the first night, because I was the only backpacker there.  The rest were all families. That was a mistake, as I realized later. I checked into a party hostel. And I usually can't get along with the guests of such places. No matter what time they turn on the lights regardless if someone is sleeping or not. Also I was bitten by an insect that night and I had to go to the hospital in my next destination because it got infected.

A boat trip to see whales, dolphins, sea lions & penguins

I made an excursion to the Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt, a Chilean nature reserve. First I went by bus to a small village and from there a boat took us out to the open sea. We saw dolphins shooting out of the water next to our boat and finally we even saw a blue whale, the largest mammal on earth. With huge pressure its water fountain shot out of the sea. The boat took us further to the rocks where countless brown sea lions had made themselves comfortable. We also got to see some small penguins, named after the German biologist Alexander von Humboldt.

On the return trip by bus we also saw some Andean jackals.

In the night I took the bus to Antofagasta, further up north in the country.