Coquimbo on fat tires

Last night was a bust; we drove all the way up to the mountain sheer Mamalluca sits, and the cloud cover was so heavy that we all voted to return, making three hours in a van seem like nothing more than a waste of time...  We had a hard time scoring a refund from our tour guide who spoke absolutely no English,but I think all of us managed it.  Today I rented a bicycle from the hostel, but when I saw it I balked; now I know to ask before k pay my money.  The bike had fat tires, no gears and pedal brakes. The lock was insubstantial, but when the woman at the desk told me to be extra careful because last week on of their guests had a bike stolen, I did suggest that they really needed to provide more adequate locks.

I rode along the beach for about 8 kilometers to the scruffy little port called Coquimbo where the colorful houses are built into the hillside, and the oaths up to the houses are brutal.  I watched one woman with a baby carriage try to negotiate the paths, and I could almost have called for child abuse because of what she had to do with that carriage in order to get up the hills.  Let me show you:

You can actually see her trying to move that sucker up those s curves...I was met by this conglomeration of Pelicans all hunkered down on top of some ship, waiting for the fish bits to be thrown out by the fisherman, I assume, but maybe eh were there just to say hello.

I pushed that damn bike up the hills to take this photo of the painting of one of the other accesses to the houses on the hillside.  Then, I bought some nuts and raisins and sat in this little park to watch the comings and goings and to look at the houses stacked seemingly one on top of the other on the hillside.

As I retreated back down towards the water, this was one of the vistas up towards the houses, and then there was the harbor... Boats like I had never seen before slouched around the inner harbor, gigantic gulls and enormous Pelicans dive bombing the water and each other...

Here is my favorite fellow' perched atop  the bow of a ship, just sitting there as noble as he can be.

This is a look back up at the jumble of houses, taken as I rode off into the dismal mist of mid-day on my fat tire, wide seat bicycle, looking more like the wicked witchof the west without a basket than much else..

And I rode on back to La Serena, which isn't much more serene, but the high rise apartment buildings along the sea make it look for dignified - at least more confined.

This is the view back towards Coquimbo for the lighthouse at La Serena which I learned one cannot climb up into, just as the Japanese gardens were not opened on a Monday, the Stars did not shine on a Sunday, etc....I did, however, photograph the gardens through a hole in both the fencing AND the fabric allowing in no visual intruders, and they looked mighty fine.

I forgot that I went to the church and the history museum, neither particularly fascinating, but I can give you a taste.

And then there was walking around the town which I have done my sir share of this trip, but here are some snippets.  I head back to Santiago tomorrow morning.