Copiapó
After 18 hours on Pullman Bus, which did NOT live up to it’s hype (a/c broken, broken seats, movies at an inaudible volume), we decided to spend the night in Copiapó, a town about the size of Spokane with about 1 stray dog to every 3 people. At least it felt like it.
There have been occasional stray dogs in Peru, but this town takes the cake so far in South America. It was like being back in Spain, where the strays run in packs and don’t get out of your way if they want to lay down in the sidewalk. We visited the mall as well, which was about the size of Northgate mall with at least 10 beauty parlors and maybe a handful of clothing stores. Their main plaza is pretty. It’s filled with palm trees and benches and vendors you see at concerts (bracelets, etc). The weather is kind of California-like but there’s not much to do in this town and we were quickly bored. We visited the rock museum (Museo Minerologia) which was interesting, but it’s just 2 floors of rocks labeled scientifically. Not much bling or pizzazz. There was one section with glow-in-the-dark rocks.
Our whole reason for stopping here was to take a side trip to the coast to see the National Humboldt Penguin Reserve, but we decided against it. Chile, while things cost more and it’s more modern, is NOT set up for tourism. You basically need a car to go or do anything outside of Santiago. The tourism agencies are outrageously expensive (as are car rentals and gas). So our option was to take a handful of slow buses to the closest town and hire an agency to take us to the penguins. No thanks, I’ll wait until we are back in Peru and head to the Islas Ballestas.