Category

Chile

Category

I just received word yesterday that I’ve been accepted to a volunteer teaching program in Colombia beginning in August. It will be a very different experience for me because I’ll be teaching English to children and assisting their teachers in developing an English curriculum – much different than teaching business English to professionals.

Located just a half hour outside Santiago, the village of Pomaire is a nice little escape from the city. It’s famous for pottery and authentic Chilean food, and most of what’s worth seeing is along a five block stretch of the main road in town. It’s super touristy, but still charming and pleasant enough to enjoy a nice afternoon.

I had some time to kill after seeing La Serena, so I decided to jump on a bus and head to the neighboring town of Coquimbo. I thought it would be an interesting place to check out because it’s a port city that was settled by a lot of English immigrants in the 1800s.

La Serena is a peaceful city on the Chilean coast, about six hours drive north of Santiago. It’s free of high-rises and traffic, small and compact, and cheap compared to Santiago. In the city, there’s not much left from the colonial days, but enough things to see to keep someone occupied for more than half a day.

A six hour drive from Santiago is La Serena. It’s the 2nd oldest city in Chile behind Santiago, founded in 1544. It’s main attraction is the beach, but I didn’t go there to see that. Well, sort of. I was hoping to catch a few hours of sun, but it was overcast the entire 2 ½ days I was there.