IV. SA Chile/W2-3: La Serena & Woofing E

Tu, 21.02. - Fr, 24.02. Woofing El Hinojal Alto
That day was the start of my very first Woofing experience.
Woofing is an international platform on the Internet for people offering the possibility to work or being interested in working on organic farms in exchange for free accommodation and food. It is equally about cultural exchange whether in food, meals, way of working and language. I am not registered at that page but had heard of it several times and a nice guy called Julian I was talking to at Kombi Hostel in Santiago told me from his experience near La Serena in Valle del Elquí and gave me the contact details.
As I always wanted to try it out and was planning to visit La Serena/Coquimbo and the region Valle del Elquí anyway I took the chance and were lucky that I could immediately start for 2 weeks.
Franco and Rosa are a nice lovely couple in their late 50s living on their farm in El Hinojal Alto, Valle del Elquí roughly 40km east of La Serena. It is surrounded by an incredible mountain range and the views during work but also from the outdoor toilet :P are amazing. The neighbourhood (if you can call it as such) consists of 15 houses, roughly 40 people so it is rather calm with some animal sounds every now and often.
It is a nice little farm, mainly cultivating fruits but also vegetables such as my so loved avocadoes and olives and they also have some bees to produce their own honey - all for sure completely organic without the use of any chemicals or other substances. Both have decent jobs (Franco working as a teacher and Rosa in the public sector), the farm products are more for leisure and private use than sale. They also have 2 kids, both of them are living in Europe though (the daughter in Paris, France and the son in Heidelberg, Germany - oh yes, the world is a village :P). Apart from them there are also the 3 dogs Lulu, Hugo and Romina as well as the some months old very cute cat Mimomo.
Franco and Rosa are moreover (what I surely highly appreciated) really keen in a healthy lifestyle and food; they make their own bread - everything is multigrain, also dark pasta and rice, they hardly eat any meat but a lot of fruit and vegetables. They also don't drink alcohol (and that in a vast wine region with main producers of Chiles national drink Pisco) and are very religious with Saturday being the day of relaxation.
I was working 5 days in a row (first week Monday - Friday, second week Sunday - Thursday) for 6h a day; roughly 3 in the morning and 3-4 in the afternoon. My main tasks were general gardening work such as weeding weed, straightening the garden, planting and every now and often fruit picking. Moreover, I helped Franco to build the last garden wall and he showed me how to make honey - a really interesting experience for which I am very grateful; I am not a big honey lover but every time I eat it now I will definitely appreciate the hard work behind it ;)
In general, it was not complicated work but physically very demanding and for me sometimes really hard up to the point of exhaustion and a bit frustration as I am not strong enough and thus also slower. In the evenings I also gave Franco some German lessons as preparation for his visit to Heidelberg in July.

Sa, 25.02. Free Day La Serena/Coquimbo
On Saturday I had my first free day :)
As I am working in the valley anyway, I decided to take the 'micro' (small buses) to go to La Serena and Coquimbo. The bus ride was about 40 mins through the nice Valle del Elquí.
La Serena and Coquimbo are not the nicest cities - there are some nice churches and Plaza de Armas is quite interesting but apart from the Faro monumental (Lighthouse, La Serena's icon) and the Cruzero (Big Cross, Coquimbo's icon) there is not so much to see - most people mainly come here for the beaches or to head further east into the valley. Nevertheless, I spent quite a nice and especially relaxing day there and also enjoyed a good dinner down at the beach near the lighthouse.
Another reason to come here was to finally (after a week) get some WiFi to catch up and get organised but this was more than a challenge. There are not really many public places in Chile offering free WiFi and the few that do are not working (I.e. the one in the big mall next to the Central Bus Station). However, I was quite lucky to find a language school whose secretary was so kind offering me to use their WiFi including also free toilets (another thing that only exists in big malls or supermarkets).
In the evening I then went to the Central Bus Station to organise my further travel. After comparing the various timetables and prices the different bus companies are offering (btw if possible avoid using TurBus - it is the biggest company but usually also dearer and pretty well-known for frequent accidents and huge delays) I finally decided for Condor and a 15h night ride to Calama for 15.000 (by far the cheapest with the others starting at 22.000; Calama is the nearest bigger city to San Pedro de Atacama, another 1-2h bus ride).

Su, 26.02. - Th, 02.03. Woofing El Hinojal Alto
Please see above - Sunday was the day where we finalised the honey. We started around 5pm and it took us until almost 9pm but we got 28x1kg containers out of 16 honeycombs :)
From Monday to Thursday I was mainly responsible for maintaining Rosa's garden, especially equalising it and planting new plants - inclusive a flower heart ;)

All in all, it was a really nice experience and I am glad I did it - I will definitively appreciate and be grateful for food and my meals every day as there is often a lot of work behind it (especially for honey).
However, it was sometimes a bit lonely as both Franco and Rosa were away in the city and the work itself - well after a while a bit boring and I was glad to be distracted and talking to the cat ;) Unfortunately, that was also the reason why I could not really improve my Spanish.
Also, I have to admit that I am as a person not strong enough for these kind of jobs but it was worth the experience and now I know even more that I am better at working with or being surrounded by people.

Oh and as there was no WiFi with only 1 break on my free Saturday during all the 2 weeks:
I really had the time (a lot of it) to be with me, myself and I; to think about life, what I really want and what is important for me; to generally reflect about my last 6 months of travelling, the good and bad experiences I had, the people I met, the lessons I learned and especially my family and friends back home and their reactions, understanding and support :)

Fr, 03.03. - Sa, 04.03. Free Days Nothing & La Serena
After 5 tough days of gardening work Friday was my free day and I first decided to do: nothing :P
The plan was to just chill and relax but for sure I still had another of these admin days with washing, packing, organising etc. Nevertheless, I really relaxed that day (oh yes my body and especially back so urgently needed it), enjoyed the views, ate a lot :D, did some travel diary and reading as well as some collages as present and my small fruit surprise to thank Franco and Rosa.

On Saturday morning the two gave me a lift to La Serena (they had to go to church there anyway), I put my big bag in the luggage storage at the Bus Terminal and enjoyed another day in La Serena - also again desperately trying to find a place with free WiFi.
This time La Serena was worse - the weather was amazing but at Plaza de Armas there were so many beggars annoying me every 10mins that I finally went to another place. I met the Chilenean guy Sebastian there to whom I had a really nice chat and who gave me WiFi in exchange for me charging his phone with my power bank - a pretty good deal and win-win situation :)
Later I went to Recova, a nice market where products such as fruits, vegs and nuts are way cheaper than in the supermarket. I also had my first baken Empañada Pino there - sliced beef, onions, olive and egg; pretty yummy and for 1.000 also cheap ;)
Before catching the bus I still went to the big Jumbo Supermarket to stock up on water and food for the long bus ride but also a bit for San Pedro de Atacama (people telling me everything is so expensive there and it is such a small village that there are only corner stores and no real supermarkets) - that's where my German blood comes through, better be well prepared than sorry :) Once again I had to confess that Chile is a really expensive country, some products (such as avocadoes) are even more expensive than in Germany, even if they grow here.

After Valparaíso & Viña del Mar, Coquimbo & La Serena were the last places close to the ocean and beach for the next few weeks - I was heading to one of the earth's biggest desserts now and Bolivia is an inland country.
The bus itself was 45mins delayed but then was as comfy as Romani with nice seats, clean toilets - and they even gave us a bit of food (juice and biscuits) in the evening and morning plus had TV, pillows and blankets which I happily combined with my so loved sarong :)

Su, 05.03. - Mo, 06.03.: San Pedro de Atacama
pls see first 2 pics below - 3rd one is DE Version ;)Les mer