La Serena

We visited the Humboldt National Park from here. This is home to one of the smallest species of penquin which only lives in this region. The penquins were incredibly cute, jumping belly first down the rocks, although a highlight for us was the large community of sea-lions that posed for photos and sounded like Chewbacca. We were also lucky enough to see dolphins jumping out of the water.

http://picasaweb.google.com/trevallion74/HumboldtReserve

La Serena has a museum which houses on of the few Maoi outside of Easter Island. The museum acquired the Maoi by accident. Originally the Maoi was donated to La Serena by the president at the time and resided in a local park for many years, (for drunks to pee on!). It was then moved to be part of an exhibition in Barcelona and suffered decapitation during shipping. The insurance money from this paid for it to be restored and to have a special home built for it in the museum. The crack in its neck hardly shows.
Also in the museum are mummies and shrinken heads from Pre-Incan times, one in particular looks like Billy with a hangover/the guitarist from Gorrilaz.

http://picasaweb.google.com/trevallion74/LaSerena

written by  billyandsophie on May 17, 2008 from La Serena, Chile
from the travel blog: South America
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