Bing Trip: Friday

A lot has happened since last week. The Bing Trip (thus named because it is sponsored by the wealthy Bing family) was incredible and we did so many activities every day. All the posts before this one are photos of the trip, so now to explain. I think this will take a couple of entries…

On Friday morning we met at the Stanford center and drove to the airport to fly to La Serena, a coastal town just north of Santiago. The plane ride was only about 45 minutes, and soon we were landing at a small airport that was painted bright yellow. La Serena is quite small, and our hotel was one of the tallest and most modern buildings even at five stories, but the town has a lot of history, including many old churches and colonial-style buildings. We had a delicious buffet lunch and got the rest of the afternoon to explore the city. First we went to the Museo Arquelógico, which was slightly disappointing after seeing the Precolumbian Art Museum in Santiago, but still very cool. It houses one of the only Moai statues removed from Easter Island. It was apparently a medium sized statue in relation to others on the island, about 10 feet tall. We also saw some ancient vases, mummies, and other artifacts.

After the museum we went to the Mercado La Recova, the local artisan market built around a two-story building with an open courtyard. I’m not the kind of person who gets excited about artisan shops, especially because we saw the same items sold over and over at every stall (little Moai statues, leather coin purses, mini bottles of Pisco). But one guy bought an “Andean saxophone” that looked like any other wooden flute, except it actually sounded like a saxophone, which was pretty cool. After the Mercado we were able to visit the Casa González Videla, house and now museum of the former Chilean president (during the 1950s). The museum was closing when we got there but luckily we were allowed in for a quick look. We saw furniture, letters from foreign leaders such as Harry Truman, and clothing belonging to the former president. I especially liked the giant snow suit on display, which the president wore when he visited Antarctica, part of which was acquired as a Chilean territory during his presidency.

On Friday night we had an excellent dinner at a restaurant on the beach called Tololo Beef. Afterwards a few of us headed to a bar called Brooklyn’s, which attempted to create a New York City theme. It was a little too expensive, but we got to see a live band and hear an interesting mix of dance music (a combination of cheesy 70s and 80s songs in English, plus some random REM and Gypsy Kings thrown in for good measure).