I arrived in Copiapó around 9pm and walked across town to a hostal I found on Google Maps - Hostal Plaza Carrera. At the hostal, the woman who answered the door immediately asked, "Did you talk to the owner?" I said no, explained I found the hostal on the map. She was obviously not happy. She called the owner, and a few minutes later gave me a room. As she wrote my details into her log book she was still unhappy. Maybe she had a bad day, I don't know, but she wasn't the most pleasant person to have greeting customers.

The next day was more of the same from her, apparently she's just not a friendly person, or she doesn't like foreigners, I don't know. I do know this - I won't be staying in this hostal again.

My full day here I went out to the University to look at the old locomotive, the first in South America, which started service in 1851. First problem, today is Sunday, so there's just about nothing open including the museums and the University. When I arrived I found an open gate and a security person and I asked about seeing the train. I explained that I was in town for only the one day and she called another security person and that woman accompanied me to the train. Unfortunately, at this time of the year, the trees tend to drop a lot of litter and sap, so the train is covered with tarps, you can see in the photo album.

Another paragraph about this hostal - the curtains for the room's windows are so thin at night the room is almost as well lighted as in the day, and that's with the curtains closed. And if you want any privacy you have no choice but to turn off the light in the room, and hope the people walking past the window can't still see into the room. And, they have no towels for the guests. Seriously??? I will say one thing positive about his hostal - the internet access is definitely high-speed.

Copiapó is a generally pleasant town but other than the old train there's nothing here for tourists. There is a really nice park along both sides of the dry riverbed, though. At the far end of that park there is a little bit of water that soon dries into the ground, but in the meantime, it creates a green wetland area.

Will I come back to visit again? No. Seen once is enough.