We paid the bill and left around ten thirty yesterday morning. We’d spent ten days at Marks place, that was a hundred bucks while Reuben charged two hundred for his time and skill. The wheel alignment cost $25 and the parts we replaced were $252. For all that Chile is not considered cheap it seemed like a good deal to me. As Layne pointed out that included two loads of laundry, electricity to charge our batteries, a cold shower and we even had a dump station available. But now it was back to the cold hard life of being alone on the road.
Our plan was to park about twenty miles down the road at a site mentioned in iOverlander overlooking the ocean and it all worked out by early afternoon. It was an upbeat start to our next round of travels.
Our first stop was a rest area on the coastal highway with free hot showers in a building kept clean by an onsite attendant.
The little white van was occupied by a young French couple who bought the van in Santiago and after their tour are driving back to sell it and go home. He was just as excited as I was to be in civilized Chile.
The rest area would have been a good place to spend the night had we needed to and Rusty enjoyed an off leash stroll as well.
Then we got back on the road to look for lunch which we found at this place:
In the Atacama Desert where it doesn’t rain you don’t even need a roof, just some shade. It was sunny but just 65 degrees on a cool windy afternoon.
The young waitress said “lapas” was the menu of the day and all Google revealed was that they are mollusks. We got mussel soup to start and it was filling and excellent.
Then we got the main dish but we were stuffed so I got a to-go bag from GANNET2 though I did taste the food and it was a delicious mix of mollusks potatoes and peppers in the sauce.
Rusty was relaxing aboard during our lunch.
Layne went to look for some fruit at the nearby market and then we were set for the beach.
It was as usual the perfect Chilean highway good for 60 mph and hardly any traffic. There was a dollar fifty toll booth which seemed well worth the ease of the drive.
Our plan was to camp on the cliffs overlooking the roiling Pacific swells in a place listed on the iOverlander app.
In summer I imagine there is a lot of coming and going even though it is a very trash free location. Chileans are much less inclined to dump trash than their neighbors.
The wind got pretty strong making it unpleasant to dig outside and get sandpapered but for an afternoon rest it was a good spot to get back into the habits of traveling.
