It was the most extraordinary thing. We came out of the desert like the lost Israelites and landed in coastal California.
The land of milk and honey, or at least fresh vegetables and delicious empanadas, which was quite good enough for us.
Trees and greenery and shade were in abundance. It was a sight for sore eyes exhausted by the days of driving through the always arid Atacama Desert.
Oh lucky us. At last.
Naturally there is the odd serpent in Paradise, that is the human condition, cold showers, run down facilities and overnight damp cold temperatures to chill your bones but we are a half hour Uber ride from Valparaiso and the sun shines during the day to warm us up. And the empanadas are excellent. At night a campfire keeps the icy darkness at bay.
I took Rusty for one last walk on the beach and discovered a handicapped ramp for wheelchair users to enjoy the beach. I really like Chile.
The drive from La Serena started on an odd note when the campground manager accused Cora and Florian of not having paid for two of our three nights in the expensive campground. At $30 a night the accusation was a worry. Luckily Cora had the receipts but nothing doing, the manager looked at the receipts and there was the amount and the last four digits of Cora’s credit card proving we hadn’t slipped them our receipts but the manager wouldn’t accept her own proof of payment. Finally Layne said we’re leaving and we left Turismo El Huerto to sort out their apparently decrepit book keeping. Florian was mad as a wet hen and I learned some new grunting noises that represent German cursing. Why she didn’t also accuse us, and I had carefully tossed our valuable receipts…another mystery of the universe. Cora and Layne route planning:
There was a change in the countryside immediately apparent south of La Serena as the desert was sprouting shrubbery such as you might see in the southwestern United States. Highway 5, the PanAmerican, 368 kilometers from the capital, Santiago, which is 228 miles.
Our plan was to follow the highway towards the capital, pay a few $4 tolls and turn off to Valparaiso the port city before we reached Santiago (“Saint James”).
The drive was unremarkable because Chile is amodern functioning country. There are no tuk tuks, no horses and carts and not even many motorcycles except large touring bikes taking vacation trips. Traffic is orderly, roads are smooth and driving here is like driving in the States. You could get off a plane, rent a car and plunge into the traffic system here and feel right at home. It’s lovely.
Cruise control and 55-60 miles per hour. No air conditioning needed most of the day as temperatures hovered around 60 degrees under the marine inversion cloud cover.
It’s still desert but at least it’s green. To me it reminded me of Northern California in summer.
Road signs are clear and exits are properly marked. I felt like I could let my guard down a bit. Florian and Cora also enjoyed this driving and Florian called us “Team Boring.”
Team Boring it is.
And there are the rest areas and service areas which caused a debate. Are they more like Germany or the US?
Rusty the philosopher just got on with enjoying the perfect landscaping.
Inside was the usual restaurant shop and clean toilets and showers which I totally forgot to photograph. Happily the trash can was full and they had run out of knives so it wasn’t perfect and I had to learn to cut chicken with two forks as I was too lazy to go and get my Swiss Army knife. A functioning water fountain: be still my beating heart.
Actually tap water is generally potable here and we filled our water tank with a hose for the first time since Panama.
I have to say I enjoy functioning infrastructure even though it is less colorful than indigenous markets and impoverished street sellers. We have seen plenty of that and the opportunity to relax is too good to pass up.
Not a pothole in sight.
And Layne found a Lider supermarket right off the freeway with huge open easy parking.
And yes, it’s nice to be back in the land of Walmart. Team Boring at work.
Our goal was Los Olivos campground where we finally met Roadside Picnic whose adventures in a giant Sprinter van we have been following since Panama and we finally got to meet them.
To me this looks like California.
Local dogs find Rusty fascinating but he’s a grumpy old bastard and ignores them.
Fresh crispy pies with meat, onions a boiled egg and an olive. Or a seafood mix.
We arrived late, around five o’clock but Julia and Konstantin put on a barbecue for us and we talked into the night. It was good.
