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Kevin and Joannie on tour
It’s strange how on holiday something which normally take an
hour to do can take all morning. We made
the checkout time. They had forgotten to bill us for our meal on New Year’s Eve
and in the end only charged us for the wine.
Our initial plan was to visit Fray Jorge National park which
was not far down the coast. It is a
cloud forest as the sea mist hangs over the area and makes it more lush and
damp than the rest of the region. The
area south of La Serena is a transitional zone between the desert and the green
central valley. As we turned off the
main road to PN Fray Jorge, there were small agricultural villages with flocks
of goats. The road was dusty and
windy. Eventually it started a series of
very steep inclines and descents. Kevin
was driving so slowly that even Joan wasn’t complaining. It’s a sad thing but we just haven’t had
confidence in this vehicle since it broke down.
Though Patricio patched it up, we still feel it has been sluggish and
the problem isn’t truly fixed. Kevin was
worried about its performance up these steep climbs so when an opportunity
availed itself we decided to proceed no further and go back to the main
carriageway.
The roads were noticeably busier today with lots of private
cars rather than camionetas and trucks. Around the Limari Valley there were
lots of open kiosks selling bread, jams, olive oil and goats’ cheese. We had planned to stay again at the Termas de
Socos for the night but we were there so quickly that we carried on. Our final destination of our revised plan for
the holiday was the Maipu Canyon, a popular walking destination. However it is high in the mountains and our
lack of confidence in the vehicle made us re-evaluate our plans. Instead we decided to head down to the coast near
Santiago and stay in the resort of Vina del Mar which is very close to the
beautiful but impossible to drive in city of Valparaiso.
We stopped for petrol at a services and could not believe
the crowds there. There were queues for
everything: petrol, snacks, the café. On
the way up these places had been deserted.
Further along the road, women we were waving flags and
waving something at passing cars. We
were slightly horrified when we were realised they were waving the carcasses of
goats! Not sure if British-style food
hygiene laws were being obeyed.
Even further on, the road was lined with mainly women in
white hats and tabards. Each had a
covered basket and a stool on which it rested. It wasn’t clear what they were
selling but lots and lots of cars pulled up on the hard shoulder to buy.
Turning down to Vina del Mar we lost most of the
traffic. As we approached the coast
there were strange brown clouds on the horizon.
Vina was heaving. We hadn’t
identified where we were going to stay but thought we would have a look when we
got there. There was nowhere to stop –
suicidal bus drivers cut us up, pedestrians wandered absent-mindedly into the
road and every space, including the pavements, had cars parked on it. We headed
to the front and found ourselves heading towards Valparaiso. This was not a good idea. Valparaiso is an intriguing city of narrow
streets leading up steep ravines – an absolute labyrinth of a place and not an
easy place to navigate around when you are a pedestrian, never mind an extra
wide motorhome with poor visibility. We
eventually pulled into a large bus stop (naughty) before the traffic drove us
into the midst of the city. We could see
smoke coming from the hills behind the city which was covering the bay in
smog. At the time we thought it was
forest fires which have become quite common in Chile. Only the next day did we find out that the
fires had spread to parts of the city.
Fire tenders and Caribineros were flying past, sirens howling.
Eventually having logged on and having found no sea side
camping nearby, we decided to turn round and head north to Vina where we
remembered easier roads to drive on.
Mistake! We did find the coast
road but we have never seen so many people and cars. There was nowhere to stop and we reached the
next resort before spotting an inland road which headed up to the hills.
Eventually we managed to pull up and park and googled for a campsite. Only one
came up, Rancho Casanova, some way out of town. With difficulty, we used Google
maps to locate the place. When we got
there, we were in a suburb of Vina town with tyre mending places and gas supply
stores. An unlikely place for a
campsite. We asked a man in a shop who
turned out to be inebriated for directions.
Luckily his boss turned up and was able to describe the way. The Google map pin had been put in the wrong
place!
We found the turn off and it looked derelict, but a small
dust road through some wasteland led to a parcela of land and a campsite. Though modest, it was well equipped and
eventually we managed to manoeuvre under some quince and pear trees. Supplies were a bit low as this was an unexpected
stop but we had emergency wine, pasta and sauce.
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