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Published: January 15th 2012
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Double and treble assorted 4 -letter words my thingy just dumped 1100 words.
Well I'll start again in for a penny in for a pound.
Taltal was nice but the weather not so next stop was to be Caldera 300 or km south which is the only way you can go anyway, west is wet and east has no roads.
The desert landscape seem to be losing it's enchantment, hills and rock and not a tuft of grass anywhere .
VIVA CHILE!!!
People out on the national highway picking up garbage, fantastic and good for Chile, cleanliness is next to Godliness.
Driving through the desert reminds me of Americas song " Riding through the desert on a horse with no name" endless.
Caldera is a bit of a dump nothing really to it, a mining port with a town attached of course the ever present mist and clouds do no make it any better a little sun would do wonders methinks.
We go to the famous
Bahia Inglesa that they showed on the telly the other day, when the sun was shining.
When the sun does not shine it goes to show
that only mad dogs and Chileans swim in the partly melted ice they call an ocean here.
I thought the Swedes were mad when it comes to swimming in cold water, not only is it cold but windy as well
, but the Chileans have one up on us.
We drive around a bit and wait for happy hour, a spot of grog might cheer us up.
I'll get back to Sweden paler than a fishe's belly, OK no carcinomas but what the heck it's summer and we are close to the Capricorn thingy and as we watch TV, they're on everywhere, there's a heatwave in Baires 38 C, four letter words come to mind.
Dinner ended up being an empanada, a lot better than breakfast the next day!!
Stale bread with cheese cut so thin that it was transparent all wrapped up in a paper napkin with instant coffe.
What's wrong with noodle soup?
Looking at the grey and dismal sky makes want to leave ASAP we load our stuff in the Chariot and set forth.
The GPS is not necessary, one country, one people, one highway to paraphrase Adolf.
Huasaco is on the map as the next stop on the endless journey south.
It's not endless but it seems so under the ever present grey skies, 300 km or so gets us there.
The desert is bone dry no a tuft of anything living for 100 km, no water no wild life just the endless sky and us and of course all the trucks who drive along at break neck speed.
Huasco is a mining port or something to that effect, I think that northern Chile would be empty as my wallet if it was not for all the mines.
Staying at the same place as we are is an Brit biker couple that stayed in the same place in Taltal which goes to show that there's not much around.
Walk about and then some beer and back to our very nice room with a sea view to wash some clothes.
Somehow Chilean charwomen think that putting a few T-shirts in a washing machine is the way to fortune so we by some washing powder and do it ourselves. 10 minutes spent and 18 of uncle Obamas greenbacks saved.
Better spent
on food and we actually get dinner for the same amount and a couple of cold ones included.
We take the British bloke along and it so seems that "Bikers unite" actually works he drives a BMW and so do I, instant bonding :-).
The room smells of fresh laundered and very damp clothes so we got to sleep in moisturized air, very healthy I belive.
Next morning bright and bushy tailed we get up to a sunny morning, NOT!!!!
So after a decent breakfast, no stale bread and even orange juice we get into the " Speed machine"
All the washing is not dry so N juryrigs a clothes line with and old cable and hangs her washing there, once in the desert with the windows down it dries in no time flat, a spin dryer has not got a chance to compete with the Chilean "dry as a bone" desert.
With some close to dread we get to the next town in line, La Serena, totally unjustified La Serena is a nice colonial city with lots of nice buildings and churches and of course a "Plaza de Armas" a must in a
South American city.
As well as San Martin, Rivadavia, Bolivar,Cienfuegos all well know street names in every South American Spanish speaking country.
Anyway La Serena is nice, we have a nice lunch and a nice walkabout enjoying the city and believe it or not SUNSHINE.
At the same time we lock for digs and manage to find some place not to bad but not very nice either, but for the money I want to spend....
WE get the Chariot to park it down close to the hotel N gets out and I'm attacked by a very aggresive parking person of the female gender she considers stoping at the hotel to get your bag out equals parking.
She gives me a ticket that I throw away and then I move the car down to the next block where I park it.
When I get back to our hotel she's outside shouting at me that I should pay for the minute I stopped, I smile at her and leave, Who's going to bother with a car with Argie number plates?
we walk around and enjoy La Serreana som more and after looking for a while
find a nice restaurant with nice food and no drunken people shouting their heads as in many other places.
People stagger past us, drunken into oblivion seems like Sweden on pay day.
There's an animalreserve north of la Serena, the Humboldt reserve, where we didn't go to due to the Chariots rather untrustworthy petrol gauge, who wants to get stranded?
The lady in the tourist information said it would be a good idea to get to the port rather early 9 or so.
We get there 9 o'clock sharp and of course there's only two lost souls there but us and the guys with da boats won't take less than 12 paying souls.
So instead of sleeping in a bed we snooze in the car, for an hour and a half, four letter word!!!!!
Assorted Chileans and two minute Swedes finally get on the boat and on the way(?) to some island or other the seas are calm so my meager breakfast stays down.
Sea lions all over some cliffs "cloud bathing" as there's no sun but definitely a lot warmer than the sea.
The look rally comfy lying on the jagged
rocks and some have climbed really high up , as cumbersome as they are on land equally graceful and lithe in the water.
Big Daddy shows himself and is indeed abig one.
We pass the penguins who snarl at us and make threatening noises and drool in their beaks.
Actually the're rather small and can only be watched from the boat, the are cute though as they waddle around, about 30 cm tall or so, slightly smaller than the average Chilean.
We go out a bit from the island and suddenly dolphins everywhere, the have the audacity to be everywhere but where the camera is pointing.
Some jump into the air and give us our moneys worth.
The rest of the excursion is spent on an island where you can swim and walk about, some seagulls get pissed of when you get to close but that's the excitement of the day.
Back to La Serena to have a nice meeting with the ATM and a late lunch and then of to Vicuna.
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