I left Antofagasta after a single rest day to break up my ten days peddling to knock 1000km off the Atacama Desert between Inquique and Copiapo. Only 800 km to Santiago after 2600km of plowing through the desert. I no longer gaze longingly at the tour buses blowing past me on the Pan American . . . well maybe just a little but no danger I will flag one down - I even refused a ride offer from a trucker!
I climbed back up to the desert plateau to continue on my way after being told repeatedly that the dirt road along the coast was in terrible condition.
While stopped at an intersection contemplating my immediate direction in life Patrick, a Canadian cyclist traveling from La Paz, Bolivia to Patagonia, pulled up and we decided to take the road less traveled down to the coast hoping for pavement or at least a solid dirt road. We traveled a couple kilometers before camping in the desert off the road.
The next day we crossed over a small mountain range passing a large international observatory (out of sight) and dropped back onto the Pacific coast to camp well before sunset.
The rocky spit defining the bay offered the perfect opportunity to forage in the rocks for crabs and mollusks. However, I had no idea what I was doing until a local gathering seaweed, living in a tent down the beach, offered to show me the ropes. Sorry no photos of my lesson as I was busy getting wet learning how to stab crabs, pry sea urchins out of the surging tide, and carve lapas (a tasty mollusk) off the rocks, as well as getting a lesson in bird identification and the vagaries of the waves.
However, I put my lessons to good use a couple days later down the coast. I found no sea urchins, known to me as uni from Japanese sushi menus, but crabs were plentiful!
I am rapidly becoming the crab terror of the Pacific coast and they make a great after dinner snack around the campfire while drinking a cheap Merlot.
The coastal stretches have been real blessing, in this otherwise desolate landscape, with easy camping on beautiful beaches, sweet sunsets, intense stars, and a cool morning fog lasting until 10 or 11 am.
The little fishing villages allow easy access to water without having to haul around more than seven liters.
Camping followed a progression of cruising along the coast into small port communities . . .
along immense white sand beaches
Then climbing back up onto the plateau and camping along side the road in what ever spot we could find out of the wind.
Occasional restaurants in bleak little mining outposts along the Pan American serve trucking traffic but they are not lacking in holiday cheer and the wood stove was welcome for taking the chill off the morning ride.
Despite being bleak during the day the sunsets and stars are always spectacular
And I am finally starting to see vegetation in spots - it may not look lush but all things being relative this was a veritable garden of Eden.
The last afternoon before coming into Copiapo we are pounded by a vicious sand filled head wind on the plateau as we ground along at 9kmph . . . I was hoping to find a large shrine and sure enough
A memorial to a 14 year old girl and several dead 20 somethings with an event tent in the back off the road!
Without discussion we pulled in immediately and made ourselves at home. The highway is being widened to a divided four lane so the lanes closest to us are closed to traffic - perfect for our drunken weave into the wind then providing shelter from passing traffic in the night. Thank you Memo and Coco!
The next morning is a short 60km ride to Copiapo where I planned to take a two day rest. I start to see olive groves in the river valley and then before I knew what happened was riding along my own tree lined highway. . . maybe this desert will be coming to an end.
I almost felt guilty but also relieved when I noticed the practically non-existent shoulders on the highway coming into the city but once inside the city there were bike paths of sorts . . .
But I feel that I more than made up for my slacking jetting around Santiago doing errands.
Santiago, Chile is a big city - 6 million plus people and quite vertical - sitting in a valley with huge snow capped mountains in the near distance. I have been staying in a cousin's apartment in a wonderful neighborhood , Belle Artes, in the city center with all the essentials close at hand - including the Latin American supermarket chain Lider, owned by Wahlmart. . . so much for shopping local or maybe I am just in a global sense. I arrived with a laundry list a mile long which included washing my sleeping bag that had not seen soap since . . . Guatemala - yikes! You can imagine the ring on the tub. Most other errands were gear related. So after Christmas it was time to boogie around a big city. I generally love riding in big cities which typically has meant NYC for me.
Chile is not notable for its bike culture and most cyclists seem to ride on the sidewalks - which drives me crazy because they are crowded and it is illegal most places in the United States so I am not accustomed to weaving around shopping peds. I used the bike paths occasionally but they also have pedestrians and were very indirect - so I decided it was safer and faster to ride in the streets. Chilean drivers are conservative and not that fast so it has been pretty comfortable except for the double length buses pulling into my lane - also pulling out of street lights is the best speed work I have done in a long time! The city itself is not difficult to navigate using notable high rises and the river running through the city. Below is pictured a building projected to be the highest in Latin America at 60 stories - not that big but considering Chile has some of the strongest earthquakes in the world pretty daring and a damn good land mark.
Santiago is covered with parks, public space, and sculpture which makes the city a human scale despite its size and the forested hills within the city provide good landmarks for navigation.
Downtown parks, streets and plazas are thronging with people.
Shoppin', makin' out, hangin' out, people watchin', chess playin' etc . . .
it can be a bit of a circus in an orderly Chilean sort of way
After Christmas eve dinner with Alicia and Marco's mother(Marco is my cousin's boyfriend), my first order of business was to replace my Patagonia rain coat that was no longer waterproof. I cannot honestly blame it on the jacket given the amount of use it has seen between fishing, skiing and mountain biking in one of the rainiest places in the the United States, however a lifetime warranty is a lifetime warranty. Patagonia has not only bombproof design but a bombproof warranty - I suppose they count on the fact that most people 1. do not use gear that hard, 2. will not return 20 year old jackets like I once did for a $175 gift certificate.
The Patagonia shop was friendly, expecting me, and I walked out with my new raincoat. That was the easy errand - next I needed to find a decent bike shop - not so easy. Santiago has plenty of bike shops but trying to get service? Forget it. Chile specializes in poor service and I could not get anyone to remove my cassette so I could rebuild my hub . . . a one minute job, literally. They were all impressed with my trip but not enough to help. Annoying and frustrating after riding all over the city for a long day. And I am not impressed with Chilean bike shops . . .
I wrote to a friend in Binghamton,NY, who lives part time in Chile, and he hooked me up with a very cool local bike touring company, La Bicicleta Verde (http://www.labicicletaverde.com/es) that does day tours around the city and wine country. I walked in and they told me to make myself at home! So I bought some beer to leave and treated it like my own shop - what a relief to meet some genuine bike culture, hang out with friendly folks, and get my rear hub in a semblance of working order. 
Happy New Years everyone - I am off to Mendoza, Argentina a mere 350km away.
