Trees at Last!

The landscape gradually comes to life the farther south I pedal - it is still huge and dry but I see plant life. Finally the desert is coming to an end after nearly 3000km. I am a little fried.
Traffic is picking up noticeably and Ruta 5, the Pan Americana, is under near continual construction as they expand it to a four lane divided highway - sometimes a drag, sometimes I have two closed highway lanes to myself (check out those concrete I-beams they are huge).
Camping is still easy - parked myself underneath a rail bridge one evening and had a small fire - nice to be on concrete instead of dust and sand - still no people around to bother me. I thought about Alex, a friend's son, that asked if I was a hobo.
Played with my letters pasta and the ants
Sunsets with the moon are still spectacular but the real treat is when I wake in the middle of the night after the moon has gone under the horizon. I am not sure if this photo worked because I cannot see it on my computer screen but . . .
The stars are a solid blanket crisscrossed with meteors and bisected by orbiting satellites. The combination of no moisture and no light pollution make the region home to numerous international observatories. Some nights the night sky is a diffuse glow of distant stars and the milky way looks exactly like that - milky white with scattered pinpoint of light.Landing in La Serena was a true breath of fresh air because there are trees and water in a beautiful city on the ocean.and the street are packed with people doing their holiday shoppingWhen I arrived here I already knew one person that I had met at the hostel in Inquique and we had a date for her to show me around the city. However, within 15 minutes of arriving I was invited to lunch at Mario's house with his family.
Mario had been doing some carpentry at the hostel when we met - I joined him Sunday for lunch, helped him with some carpentry around the house, then got a tour of the neighborhood for a few hours meeting many of his neighbors and sitting around chatting.
The previous day, Saturday, I wandered into a local bike shop that is hub of the local free ride/downhill/dirt jumping scene - Cerro Grande Bike Shop. Turns out one of the owners was a sponsored Cannondale rider and they were big fans of FBM, a bmx frame company located in my town that I know personally. So I was invited to their house that evening . . . The whole of north Chile looked like a free ride/downhill mecca waiting to happen - turns out it is happening.
I really needed a change - whereas previously I had met few Chileans and found the country not terribly friendly now I am so busy socializing with the charming three generations of women who own the hostel and invitations to homes that I have no time to write anything. When it rains it does pour . . . though no actual moisture yet - glad to be out of the desert.