Imants is writing:
The first day in a longer period of time when I woke up before the alarm. Since I am not the only one who has a desire to sleep longer today, Ilgonis starts Inquisition and turns on all the lights in the bedroom. This is the real signal that now we have to rise and shine. We eat breakfast quickly and get ready for a trip to the north of Chile. Most importantly today is to get to La Serena.
We start driving around 9 in the morning and soon we are experiencing some traffic jams. However, they do not really delay us. By a chance our way passes by our car rental office. Passing by we send greetings by smiling and waving. Soon the road leads us out of the city. As a result of an error in the navigation device or deliberate malfunction of it, at some place we take the wrong exit from the Route 5 and return to the streets of the city. Having gone through several turns, we return to the highway and no longer rely on the provocations of electronics.
Since Santiago has a lower price for fuel, we had planned to refuel in the city. Unfortunately, along our way, petrol stations start appearing only outside the city and fuel is more expensive there again. That’s why we continue to drive without stopping.
We would very much like to adhere to the permitted speed, but local drivers are so skillful that we have to adapt to local virtues and drive +10 to + 15kmh faster. The road is good and the only nuisance on it is slow riders, especially trucks.
That’s how we drive north until we reach the Aconcagua River. We are a little surprised how big it is marked on the map. In nature it looks like a very small river. Coming soon into a rather long tunnel, and shortly after we pass it, we have to take the exit and go to another road. Unfortunately, phone navigation once again disappoints us and we miss the necessary junction. As a result we need to drive more for about 14km to make a U-turn and continue along to the Pacific ocean.
Around 11.30 we have reached the ocean shore. We take a short stop at the Mirador near Los Caleja, where we photograph nature and the ocean, and then continue to drive through the coastal villages. Our first destination is the village of Cachagua. It takes half an hour to get there and we are heading to the beach right away. Here we have a small walk along the beach where we can watch different kinds of birds. Then we go closer to the island of Cachagua which is located near the coast. On the island we see not only cormorants, but also some Humboldt penguins. They are exactly what we wanted to see here. We spend there a full hour and a half till we go further. We refuel in Zapallar village and discuss lunch options. Unfortunately there is nothing that fits our expectations right here, so we think we’ll go and see what’s available along the road. This is how we come to the village of Papudo, where the Banana pub is located right by the ocean. We choose to eat here and order empanadas. They are fresh, hot and delicious.
Having had lunch, we are ready to continue to La Serena. It is about 340km, so we need to try to drive fast.
When approaching the destination, the gray car crew must complete the mission. Dora wants to buy a new mobile phone. A specific one. She has found out that she can only get one in two places in Chile (because they are not sold in Europe anymore) and one of these places is the city of Coquimbo near La Serena.
We arrive at Coquimbo at about seven o’clock in the evening and look for the supermarket. Here we find a clothing store that sells mobile phones by the way. Dora is happy because the phone can really be bought here. With this purchase, we go to La Serena, where we have accommodation at Jardines de Pinamar. We do not notice the gates from the beginning and we miss them, but then we enter the territory and the guide show us an apartment where we will spend the night. Our guide can not unlock the door immediately, but after a little effort the door is open.
The second car arrives soon after the grocery shopping. Tonight are have a washing machine in the flat so it’s the laundry evening along preparing the dinner. Unfortunately, we are no so lucky with the shower because there is no hot water in the apartment. It can be said that we can call it a day and soon after the dinner and few beers we are about to sleep.
Agnese’s comment:
The heating and hot water in Chile is a special case and deserves a book written on it. But in this case there was a trick to actually get the hot water – one had to open the tap at maximum and then wait a minute or so. Then one would start to get hot water which held hot for a while. If the tap was not opened so much one would only get cold one. Unfortunately we discovered this trick only after some of us had already tried to use the shower.