Day 15 - Roadtrip!

Up to this point on the trip, there had been a relatively packed schedule. Certainly not consistent activities from day to day, but consistently busy, whether catching buses, hiking, whatever. So there was a fair amount of mental adjustment (as well as the obvious repacking for warmer weather) when we got ready to head out for our northern roadtrip. Aside from having places to stay booked for the first two nights, there was nothing solid. And that kind of freedom is a different kind of vacation altogether.

Before we actually got out the door on that vacation, though, Paul and Curtis returned to Pablo's apartment. They'd just come in on a bus, back from the mid-south, Puerto Montt and Chiloe. Aside from a few weather problems, it sounded like they'd had a great time. It was good to hear that they'd had such a good time, as we prepared to hit the road again.

I ate a bowl of Cookie Crisp with Loncho Leche (Chilean refrigerate-after-opening milk that comes in a cardboard carton) for breakfast, fueling up for the drive.

The plan in general was to drive north on Ruta 5, the Panamerican highway, and to spend the night in La Serena. Easy enough, because of our alternate route in the car the night before, we knew where we needed to get to leave town.

No troubles, we were on the highway by 9:30.

On the four-lane divided highway, we were making good progress. And for those of us used to driving all distances in miles, driving distances measured in kilometers is a snap. They pass by so much faster! Why would you want to drive 60 mph when you could be driving 100 km/h? This alone justifies a switch to the metric system if you ask me.

The tolls on the highway were pretty hefty. For about 3 hours of northerly driving, I think we paid close to 7,000 pesos (~$14US). Not cheap, but this did include an amazing tunnel through a hill that brought us out to near to the coast.

Good for driving, but bad for views, it was a fairly overcast day.

After consultation of the Lonely Planet guidebook, we came up with a plan. Los Vilos, being one of the larger towns between Santiago and La Serena, and almost exactly halfway between the two, was chosen as a lunch stop. We saw about 50 restaurants in Los Vilos, roughly one for every person we saw in the town. Apparently over the summer it is a fairly busy working-class Chilean resort town, but at noon on an overcast spring Friday, there was an almost eery lack of people.

Nonetheless, we parked the car and went looking for an agreeable restaurant. I'm a little wary of eating at empty (or nearly) restaurants under any circumstances, let alone when they are empty seafood restaurants. A crowd of people can legitimitize an otherwise slightly dingy restaurant.

We ended up choosing one that at least had a very similar name as one remarked upon in the guidebook (Restaurant de los Pescadoras in the Caleta San Pedro). It overlooked the harbor where the fisherman tied off, or pulled in their colorfully painted wooden fishing boats (one was for sale if anyone's looking for a career change).
We ordered the waitress-recommended Lenguado a la plancha, a grilled whitefish that was quite salty in a good way, and a ceviche that was quite lemony in maybe not as good of a way. Also, buoyed by our experience with Locos (abalones) in the south, we ordered a Locos y Queso Empanada. It, too, was quite delicious, but suffered a bit of the too-much-fried-flavor that you can get in a cheap Indian samosa.

All in all it was fantastic, though, overlooking the boats that had earlier in the day been catching the fish we were eating. After lunch we took a stroll through the actual fish market and talked to one of the fishmongers for a bit, checking out a few beautiful Barracuda and other fish whose names now escape me.

Los Vilos pictures


Perhaps emboldened by our full bellies, shortly after lunch, we decided to take the scenic route. Now, really, the whole drive had been pretty scenic, but Lonely Planet suggested a loop which would bring us up one scenic pisco valley (from Ovalle toward Hurtado), and then over a backroad to Vicuña, the main city in the Valle de Elqui, a valley known for its scenic vineyards (which supply grapes to make the brandy-like pisco).

It's always much more interesting to avoid major highways. Within 5 minutes of pulling off the Panamerican Highway, we were winding down a dirt sideroad toward a church, which had been advertised with an abnormally large sign. La iglesia de Barraza was where we were headed. Pulling into the town was like pulling onto the set of Desperado, or Zorro, or any other movie that features a half-abandoned, all-old pueblo in the desert.



Mustering enough courage to get out of the car, we strolled around a little and took a look inside the one shop (a giftshop near the church) that seemed open. We were quite surprised to end up conversing for a short while with a young bus driver, who led tours senior citizens from La Serena on tours of the small town Barraza. As described by the bus driver, Barraza was 'a special place', with the church first constructed around 1650 (give or take?). The whole place certainly did seem like a step back in time.

Another 40 km or so brought us into Ovalle, a surprisingly large (~200,000 people), and not-too-surprisingly disorganized agricultural city.



We didn't really do anything there except for get disoriented and lost.

After getting back on track thanks to the instructions of a kind woman, we were at least headed toward Hurtado, driving up a beautiful valley, with modest country homes.



More on the way...