Agroturismo dos Hermanas
My first task this morning was to find Leo and get the water turned on. Last night when we went to the bathrooms, there was no water. Our main reason for coming to Agroturismo dos Hermanas was to have a hot shower. We’ve been wild camping for several nights, so it’s 3 or 4 days since we’ve had a shower (I’ve lost count) and having paid 20,000 pesos, about £18! I was going to make sure we got water.
I found a lady in the neighbouring house and explained we had no water. She phoned Leo and he came, immediately, and turned on the water. After breakfast, I had a leisurely hair wash and shower, which was bliss.
Highway 5
It was after 1100 when we left. We were immediately back on highway 5. It is a dual carriageway and good for covering mileage, but it is becoming very monotonous. The scenery is still arid desert and very dull. As we had been been camped on grass among trees, I had hoped we were leaving the desert behind, but not so.
This area is famous for observatories. They are scattered throughout the mountains so people can observe the night skies, free of light pollution.
Copiapo
We didn’t stop in Copiapo, the nearest town. The discovery of silver nearby in 1832 provided Copiapo with several firsts, including Chile’s first railroad, telegraph and telephone lines. More recently in 2010, 33 miners were trapped 700m underground after a devastating collapse within the mountain where they had been working.
Following a Herculean effort, supported by resources from a number of countries, all the men were successfully rescued. Televised before a global audience estimated to be a billion, the survivors emerged one by one from a specially built rescue capsule, to the cheers of friends, family and onlookers.
Chile is a very long, narrow country. It stretches 2,670 miles or 4,300 kms north to south, but is only 217 miles or 360 kms at it’s widest point from east to west. At it’s narrowest point it is only 40 miles or 64 kms from east to west. I had presumed it was the longest country in South America, but this isn’t the case. Brazil is longer. Brazil is enormous, so much of it being covered by Amazonia.
At about 1pm we pulled into a truck stop with a small cafe. Highway 5 bypasses towns and villages, so shops are not an option. I bought us 2 ham and cheese toasted sandwiches. They looked tasty, but were disappointing. The bread was very dry and the ham isn’t proper ham, it’s more like luncheon meat. Yuk!
As we progressed further south the road began to climb and the scenery, although still very arid does have some small green scrub. Later we descended to the coast and as we approached La Serena it started to become greener.
La Serena
We were going to a campsite just beyond La Serena in the Elqui Valley. However, our fuel situation was getting rather desperate so we turned off into the outskirts of La Serena looking for fuel. Once we had refuelled, the sat-nav took us on a different routing towards the campsite.
We stopped at a fruit shop. It was a great shop also selling dried fruit, nuts and seeds etc. As well as strawberries, pears, bananas and mangos, I could get more whole oats, walnuts and golden raisins.
While we were still about 10 kms from our planned campsite, we passed a sign advertising another campsite. In fact there were several. The first one we tried was closed, but the second, where we are now, was open. We are the only campers here, though. It is a large site with a swimming pool and lots of cabana like shelters with a fridge and a barbecue. Only cold showers though. Sometimes you can’t have everything!
Elqui Valley
Tomorrow we will visit the Elqui valley. A change from highway 5. The valley is the heart of Chile’s pisco production, meant to be green with quaint villages. It is famous for it’s futuristic observatories, seekers of cosmic energies and frequent UFO sightings. It is supposed to be one of the must-visit places in northern Chile.
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