Santiago to Vina del Mar
6.5.09
Hi all,
we arrived into Vina del Mar all safe and sound. It was a three day trip for us from Santiago and nearly 150km. We climbed a pass from TilTil to Olmue of about 700m. It was steep and difficult with a head wind and probably did more to put the fear of the Andes into our hearts rather than build our confidence!!
We left Hotel Londres on Saturday May 2. The weather was quite chilly but the roads were quiet and the route astoundingly flat. I think we hit our first real hill at about 42km (of 68km).
We received lots of encouraging honks and waves along the way. The cars and trucks are very friendly in general and leave some decent space. We ended up on Ruta 57 heading towards a town called Collina but turned off prior to get to Ruta 5 (the Pan America). We thought it would be horrible (as per stories we had heard) but it was no bother really.
The highlight of the day was stopping for a late lunch in Polcaipo about 10km south of TilTil. Jessica fed us a delicious pizza from her shop. As we rolled into Polcaipo Anita imagined it to be a sleepy Arabic desert town complete with the gravel roads, dust, dirt, and of course dogs. Curious stares abounded with our arrival but they were friendly enough when they approached.
While we ate we chatted with a fellow and Jessica and tried to explain to them that we were looking for a camping spot for the night hoping of course that they would offer a patch of grass/dirt in their yard. Alas it was not to be so we rolled out of town with a nice full belly of pizza into the setting sun wondering where we would find a spot to camp along the highway with barbed wire fences on one side and a rail road on the other.
Fortunately about 4km south of TilTil we came to a Fundo (farm) near the road with a house. We stopped and asked if we could camp on their front "dirt" (no lawn). They were fine. Oscal, the 9 y.o. boy rode my bike (with the seat off) while we put up the tent. Gracious offers of bread, tuna, milo and then later steak, wine and olives (vacuna, vino, aceitunas) were arriving faster than we could chow it down. A very wonderful introduction to rural Chile indeed.
The night's sleep wasn't so wonderful with dogs prowling, ghost and real trains rolling right OVER us and crazy sawing sounds made for a restless night.
We arose early and packed up in the dust to roll into TilTil to ensure we didn't obligate any further generosity. Anita did leave our carrots, brocolli and rice with the Padre as some measure of return.
TilTil was a nice little town. We restocked, ate breakfast and finally rolled towards the range at about 1130am. not so early by then!
The pass was very difficult and challenging but we made it in about 2 hours (approx 12 km over 700 m). The steep sections slowed us to 4-5km/hour. Ouch.
We had a soup and sandwiches at the top to celebrate using our new Optimus stove running on Kerosene. Worked a treat despite the high winds and the cool temperatures and then we were off down the other side going from 18km to 42km in about 1.5 hours avoiding a high speed vicious dog chase (I was oblivious but he nearly caught the Bob before turning his sites to Anita) and a big red tarantula on the descent.
It was remarkable the change in the weather on the coastal side. Much warmer. It might just have been our lucky day though as the weather seems to fluctuate more here in Vina.
The campground in Olmue was like an Oasis. Lush green grass, a big blue pool, picnic tables - a typical caravan park - and all for us, no one else there as it was sunday evening....
We had a lazy start to Monday and our final leg to Vina. Excellent porridge and coffee for breakfast. A short chat with Octavio the owner (lived in Calgary for a while and had his son there).
We were only 6 km into the ride when Allen and Ole nearly caused a head on collision with oncoming traffic as he drove on the wrong side of the road and calling out, "you're a long way from home, aren't you?" while his wife Ole screamed "WATCH OUT". Quite hilarious once he was safely in front of us and back on the right side of the road. We stopped to chat with them for a while. Allen, an Aussie/Chilean, was intrigued with our trip and loved the BOB trailer. He really wanted to help us out but his contacts weren't really on our way unfortunately.
The trip to Vina got hotter and drier and we ran out of water on the Autopista as we rolled into the Toll Plaza about 10km from Vina. A toll man ran across and stopped us and refused to let us roll on. We were pretty much forced to load the bikes onto the back of the Autopista tray top truck and he drove us to the end of the Autopista. Within about 2 or 3 km we were devastated to be driving down this long slow descent that would have had us free wheeling into Vina. Ah well, Carlos the truck driver was pretty cool. Our only real loss was the flag pole blew off. We recovered it but lost the Canadian flag. Fortunately we are carrying a spare so we effectively lost about 10grams of unneccesary luggage.... :^)
Vina and Valpo are brilliant. We will update you shortly.
Stuart (and Anita)
Posted byStuart Kane at 8:14 PM
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