Buenos días from the steep and colorfull hillisides of Valparaíso! We have been in this coastal city for the past 5 days taking a proper rest from the road...and celebrating Joel's birthday which was on the 23rd!

We have a new contender for the mystery pic correct guess point master....Judy Mathews sent in the winning guess for the second time in a row! Tough competetion out there. She correctly guessed the last mystery picture as an out-of-use ski lift on the slopes of Volcano Villarrica. Nice work Judy! See our latest round of photos to find the newest mystery pic and good luck. Keep the guesses coming!

So, its time to get to the meat of it....the stories from the road. This stretch has been a different sort of riding for us since the areas we have been riding through are very populated and we have been on some large, busy roads. It's been hostals and hospedajes for a while, but we are anticipating with excitment some future camping and less populated regions.

We left off in Concepcíon, Chile... As Chile's third largest city behind Santiago and Valparaíso, it really was not much more than that; a big, busy city. It was difficult to get around on by bicycle and there really was not a lot to see for the traveler who is just passing through. So, after writing the last blog, grocery shopping, and tuning our bikes up we hit the road to make our way out of the coastal hills and to the flat Pan-American Highway north.

We rode through the city's mass of traffic and road construction and made it to the highway. All was going well. It was hot and the road was a constant climb up and out of town and all the smog that settles down in the surrounding valley was smothering. About 25 kilometers outside of town a man in a truck honked at Karen. We didn't think much of it other than the very common machismo manerisims of many of the locals here. Constant cat calling, whistling, and horn honking at Karen (and dirty looks and laughs about Joel (in tight spandex shorts)) are daily occurences. This time it was different. A man in a nifty jumpsuit and a nerdy little truck pulled up lights a blazing and "pulled us over". Apparently, it is illegal to ride bikes on the highway that we were on. After talking to the man he made it clear that we either hitch a ride or have to go to court. So, we waited at a toll both for a kind soul to take us to the main highway some 70 kilometers away. After an hour or so we got a ride from the very tranquilo Don Sergio. He took us the in his comfortable Ford Ranger at amazing speeds over the hills and through the woods (of ecucalyptus and pine planted by transnational corporations whom squeeze out the small farmer) to the town of Chillán.

 

Don Sergio dropped us off in front of Chillán's very unique Catholic cathedral (above) and was off with a smile. We decided to hang out in town and take advantage of the amazing, warm day. We found a nice funky hostel, dropped off our stuff, and headed out to check out town. We visited the cathedral, the lively market where all the local produce was available, and hung out on the plaza and people watched for a good long time. Ah yes, we also purchased some safety equipment for the upcoming travels on the freeway. Karen purchased some very fashionable yellow reflective plastic tape/cloth stuff for her bike and Joel found the season's hottest neon-yellow mesh vest with reflective striping. Thus, we were ready to set off in the morn.

 

The next morning we found ourselves on the shoulder of a huge freeway that very closely resembled the I-5 in cental California. The morning was foggy and chilly but as the hours passed the day heated up and the sun burned the fog away. This area of Chile is amazing for its agricultural production. Millions of years of runoff and erosion from the Andes mountain range to the east has deposited a very rich layer of soil in this central valley region. The valley is bordered on the west by Chile's coastal range. As a result, one finds a very narrow valley with amazing soil and growing conditions promoted by the Mediterannean climate. It is essentially a mirror image of California's central valley (only smaller) reflected in the southern hemisphere. We rode past many a huge silo and grainery holding corn, rice, and wheat. Field after field slid past by as the sun dipped lower in the sky. The next thing we knew we were over 100 kilometers from where we started and very tired. We arrived in the town of Lineares and called it a night.

From Lineares we rode 125 kilometers still traveling through this amazing agricultural land. We past untold numbers of acres of all different sorts of crops from corn, wheat, rice, tomatoes, fruit trees, onions, leaf crops, squashes, and more until we arrived in the town of Curicó. One of the coolest features of many of these towns has been the nice bike paths that parallel the main thoroughfares in town. In Curicó we found an excellent bike path that lead us to a great little hostel with a very cool atmosphere. The place was full of different cacti from all over northern Chile and had a nice courtyard. A good place to rest our weary bones for the night.

The alarm pulled us out of sleep earlier than either of us would have liked, but it was good to get off early and on the road again. As we were making our way on to the freeway a trucker whom was pulled over flagged us down. We rode up to him and he gave us about 20 apples!! We were amazed! He saw us riding and simply started filling up a bag with amazing, huge apples. It was an excellent gift and a great supprise (albeit a bit heavy to haul). After eating lunch at yet another gas station patio, it was time to turn off the great Ruta Cinco. We were planning on going to Santiago, but decided to bypass the large city and the difficulties with entering on bikes. So we cut over on a side road that took us over to the coast and Valparaíso. We were immediately relieved to be off of the big highway... much more quiet and beautiful riding. We stopped at the cool little town of San Vicente de Tagua Tagua (t.t. for short) and hung out in the lindo plaza and walked around until the sun was down. We LOVE the plazas in all of the towns we come to... it is such a great public space, not so big as a park so that everyone is doing individual things.. but instead is a very social place and usually smack dab in the center of town. A great place to take in the sites while sitting on a bench in the shade.

El próximo día, we continued northwest, through more agriculture land, especially grape vineyards. Grapes as far as you can see with leaves of various shades of green, yellow, and deep red. A few big companies own large expanses of land...and plant grapes, and make lots of money off of the recent wine boom. There were also many orchards of plum, avacado, apple, citrus, and olives. It was very pleasant riding and we stopped after 100km in a very small town called San Pedro. Since we are off of the popular biker route now, people are a less used to seeing northamericans show up in their town on bikes. We usually get some good stares and maybe a few chuckles. Those weird northamericans. We stayed at the only hospedaje in town and had a great evening talking with the owners of the place and drinking máte as the sun went down. The owners said that there were very very few grape growers in the area up until about 5 years ago. Before, there were more strawberries grown there. They had a big plot of strawberries themselves.

After leaving San Pedro the next day, we started getting into the coastal range again. Up and down and up and down and up... and there was the ocean! The whole entire central valley of Chile had been very smoggy and so made it difficult to see much beyond the immediate hills... but this time as we climbed a hill, we were able to see the coast ahead of us. Yes! We arrived in the town of San Antonio and decided to eat lunch on a lively and nice boardwalk there. We watched the pelicans and seagulls swarm fishing boats as we listened to some traditional Chilean music being played by a local band. Afterward, we continued on and rode through more coastal towns (very very hilly) until we found a tranquilo little town called El Tabo. We found a place to stay and headed down to the ocean for a máte session. The water was an amazing color of blue-green, the waves mesmorizing, and the coast rocky. The sun set and we treated ourselves to a fried fish dinner, yum! We had a very relaxing morning and went down to the ocean for one last look before heading off on the bikes around noon. We weren't sure we would make it to Valparaíso that day since we had 90km of huge hills between us... but we found ourselves rapidly decreasing the distance as we sped up and down and we decided to push it all the way in. Karen's Dad was planning on flying down the next day to meet up with us for a few days in Valparaíso, so we wanted to be sure to be there. We made it ok, but Karen's dad did not! His flight was delayed and so he missed a connecting flight... and it was all over from there. Ah air travel. Fortunately he got refunded and might be able to meet up with us at a later date during the trip.

 

Since then we have been exploring the city, eating sea food, and relaxing. It is a very unique city and sits in a bunch of very steep hills... it was interesting arriving at our hostal to say the least. The buildings are very colorful and there are hundreds of really awesome murals to be discovered on random walls. While we have definitely enjoyed hanging out in the city, we have learned the hard way that it is rather unsafe for tourists... While we walking down a street in the middle of the day, 3 guys came out of a side street and tried to rob Joel. One guy waved a knife around at him while another came up behind and tried to get into his pockets. We think they expected him to put his hands up after seeing the knife and then they could get to his goodies, but instead Joel started yelling and swinging his elbows about. They got scared and ran off... we were lucky and nothing was taken. It was an eye-opening experience and we have been pretty uneasy in the city since then. Another guy staying at our hostal had the exact same thing happen to him the very next day, but in a different part of town. So, if you come to Valparaíso and you look like a tourist, just be careful. Leave your nice things back at the hostal.

We will leave here tomorrow and begin the long climb that will take us up roughly 13,000 feet, over the Andes, and into Argentina. We will say goodbye to Chile and this part of the trip. We have biked hills before yes, many hills. But this pass will be the biggest and most challenging thus far. Send us luck and strength to make it up and over. Thank you and take care!