Valparaiso - Vina del Mar - Concon - Pichicuy - Huentelauquen - Socos - La Serena
Hi everybody,
After Valparaiso our new objectives are to ride till to La Serena, then pass throgh the Elqui Valley and finally cross the Agua Negra Pass in order to reach Argentina.
We have two options:
- nº1: passing in the interior, between ocean and cordillere,
- nº2: bording the ocean on the Panamericana Hightway.
As the pass we want to climb is at 4770m, the most we wait to go the most we risk to find the road closed by the snow. That's why we choose the quicker solution nº2.
Leaving Valparaiso we have about 60km before joining the Panamericana and many possible roads. The philosophy is to remain near to the coast...even if sometimes it's complicated....
The coast road...
Althought we take a weird itinerary we manage to leave the agglomeration of Valpo-Viña
Good by buildings...
But as in Europe, close to big harbours are often the biggest industrial zones...therefore we can enjoy a visit at the chilean petrol refinery center area...
Welcome chimneis...
Finally we reach the famous and longely expected PANAMERICANA hightway!!!
Take care with the speed limit at 120km/h....
Now we have just to carry straight till to La Serena.
Ilaria tries to not loose the road.
The next 350km on the highway are, in term of safety, really fine because we have a very large cycle lane only for us. The most difficult part is, actually, to cope with the noise of the passing trucks and the impression of being very very slow....
On our large cycle lane...
We decide to split the route in 3 parts of 100km each and sleep in the small villages along the coast.
Next exit is for us after 100km on the Panamericana....
Hopefully the traffic is not so huge and the view is very often really nice.
Let's have a bath??? At the next exit!!
The indication remember us that Chile is really really long. We are yet in the north part of the country and there is still 1844km to the most northern city!
Let's go to Arica??? Mmmm...maybe another time...
As we are on the west part of the continent, every evening we can enjoy amazing sunsets:
A good present after an hard day...
Km after km the landscape becomes drier and drier remembering us that just a bit more northern from here starts the aridest desert of the world: Atacama desert....
At the door of Atacama desert....
The wind is strong, but hopefully always on the back or lateral.
Here are the largest eolic fields of Chile.
It's easy to smile with back wind....
Before La Serena, the Panamericana quit the ocean side and enter in the middle of the desert:
The desert with flowered cactus...
And far away the Andes wait for us...
Where to find the motivation? We must be a little bit crazy not to take the bus?
You see far away, at the end? Our aim for today is to go below those hills...
After 3 days on the Panamericana we finally reach La Serena. It was not so terrible.
Last down hill to the sea...
Arrival of the happy riders