5. Sea To Sky
Day 165 - 167
I was up in Copiapo before sunrise for some reason. The sun was slowly making its way over the Hills above the city. I had a good night sleep, so I got up anyway. This hotel has a very good breakfast and I'm really looking forward to it. When you book your place online, many places advertise breakfast. But even with rave reviews, I never had a good breakfast, except in big hotels. And I am going to take advantage of it today.
I'm stuffed up and ready to go. today is an easy day. It is only a transition to another city via a freeway. That should not take long. I get out of Copiapo and set the cruise control. The landscape around me is a desert. There is no cloud in the sky. A beautiful day. The temperature is around 20°, perfect. There isn’t too much to see on this segment. But somehow, it never gets boring. The road follows the coastline about 20 to 30 km inland. Only at the end the road is right by the coastline. Today was about 400 km, but it went by very quickly. Before I know it, I can see beaches of La Serena. Little bit of weekend traffic in the city, but it doesn't take long to find my hotel. I check in and unpack what I need and I head out to get some food.
It is Saturday afternoon and almost all stores are closed. I don't like shopping crazy North America. Most of the countries in South America observe weekends off. Only thing open is the mall. The malls in North America are dying but every single one of them I've seen in South America is very busy. And one of the first thing I see here is Starbucks. Some people have nothing good to say about Starbucks but when you're away for extended period of time, it is like small reminder of my home. I got my coffee fix and start looking around for what I need. I miss my headphones which I forgot in Panama City. It'll be nice to have another pair so I can listen to some tunes. And to my surprise, there was an Apple Store in the mall. And they have the new headphones. It was the fastest sale they probably have ever done. Within couple minutes I was walking out of the store with my new headphones. I'm happy camper now. I go back to hotel and get ready for tomorrow. Another high mounting pass is waiting for me.
DAY 166
Today I will be crossing another high altitude mountain pass through the Andes. Breakfast in hotel sucked but that's all there was available at this time of the day on Sunday morning. I am packed quickly, and I heading out of the town. The road goes through a nice valley. This is a wine region so all you see is wineries. Looking ahead towards the east I can see several ridges ahead of me. Very imposing. Landscape around is again high mountains and desert except green wineries at the bottom of the valley. I passed the last village and there's no more traffic after that. I left wineries behind. There's nothing above 1300 m altitude. Valley is getting more and more narrow. Just like the other mountain passes between Chile and Argentina, the border crossing administration is done way before the actual border. I get to Chilean border crossing and there are a few cars ahead of me and nothing is moving. The gate is closed. I checked at the gas station half an hour ago and they were saying that the passes open. Not sure what's going on so I asked and they tell me that they will open at noon. That's 30 minutes from now. It is good I didn't get up really early today, otherwise I'll be sitting here. When they open their offices it is very quick and efficient process. Get my passport stamped out of Chile. In the next window I get to cancel my temporary import permit for my bike. Some countries this process takes hours, but here it took less than five minutes. And I am free to go. The Argentinian border crossing is about 200 km down the road on the other side of the mountains. The road is dirt with some gravel but it is well maintained. I'm climbing hard from the get-go. I need to gain almost 3000 m of elevation. The mountains around have different colours and very soon I start seeing some snow and also some glaciers at the top. It is a beautiful sight. There is almost no clouds to be seen. The sky is turning deep blue again. I keep stopping and taking pictures. Pretty soon more cars are catching up. Every car creates a lot of dust so I have to wait until it settles to take a picture and get going again. There are some green lakes, which creates great contrast with red mountains and blue skies. Finally I reach the pass. 4800 m. There is nothing around only a few signs telling you that you are in Argentina again. Wind is howling here and temperature is in single digits. I start my descent to Argentina. This side is even more beautiful. Very impressive, switchbacks, beautiful valleys, exposed roads all of that. On the previous passes there was almost no traffic, but over here it is very busy. Some cars stop and people enjoy the scenery but most of the cars are driving like it is a rally race. I take even more pictures on this side. Eventually I get to the bottom and on the pavement. There is a police checkpoint where they collect a piece of paper you are given on the Chilean side. This is just to make sure that everybody who is heading up to pass makes it down as well. Just before the checkpoint there were 2 cars, one ambulance and one with firefighters heading up the hill. Not a good sign. I asked at the checkpoint and they told me that there was an accident up in the mountains. Not a big surprise when I saw how they drive. The rest of it road was uneventful and I even completely forgot that I still have to do my Argentinian border crossing formalities. That border crossing is 130 km inside their border. There's no traffic there and I get through the process in about five minutes again. These guys got their stuff together. I am officially in Argentina again, even though it will be only for two days, then back through another high altitude pass back to Chile. I'm in a very small town and there is nothing open here. Sunday afternoon and everything is deserted. There are no hotels no motels. No shops open. Couldn't even find restaurants. Luckily, I was counting on something like that, and I found place to camp on one of the online applications. So I'm camping on on the football field which nobody used for a long time judging by the tall grass. I set up my tent and there's nothing else to do so I am just working on my blog. It's not too comfortable to work on my pictures so that will have to wait tomorrow. I have nice place booked already in Mendoza. It's awesome day today, again. I'm getting used to it.
DAY 168
It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear, and the stars were out. It was quite warm, so I didn't even put the rain fly on top of my tent. I fell asleep very quickly. I woke up around midnight and a stars where very bright. I couldn't help it, I got out of my sleeping bag, grabbed my camera and tripod and set everything for a tme-lapse photography. The cycle should take about two hours to complete so I went back to sleep and let the camera do its job.
The morning was picture perfect. The sun was just coming up. It was one of the best sleep I've had in a long time. And it was cheap, free. I collected my camera and the gear. I will check the results at the end of today. I wasn't in any hurry. It was nice just to walk around barefoot in wet grass. I finally left after 9 o'clock, which is quite late for me. Today is another transitional stage. All I have to do is to get to Mendoza about 350 km away. The first 100 km were beautiful, there was nobody on the road, blue skies and good road. I went through few valleys and the wind increased as I was crossing them. I finally got on the main road and traffic increased quite a bit. Wind also picked up and it is just blowing gale force right now. The wind picked up the dust and visibility at times is down to few hundred meters. I'm being buffed by the wind and my 700 pounds bike with me on the top is getting tossed around like a small twig. I feel like a bubblehead on a dashboard of the car. It is not pleasant at all and I'm not having fun. I guess, I took my two days dose of fun yesterday in the mountains. I just have to suck it up and get to Mendoza.
Getting to and finding my booked apartment in the middle of the city was very easy. The whole apartment building is set up as rentals for tourists. Everything is ready and I have my keys. I park my bike and get to my apartment. Is a beautiful, 2 Bedroom place with the kitchen, air-conditioning and fast Wi-Fi. I didn't have anything substantial to eat all day, so I'm heading out for an early dinner. I took a recommendation from the reception in the building and found a nice steakhouse. The food was outstanding there. I went all out. Beer, local wine, salad, big steak and a dessert. And somehow I am not stuffed I feel good. It was a nice ending of another day.
I'm heading back to Chile tomorrow again via another high altitude pass. This one is not as high as the previous three I've been through, however, it is almost 4000 m high. The road is going through the mountains so it should be another epic day. I have a place or booked for tomorrow, so it should be enjoyable day full of adventures.