Cycle Touring

Back home.

We seemed to have spent the last few days of the holiday, sightseeing and eating!  The Rodeo in San Fernando was interesting (for a while at least) and very different to the North American version.  It was a very serious competition of two cowboys (Huasos) who have to guide a young bull (novillo) around the ring and then pin it against one of the padded areas.  Points are awarded for style and various other aspects. I was a bit concerned of the animal welfare involved in slamming the young bull against a section of the arena.  The event seemed went on for the whole day but we left about half way through and headed off on the bus back to Santiago.

The following day we did the proper tourist thing and got the bus (which was nice as we were unencumbered with bikes and luggage) to the coastal city of Valparaiso, A wonderful city arranged of steep coastal hills.  The residential buildings and houses arranged on the slopes in a haphazard connected by a labyrinth of streets and alleyways.  We could've spent days exploring the city!  However as we only had a day we did a whistle stop tour of the main sites - we had lunch at one of the recommended fish restaurants in the market area and a visit to Pablo Nerudo's (famous Chilean poet) house, at the top of one the city's many slopes.  We also got to go on a few of the city's 15 funicular railways with (possibly predictably) incredible panoramic views at the top.

The following day was the last day in Chile, we spent the whole morning preparing the bikes for their next ordeal - the voyage home.  So lots of tape, polystyrene and cardboard were used to pad and attempt to protect the poor bikes from the luggage handlers at various airports.  Later on we went to explore the Bellavista area and to find out why it was so called.   There's a hill (mountain?) of 860metres towering over the area which we'd never seen before (probably because we'd only seen it in the dark).  So Jo and I decided to walk up it!  (instead of the more sensible option of the funicular).  360 degree view at the top along with a huge statue of the Virgin Mary plus many cafes.  The view over the entire city was well worth the effort. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting to and at the airport - where Jo and I said our goodbyes - my next stop was New York while Jo was off down to Patagonia for a hiking 'holiday'.  The flight out of Santiago was blighted by a bout of food poisoning (I blame the restaurant in Bellavista, but not really sure as I'd eaten so much in the last previous 24hours that it could've been anything).  However was looked after by the LAN airline stewardesses and given lots of tea so was fit enough to face New York.  This was a great stopover getting out of JFK airport without too much difficulty (once I'd worked out which terminal to re-check all my luggage back into) getting the subway into the city was not too tricky either.  I had a brief look round Central Park before meeting Chris for lunch followed by a look at Times Square and some it's crazy billboards (for want of a better phrase) then back on the subway to meet Tara,  who took me on a tour of the Highline - the new landscaped walkway which has been re-engineered from an old raised railway track.  Thus making a great public park with some super views! 

Sadly, it was time to leave and head home for the final leg - thankfully uneventful, but Heathrow was like mayhem as snow had forced various flights to be rediverted here so there were even more people than normal.  At the Heathrow Express station (fewer people), I reassembled the bike for the snowy, slushy, and slippery ride from Paddington to home!

So it's all over!  Here is the Chilean schedule:

December
16th Arrive Santiago
17th Santiago - Bus toward Calama
18th Arrive in Calama, camping in the Atacama desert
19th Toconce (overlooking village)
20th somewhere near Linzor
21st Refugio past the Tatio geysers
22nd San Pedro
23rd San Pedro (rest day) evening ride out to Valle de la Lune
24th Atacama Salt plain (flamingoes at Laguna Chaxa)
25th Ride back to San Pedro followed by evening bus toward Arica
26th Arrive in Arica, cycle up the Azapa valley to find ourselves stuck in a gorge nr Humagatta
27th somewhere on the main road to Putre
28th Putre
29th Parinacota
30th Terms de Curigualla
31st Police station at Salar de Sirrius

January
1st A sandy gulley near Enquelga
2nd Colchane
3rd ~65km from Huara 
4th Iquique
5th rest day in Iquique
6th Iquique - bus toward Santiago
7th arrive Santiago, train to San Fernando
8th Ride out along the Colchagua Valley to Viu Manent vinyard
9th San Fernando - Rodeo.  Bus back to Santiago
10th Valparaiso day trip
11th/12th/13th Santiago - New York - home

San Fernando in the Colchagua valley

So leaving Iquique, we took the longest bus journey we've ever been on 26hours!  Bimey!  Thankfully we paid a little extra and went for 'cama' with big comfy reclining seats which were almost beds. Upon arriving in Santiago we didn't hang around and walked our bikes to the train station.  Here another mini-drama unfolded as poor Jo tried to book train tickets for us and our two bikes to San Fernando.  After much confusion, we got tickets and were told that we had to pay extra on the train.  The train itself was almost a model example of how a train should be run (well this particular one anyway) fast, clean train and very efficient service.

San Fernando is in the heart of one of the Chilean wine regions and today we cycled out to one of the vinyards which proved to be a very pleasant afternoon. Viu Manent - we even got hauled around in a horse and cart! 

Back in San Fernando, tomorrow, we're going to a Chilean Rodeo.  Which hopefully will be a lot more fun than the rather lame US rodeo I went to ages ago!

A couple of days in Iquique

So we´ve had some time to get ourselves back to normal and a chance to relax for a bit.  Iquique is a very pleasant seaside city - lots of grand Georgian wooden fronted houses, most of which are situated along the main boulevarde that runs through the centre of the town.  It´s a very popular destination for Chilean beach going tourists, as the beach here is very pleasant with potential for good surfing. Not hugely warm water but as Jo and I found out - it makes for a pleasant swim.

This afternoon we head back to Santiago by way of the 25hour bus - we´ve spent a little more to hopefully make the journey a little more pleasant. Once back there we will hopefully stay at the hotel we were in before and then make trips out to the central valley (wine growing region) and to Valparaiso.  Not sure at this stage whether our bikes will be in use for any of these excursions.

Iquique - Chile Grand Norte

We´ve finally reached somewhere ´civilised´ with connections to the outside world!

We´ve just completed our bike ride of the Nothern Altiplano (high plain).  We started in Arica at sea level headed up the lush Azapa valley (with it´s amazing aromas of olives and it´s plentiful supply of fruit trees) until we found that the road at the end had been blocked by rockfall from the narrowing gorge.  Incredibly beautiful and we had our first Condor sighting.  However there was no way out, so we had to turn back toward Arica and then up and out of the valley onto the main highway from Chile-Bolivia.  We finally started ascending uninterrupted to the Arayan town of Putre (3500m).  We stocked up on food for the coming days of not a lot else.  Heavy indian influence here - plenty of adobe buildings and traditional foods.  Then up and down and up to Parinacotta a tiny semi-deserted village with a wonderful 17c adobe chuch - towered over by snow peaked Volcano Paranicotta.   Carrying on up and up (with plenty of downs to make the going up more ´interesting´).  We made our way up to Lake Chungara and to 4700mtres - more towering volcanoes and some with plumes of smoke/team eminating from varoius craters at the top!  At this stage we were in Lauca National Park.  We made our way to the Bolivian border and sneaked around the frontier control (staying in Chile) and along a dirt road over to the neighbouring national parks of Vicuña and Volcano Isluga national parks. 

These parks contained the best scenery we encountered in Chile. Plenty of llamas, alpacas and Vicunas (a wild variety).  We came across a thermal bath in the middle of nowhere - a massive welcome from the cold night and we camped in the bath house!  The following night we got to stay in a police station at the Salar de Sirires - rather peculiar but they were very insistant we should stay there out of the cold.  We got use their kitchen and eat some their bread (which was incredibly hard to find in these parts). 

The following days took us toward the desolate border town of Colchane passing by countless abandoned villages, many with far nicer churches than the one at (touristy by comparison) Parinacotta. we´d camp wherever he had find ourselves (as long as it was sheltered). At Colchane, we were hoping to find at least a shop.  Sadly not to be all we found was an old lady selling drinks and random foodstuffs from a trolley for the coach passengers.  We found out later he ´dried fruits´ we´d bought were in fact llama meat and cold potatoes!   However the best thing in Colchane by far was the hostel which even had bread!  Colchane itself had fallen on hard times and is a dusty desolate place.

Then it was time to try and turn our backs on the mountains and head back toward the coast.  However as roads in this huge country never ´just go down´ getting off the Altiplano was no mean feat - we spent the ehole of the following day going up and down (often into a headwind) and never dropping much height.  The following evening we camped at a similar height to Colchane.  The next morning however we did drop and descent was amazing transitioning from the Andes to the desert with it´s cactus and dry gorges. 

It didn´t stop there - we were heading to the coast so once out of the Andes, we had to get over the coastal range of mountains with massive headwinds and narrow, incredibly busy roads and then finally drop like a stone, down throught the 1000m sand dunes to the coastal city of Iquique. One of the more scary and tiring afternoon rides.  However we did get to go around Humberstone - a large deserted town built for Nitrate mining and processing abandoned in the 1960´s. Now a UNESCO sight.

Now we have a chance to relax and get ourselves together before heading back to Santiago (via bus!).

San Pedro de Atacama

Feliz Navidad! Apologies for lack of posts in recent days - there´s been somewhat limited internet connections in Northern Chile - outside of towns anyway. 

The story thus far...  We survived the 18-19hr bus journey from Santiago which actually wasn´t that bad as the seats were pretty comfy.  We arrived at Calama on the 18th and set off straight from there after filling up with at least 40litres of water - so a wobbly, slow, sloshing start as we made our way out of town with daylight quickly closing on us.  We camped up just off the highway, in what can only be described as a dust bowl - this was a taste of the Atacama desert - with a dead dog nearby to add authenticity!  We both felt somewhat out of our "comfort zones" and felt a little uneasy.

After a not too good a night we set off to a place called Chiu Chiu on a good road that gradually climbed this lulled us into a sense of false security because at the next "village" Toconce, the good road quickly ended and from there it was about 40km over 2 days of dragging our overloaded steeds up to 4400 metres.  It sounds hellish (and admittedly at times it was) but the scenery can only be described as spectacular. On the 21st we finally reached the top of the pass that led into the basin where the Taito geysers were.  You´re supposed to view them at dawn (which attracts many tour buses). However we had the place to ourselves - plus a large herd of Llamas, which was a great delight as it was our first sighting.  So we celebrated with the last of the mince pies that I´d dragged over from home!

After the geysers, the road conditions improved but it carried on going up and down, eventually we stumbled accross a refugio in the middle of nowhere - it had limited facilities but it was a stone building out of the cold night wind.  The next day, after a lot more up and downs, finally the road pointed downwards and we dropped 2000 metres it felt like we were decending forever!  This took us down to San Pedro. 

We actually got here on the 22nd - we spent a day doing as little as possible apart from the evening where we rode out to the Valle de la Luna for the obligatory sunset over the amazing landscape. 

We spent the last 2days cycling out to the Atacama salt plain - not as white as you might expect from a salt plain but intriguing none the less.  Yesterday we saw flamingoes plus other wading birds in a reserve where somewhat sulphurous water had risen to the surface and formed a lagoona.  Various crustacians thrived here thus, so do the birds.   I´d seen flamingoes in zoos before and have to admit not been that excited by them - but seeing them in the wild was simply wonderful especially when they swoop low overhead. 

This evening, we´re going to catch an overnight bus up to the far North to Arica and try our luck with cycling to the Lauca National Park.  Will try and keep posted about that.

So far, this trip has been incredible - but we have found that Chile is a relatively untamed country and is (obviously) huge.  A month unfortunately not enough to fit everything in.   We wanted to go across the border up to the Uyuni Salt plain in Bolivia but we heard the road conditions are even worse there and this could take us way too long with a distinct possibility of not being able to get back as buses were unreliable and the ´(in)famous´ Uyuni-Calama train service had been abandoned.

Santiago

We´ve made it successfully to Santiago with bikes relatively unscathed - I had a slightly tricky time getting through Miami and it´s many passport / luggage control hurdles.  We arrived yesterday morning and found the hotel without any fuss. 

The bustling city is quite interesting with an interesting mix of character - busy commercial centre and it´s trendy bella vista area - where we had a very ice dinner at streetside cafe/bar last night serrenaded by a mix of musicians. 

We have found out that our goal of¨ "cycling the Atacama" is actually quite a challenge so we´ve ended up having to spend a few Pesos to gather more water containers and other such survival gear. 

We leave for Calama this evening on an 18 hour bus journey - yikes!  From here we´ll head east toward the mountains.

Test

If this works then i am all ready for chile!

Wild Camp in Brecon Beacons

Early Saturday morning, Brian and I set off for an impromptu walking and camping trip in Wales - we got to Talybont-on-Usk at about 9.30 (yes,we did set of early!).  After not too much faff, we set off in the wrong direction... after gathering our bearings we got back on track and headed toward pen-y-fan.  At the reservoir, we followed a bridleway which suddenly stopped and we were left on a sheep path which led us into pretty horrendous moorland - tramping over heather and marshy bogs.  Finally getting to the top of Craig y fan much to our relieve we'd got to a decent path.  From here it was a fabulous walk along the tops of the ridges of Craig Pwllfa and Craig Cwareli to Fan y big and eventually to the furthermost peak of Cribyn. The path gave us vetigous views down the valleys with sheer drops.  On Cribyn we saw the sheer number of people roaming all over Pen y fan (highest point in the Brecons) and decided not to go any further.  Instead, we strolled off to look for somwhere to camp.  We found a great spot in amongst some peat ledges overlooking Pontsticill reservoir in the distance.  The weather all day had been superb and it continued into the night.  We'd bought up vast quantities of decent food and drink and we settled in for a nice relaxed night - even the ground although uneven was nice and soft!  It'd been a long day after all! 

The morning was up at a sensible time and after a breakfast of scrambled eggs - set off back down the hills toward the car, this time taking the main path all the way to Talybont - this time I had a lighter rucksack.  Near Talybont, we headed down a bridlepath that ended at a river and no bridge! So, not wanting to turn back we had to wade across it - yikes it was chilly and not with hazard of sharp stones and a barbed wire fence!  Unscathed, we made it back to the car for the journey back to London.  A very successful trip!  

It's weird how doing a different sort of exercise can have such an effect on my legs - they were so achy after traipsing up and down all those hills! I may be a pretty good cyclist - but walking with a load is a different matter... 

And back home

A slightly later start than usual. Breakfast in the hostel followed by a walk along the coastal path, which was very pleasant. A bit like a wilder, slightly less busy cornwall. Finally back at the hostel we packed our stuff and reluctantly headed to the train station for the journey home.. Which actually turned out to be not too bad - relatively little trouble finding the train station and the trains back weren't too busy.

Pembrokeshire

 A fairly dry day!  From Sandy Haven, we headed up the wonderful coast to St Davids, predictably lots of ups and downs - many of them steep.  The ups involved growling along in the tiniest gear.  Stunning Scenery!  As St Davids we did the touristy things, around the sloping cathedral, had the obligatory ice cream, After a lot of time mooching about the "city" we went on to White Sands bay. Probably a nice beach - but you couldn't really see it for the sheer number of people!  Undeterred we went for a swim/body surf anyway - until we felt chilly.  We left for Fishguard stopping for late lunch on the way - yet again more fabulous scenery.  We were going to camp near Fishguard but it started to rain again, so aborted and headed for a hostel.  That evening we went for a wander around the lovely town. Fish and Chips overlooking the harbour of the lower town.  A jazz festival was on in town and we went to listen to Gareth Pearson putting on a pretty superb guitar performance at the Old Coach inn.