La Serena to Valparaiso

November 8th La Serena to Valparaiso

I awoke later than normal after a fitful sleep - lovely wine, but too much of it. I felt the nip in the air as I walked to get breakfast, the cloud being especially low and the sea breeze being brisk. I decided to put all my wet weather gear which is only about the second time this trip. I'd left Serena by 9.30am to start my 265 mile ride. My gear did the job as there was not one part of me cold, though I did put on the heated handlebars, just for good measure.

Who said it's not windy - take a look at those lamp post

The landscape was changing from the moment I left La Serena, it was becoming more green, though still semi desert like. I was amused by the sudden appearance of signs proclaiming that the next filling station was 100 km away, this was the first such sign I'd seen. There is a certain irony, as in the UK, where there are plenty of filling stations, you get such signs when the next one is 100 km away - In Chile it is the reverse, there are no signs when it is well over 200km but a mere 100km and there is a plethora of signs. In their defence it looked like a new motorway and proudly they were erecting signs everywhere. I stopped for a photo op, with one of their many signs, this one being evidence of the Pan American Highway.

 'What's that sign doing on my shoulder?'

 Bonito, waiting patiently

For the best part of two hours I seemed to be going through an ever changing landscape, then I reached the crest of a hill and descended into an exquisite array of intoxicating aromas of the natural kind. I realised that for the best part of two weeks my nose had been deprived of smells, excepting those associated with the detritus of the human kind. The desert has little to offer in the way of scents and suddenly upon meeting trees and shrubs and bushes it was as if my nose had been awakened for the very first time. There were so many wonderful scents, but amongst them all, the most wonderful smell of eucalyptus was dominent. I have never experienced anything like this before and to be moved by a simple scent was incredible.

As I travelled on, the landscape changed again, along with the weather, and as we approached the coast I was reminded of my home in Cornwall, wild seas, grey skies and moorland grasses 

This could so easily be a picture of Lands End

Fortunately by 2pm the sun had broken through and the temperature began to rise from a chilly eighteen degrees to a lush twenty seven. Valparaiso is a large city within a very busy bay. There are large ships and what looks like an active port. My hotel is very quaint set in the old part of the City, where boutique restaurants and bars prevail. There are also many tourist, so I assume there must be things to see. I will spend the day here tomorrow and take a rest from Bonito, which I think I need. My left shoulder and leg have been giving me a little trouble, I think it is repetitive strain injury, from holding the same position for hours on end, day after day. After Valparaiso, it's off to Santiago (80 miles away) for a further four days of rest from riding.