We left Pucon in mist and drizzle. The volcano was no longer visible. We had been very lucky with the couple of days we had spent there. A photo of some grey clouds with a caption saying 'there was a volcano hiding there' would not have been the same.
Central Chile was very different. It's the area for strawberries, raspberries and blueberries as almost every hand written sign told us. There was also almost continual activities either side of the road compared to the nothingness of Patagonia. But it was equally boring. You could work out how narrow Chile is as a country because there were small hills to the left which would give onto the coast and an enormous wall of mountains to the right which was the border with Argentina. It would be a lot easier for the cyclists here. There was also vineyards - at last - on the way.
There was a lot of lorry traffic of which a large component was logged timber on its way to being processed. We are not sure about Chile's environmental credentials. There were a few very tiny replanted areas but we were not sure whether they were replacements for logged areas or for forest fire areas, which Chile is prone to.
Valparaíso. Valparaíso is a bit scary. It's a city built on steep hills - far steeper than San Francisco and we came into the bottom of the city and then had to climb up to our accommodation on twisty steep roads with an unknown (to us) priority system.
The city dates from Francis Drake time but started to lose its importance with the advent of the Panama Canal. It's also subject to earthquakes and not much if anything survives from before the 1850's. They have regular shocks, but don't really count them unless they are above 6.5 on the Richter scale. And the tin shacks perched on the sides of the hills survive this. We walked a lot. Lots of steps and even some Victorian era funicular railway/lifts. Even an Anglican church. Valparaíso is now well known for the murals painted on lots of the houses - those that were bereft of mural had graffiti instead. All helped by seemingly having no planning laws whatsoever.
From Valparaíso we returned to Santiago but this time entered the city. We seemed to be in tunnels for most of the time which were busy, but nothing compared to what was going on at the surface. We had left Valparaíso in a heavy sea mist, again not good for the photos but it was now 32°C in Santiago (real Christmas weather) and we struggled a bit getting to the accommodation but managed to deliver the bike for its service. We braved the Santiago Metro and Bus system and felt quite chuffed with ourselves. We did not feel up to a City Tour in the heat so hung around the main square listening to a youth band belt out Chilean classics, which was actually quite brilliant.
Our new chums at Harley-Davidson Santiago were able to complete the service and we are off again tomorrow. Back to Argentina.
