Well, after arriving in San Pedro de Atacama with it's relaxed feel and quaint little mud streets I decided to have a few days off the bike and soak up the relaxed atmosphere. I've been camping in a great spot surrounded by an amazing desert garden which is full of other interesting travellers. The other night I was having a beer in the Plaza when a couple of English girls turn up and invited me to join them. I'd just got into town and was so tired I arranged to meet them the next night for a few beers. The night was fantastic if not a little strange. Starting off with a few beers then moving swiftly to Pisco and cola (Pisco is a strong local liquor) the night was just warming up. Throw in a couple of others plus the girl's South American tour guide after the bars closed we carried on back at his place. It was a long fun night and I crawled back into my tent just before the sun came up. The next day was spent relaxing and recovering in the sun!
I also meet a German couple also cycling around South America and have been chatting bike stuff with them for the last couple of days. They aren't going my way which is a bit of a shame but I'll surely meet some more cyclists along the way. I head out cycling again tomorrow which I'm looking forward to. Heading north again on the Chilean side of the Chile/Bolivian border for about 5 days before crossing at Ollague into Bolivia.......all going to plan!! Hills and altitude the are order of the next week so challegnes a plenty.
Well, I hope the blog is being useful for you all and that someone is reading it!!??? Anyways, below are a few funny things which will hopefully make you laugh.
As you know I don't eat cheese - well everything has cheese in it over here so needless to say I've eaten my fair share of the stuff!! One example was the other week I was cycling through the desert and was getting very hungry when I came upon a store selling Empanadas which are a lovely local dish. I ordered a couple but as I found out they only came in one favour......full of cheese!! I was so hungry I downed those and went back for more!!
Again I don't really eat chocolate or ice cream but after one long hot day without food for a few hours I completely hit the wall and was getting dizzy and faint. I found a mini market and downed a couple of chocolate bars and an ice cream followed by a coke and some lollies. It fixed me up a treat and I managed to crawl the next 35km to the next town for a decent meal. Since then I have an emergency chocolate fix stuffed into one of my panniers just in case!!
My Spanish is terrible and doesn't really seem to be getting better so I get laughed at a lot by the locals. After ordering food it is always an apprehensive wait to see what comes out is what I think I've ordered!! Hopefully I'll start progressing with the Spanish soon.
Well, that's about it but everyone in Chile has been extremely kind and friendly. I've been given food, water, places to stay and directions from a whole host of locals trying to help me out. One thing the Chileans can't seem to get right is distances as when I stop to ask how far the next town or truck stop is I get a range of responses!! In a car it doesn't really matter too much but when on the bike in the heat it can make a huge difference. So when a reply comes back with 'oh, it's only 10kms up the road and it's all down hill' I've learnt the hard way to interpret that as 20-30kms away and straight up hill!!
Take care and please keep writing me comments and emails as they are always appreciated.
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7 comments:
Hey Pete - great to hear your travel tales - very jealous (apart form all the hard out cycling that is). Good to hear that you are supporting the Chilean dairy industry with your cheese and ice cream consumption. A good friend of mine has travelled alot through SA and really enjoyed San Pedro de Atacama and also Loved the Sala de Uyuni and did 3 days on 4WD seeing the most amazing landscapes - freaky stuff supposedly. Take some photos for us.
All good here in NZ, having an amazing summer as you have no doubt heard. Went down to Whitianga for anniversary weekend - far too much drinking. Next week we have another holiday - Waitangi Day - loving this time of year. having my housewarming on Feb 9th so we will have a drink for you then. Take care, Heels
Comon Pedro! tell us the full story, you went to your tent before the sun came up...yeah right!! hehe.
good effort on the empanadas, try the meat ones
cheers,
tino.
Hi Pete, great reading and good to be able to track your whereabouts, sounds very interesting. Mum is on the other side of the phone helping me register my comments.
Love Maw & Gren
A person (who shall remain nameless) reckons my meat balls are bigger and better....
hello gorgeous
hope all is well - sadly hayley and i are now home having finished our adventures - i really could have stayed out for a few more weeks so its not much fun getting back to reality and work! - the drinking binge we seemed to start with you continued for the rest of the week so now have a very big hangover!! - we drank our way through two night buses as we thought it might help us sleep! and then had a couple of monster nights in santiago which ended up with us going to about three clubs for some crazy dancing!! hayley has a couple of cool photos from san pedro so hopefully we can send you a couple soon - i now have the huge task of going through my pics- i think i took nearly 1000 so some serious editing needed. i look forward to hearing the rest of your adventures but if you get fed up with the bolivian landscape and feel the need to cycle round the streets of london i have a spare room with your name on. take care of yourself and have fun
big kiss helen xx
the meat empanadas are called "empanadas de pino" and are cheese free - although me loves empanadas de queso con camarones. ñamñam...
the problem with the chilenos is that they can't say "i don't know". rather they say "it's 10k downhill" than to embarass themselves by not knowing.
btw i came across your blog the other day when i was planning a weekendtrip from santiago to copiapó. think your blog is really interesting. being an expat living in chile i find it always really interesting what other foreigners think about chile.
two dirty dusty roads....you have been busy. where are the tortillas when you need them?
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