Its sunny with a sea haze as we depart Viña de Mar up the coastal road to La Serena, which purportedly has nice old colonial buildings and houses and a nice central plaza. Bit of an oversell in fact.
Up over low green hills, we travel good toll roads. It’s very tropical, palm trees, fruit orchards, rich agricultural land, giving way to dry arid sandy hills. Soon we are back on the Panamerican Highway for the first time in 42 years. We traveled it in our Central American travel years. At La Lihue we drop down to beautiful deserted rocky beaches, craggy headlands and stretches of virgin sand. But no time to stop.
By 12.30 it is now 21 and coastal fog has rolled in. Next miles and miles of windmills, some going strong, others stopped. Along the road merchants waving flags first selling dulces (sweetmeats, candy) then goat cheese.. We stop at 3pm at a gas station to eat our sandwich I packed from breakfast and a mini roadrunner cocks his head to let us know he’s interested too.
Around us is landscape like S.Texas or Arizona with plants like small Joshua Tree or small Organ Pipe cacti. Honey, olives, hay abound.
We have no hotel booked and drive around and around the busy, confusing downtown area, even my Google maps can’t get to the place. When we find it, we can’t park there but I run in and make sure we can stay and the kindly Scottish owner guides us to the entrance to the private garage on the next street over.
Turns out he is from Bathgate too (my mother’s home.) Married to a Chilean, they have lived all over but settled in this very agreeable climate and now run a large hotel. WE check in to stay a day or two and wander a couple of blocks to the recommended resto for a quick supper at a Gaucho resto.
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