Illana and Amnon's Chile Cycletour - Diary 15 December 2003 - 15 January 2003

Buildup

15 December 2002

Flight from Cape Town to Argentina was fairly uneventful although Malaysian airlines has some interesting features. Only a choice of water, orange juice, beer or wine is available in cattle class, and they ran out of mineral water. The captain did not inspire confidence when he told us to look out for table mountain on the right when he really meant his left. He also wished us good evening at 12:30 in the afternoon. He also got the time in Buenos Aires wrong by one hour. Lucky for autopilot.

Illana in her wisdom thought it would be good for us to recheck our luggage through in BA in case we could get on an earlier flight and to check that all our luggage made it through to BA in one piece. According to the Malaysian Air guy in CT there would be no risks of doing this. What he did not tell us was that there would be an additional $30 airport tax per person. We managed to get it down to $18, but were slightly annoyed and will certainly give Malaysian Airlines a call.

We landed in Santiago and took a taxi to our hotel, a Best Western called the Majestic hotel. Nothing best or Majestic to say the least, but people and insects in the bathroom were friendly.

daily total : 0

16 December 2002

Went into the city centre to find out about what we should do in Chile. Amazingly people here do not speak English. Can´t imagine how they get by. The people we stopped to ask for help were fantastic though. After some very long interactions we bought a ticket to Temuco on an overnight bus.

After assemling the bikes in the hotel parking lot (can you believe it - we got our first puncture before we had even set out when Illana decided to test ride the bike to see that everthing worked but forgot to pump up the tires first) we set off to the bus station. We stored our bikes in the luggage room and set off to find a kosher restaurant. By the time we got to the right metro stop, we realised it was time to set off back to catch our bus, so we got back on the metro, a bit hungry and dejected.

And then it happened. In a flash, our passports, credit cards, money, camera, palm pilot (with all the bank pins and secrets in a cryptic form), odometers and bicycle gloves were stolen in a surprise robbery ("robo prisepresa") as Amnon was loading the bikes onto the bus. After a few moments of total disbelief we got on the bus, defiant that we would not be robbed of our holiday. It should be noted that there were extensive negotiations with the bus company who did not want to let us on the bus without our tickets (in the stolen wallet). A couple of Kms out of Santiago, it suddenly hit us that we were really stupid to have got on the bus. The thief could be transferring all our cash if he was clever enough. Charles to the rescue once again. This time at 4:00 in the morning with the help of a cellphone borrowed from a fellow passanger.

Aside from that sinking feeling of mild panic, the bus ride was fairly comfortable. The seats recline about 135 degrees and there are foot rests. Only problem was snorers - one next to, and one behind. Illana stopped the next to snorer in his tracks, proding him until he woke up, mighty confused, but not snoring anymore. The behind snorer was a little older, and was fairly erratic. He would stop just before Illana took action, only to start a few minutes later. Amnon did not sleep a wink.

daily total : 0

17 December 2002

Arrived in Temuco before 6. Absolutely freezing cold. After storing our luggage, we set off to find the police station. No one we stopped knew anything about the police - although we did come across a sign that said Policentro - which we took to mean a centro for police. Nothing of the sort. More like a department store actually. Finally found the right place and got to speak to Sub Leuitenant (¿sp?) Carlos Cifuentes Rodo who speaks English and was very helpful.

Took us absolute ages to get out of Temuco as the town is short on maps and long on roads - very busy ones at that. Lots of buses and trucks. Finally got onto the right road out in the country which looks pretty much like countryside anywhere. Lots of rolling hills. Not gentle ones at that. Very steep downs and even steeper ups. At the top of every hill we felt such mixed emotions - thrilled to be at the top, but fearful of the next looming hill. An emotional and physical roller coaster. Eventually got to a campsite cum picnic spot with a piscine half way to one of Chile´s thriving metrolpoli called Cunco. Place was teaming with teenagers and their parents. The entire vocab of all the kids consisted of "hello", "I love you" and "professor of English". There was someone there who spoke a leetle English who helped us establish that there was no hot water, and that there was another campsite 5 kms away. Needless to say we went for the campsite with hot water, although it turned out that "hot" meant cold, but without the chill factor. Aside from that, the campsite was really nice. Got to sleep at about 10, fully clothed because of the cold.

daily total : 40km

18 December 2002

Slept solidly till about 7. Got up and managed to leave by 9:00. More rolling hills, this time with a catch - a 14km stretch of gravel road, loose gravel at that. After the 2nd rolling hill (about 1km allong the road), Illana was ready to throw in the towel - getting a bit old for this perhaps. This time the down´s were definately worse than the up´s. Absolutely frightening. Amnon convinced her to proceed, and lucky she did, because the terrain levelled out. Then it started raining. Found a tree and stood under it waiting for the rain to pass, but it only got worse. Then we tried to hitch, but with one car passing every 20 minutes or so, this proved to be a poor plan. After about an hour we decided to proceed to the next town. Got there soaked to the core and established that there was a hotel about 25kms away in a town called Pitrufquen.

Still raining by the time we got to our hotel, called Hotel de France. Nothing, but nothing French about the place. The cost for one night is the same as the campsite. Will leave the rest up to your imagination. The big plus is that it has hot water and a fire place to dry our shoes. Hopefully the rain will stop soon, although there is no sign that it has any intention of doing so.

daily total : 47km (9 on dry dirt road, 5 on a soaking dirt road, 35 in the pouring rain)

19 December 2002 Photos

Awoke to a a very ominous looking sky. Left our hotel with only a couple of flea bites as a momento. Amazing how quickly standards can plummet. Stopped under a bus shelter 15kms down the road to make breakfast. Good thing the sheters are big enough for us and our bikes because it started drizzling, and then pouring. We sat it out and then proceeded on our way to Villarica. Nothing to report about the trip - it was fairly pleasant although we both got a little tired of pedalling.

We finally made it into town and found really nice cabañas for just twice as much as the Hotel de France (at R125 per night, we decided to skip the camping option. BTW, the owner has offered to throw in a 4th night for free if we stay for three. Tempting). The town itself is very pretty. A holiday town that compares comfortably with Hermanus without the Marine Hotel, whales, sea, cinema, flea market and robots. But it does have a couple of supermarkets, lots of fresh salmon, internet shops and a beautiful lake which we have not seen because we were too busy with the aforementioned (BTW the additions to the visitor´s book really made us smile. Thanks for keeping in touch to those who signed. To those who didn´t, we are keeping track and will take appropriate action). Apparently you can see the local active volcano (the main attraction) from the town, but it has been too overcast today. All in all, we rate the day as a distinct improvement. We didn´t get rained on, nothing was stolen and we had fresh fish for supper (Salmon at R12 per kilo).

We feel we need to mention some of the features dinstinctly Chilean that we have noticed. Interestingly enough, a marked lack of German cars and luxury vehicles in general. You get a receipt (usually hand written) for absolutely every purchase. Also lots of stray dogs roaming around. Keep thinking they will give chase (actually one of them did). In the small towns, taxis abound. More so than privately owned vehicles if you exclude pick up trucks. Internet shops abound, and the cost of an hour's worth of connection is about R7. Finally, there is graffiti all over the place.

daily total : 60km

20 December 2002 Photos

Spent the day climbing up Volcan Villarica, the active volcan mentioned above. The peak of the vulcano is 2,800m up, but lucky for us the bus and ski lift got us 1,800m of the way there. We started early by getting fully kitted out for the expedition - we were given ski suits, crampons, snow boots and an ice pick to top it off. We thought this was all a bit over the top and intended to make us feel as though we were getting value for money, but in the end all the equipment came in handy. Climbing in snow has its own challenges, and snow boots are not the most comfortable shoes. In any event, after much puffing and panting, we got to the top - which consisted of a black hole with smoke coming out of it. No lava to be seen. Pity. The climb took about 4 hours, and felt like two table mountains. The way down was the best part. Mostly by bum slide. Amnon managed to flip right over and go down the mountain head first on his stomach. He ate a lot of snow, but had fun nevertheless. The expedition was worth it just for the way down. Made us realise how much we missed growing up in a place with no snow.

Got back to Villarica in time to shop and prepare food for shabbat. Were both exhausted after a day of much activity.

daily total : 0kms

21 December 2002

Shabbat was truely a day of rest - with about 18 hours of sleep. Much needed.

daily total : 0km

22 December 2002 Photos

Left Villarica - paid for three nights and were offered a free one on our way back if we pass through the town. Very tempting. Made our way towards some hot springs. The cycling was scenic, but the tar road ran out after 40kms. At first the gravel route was fairly flat, but then there were some killer hills, and we confess, a bit of pushing rather than cycling. Hard work. Got to the Termas at a place called Coñaripe, but it was too expensive for us, despite the fact that we were tired and would have loved to call it a day. We cycled on, and found some cabañas on route to the next Termas, about 7kms later. We managed to bargain the owner down from $25,000 to $15,000 (bargaining took place on paper, with him writing his offer, and us writing our counter offer). Lovely place on a farm. Different animals out of each window.

daily total : 70km

23 December 2002 Photos

Woke up to a sunny day. Made our way on to the Termas at a place called Manquique (or something like that) just outside a small town called Liquiñe. While it was only 10kms away, it was up a hill from hell. Finally we got to the Termas - really rustic with no frills at all. We could not get into the one mud pool becuase it was just too hot. We spent about an hour lying in the more temperate pool, though - had it all to ourselves. A quartet of Israelis arrived, and were pretty surprised to find a couple of English speakers called Amnon and Illana.

Got on our way towards another small town called Choshuenco again by gravel road. For a couple of kms things were pretty rough. Very steep up hill and very poor road. Certainly would not take a car there. To make matters more interesting, it started raining. We confess that we did contemplate hitching and even tried, without success to catch a ride in the back of a bakkie. In the end we got to the top of the hill and it was downhill and flat through some magnificent forests to the end. We arrived at our destination and found a nice hotel, with an English speaking member of the family who owns it. What a relief!

daily total : 50kms

24 December 2002 Photos

Rained the entire night. Sat out the rain in front of the fire at the hotel. Looks like the rain has stopped, so we are on our way for the day.

The first 10 or so kms of the ride, while still a gravel road, was fairly flat and uneventful. It got a little more hilly, and overcast. By the time we stopped for lunch halfway to Panguipulli, it was raining. The road is one of the most scenic in the area, and despite its condition, was highly recommended. Pity that all we saw was a lot of mist with a glimpse here and there of lake and mountain.

While the rain did not let up, the gravel road finally came to an end and the last couple of kms were on solid road. A relief for us and our bikes. We arrived at the town, found some cabañas and settled down for a relaxing evening. Our host brought us some christmas cake and two glasses of some concoction that reaked/reeked of alcohol. Very sweet of him.

daily total : 55kms

25 December 2002 Photos

Still raining when we woke up. Packed up and waited for an opportune break in the rain to leave. The road out of Panguipulli was faily steep, but tar at least. Aside from the rain or the constant threat of rain the cycling was quite nice. Rain is actually not such a mission. The only downside is that you get a bit wet. But no permanent harm is done, as long as our stuff stays dry, which it does.

No cars on the road today. Either it is a very quiet road, or it is Christmas. We managed to get close to our destination in pretty good time. Six kms out of town we were chased by a dog and as Amnon put foot, his chain broke. Needless to say the chain breaker was one of the items that was stolen in Santiago, and despite several attempts to purchase a new one in Temuco and Villarica, we had come up with nada. We tried to improvise a solution (a bit hard to explain). As luck would have it a Swiss cycle tourist happened to pass us by and Illana forced him to stop and help. Amnon managed to fix the chain and we set off. Sadly, as the Swiss guy got away, Amnon´s chain snapped again. Obviously did not do a very good job first time, or the chain is in a shocking state. We sat under a bus stop waiting for a lift. As already mentioned, there were not too many cars, so it took a while for someone to stop. The guy who did was a real good soul driving a pick up that is at least as old as Amnon. He drove us into Los Lagos (the next town and our destination), found the owner of a little cycle repair shop who was having his Christmas day off, drove us all to his workshop where the repair man fixed the chain for $500 or R7. All this took place without one word being formally understood. We were a little confused as to where the driver was taking us though - the repair man literally lives on the wrong side of the railway track.

The next trick was to find accommodation in the pouring rain which had started way back when the chain broke. We stopped at a supermarket (open on Christmas) and asked the check out people. They got out the yellow pages and found the number of a cabañas place nearby, phoned them for us and gave us directions. Nice to have met so many nice people in one day. Wish the weather was as nice. It is now almost 9:00 and still raining pretty hard. See below for a satellite image. According to the forecast, today was raining, tomorrow there will be showers (we think that is worse than raining) followed by partly cloudy weather over Friday and the weekend. Think of us as you lie on the beach.

daily total : 60kms

26 December 2002 Photos

Left our cabaña and made our way to Rut 5, the Panamericana highway that goes from the top of Chile all the way to the bottom. We decided that we would try and hitch to avoid having to cycle on a highway. Sadly, there was absolutely no traffic and after half an hour we gave up and started cycling. The road was pretty quite and the cycling was not unpleasant, but it was a bit monotonous. After 50kms we got to a toll road and met an American stockbroker motorbiking through Chile and Argentina. He had a blow out and was arranging to get his bike to the next town by a free towing serive. We hitched a ride for about 10kms.

Our destination was a place called Osorno. As we approached it the highway got busier and the wind got stronger. Finally we arrived at a pretty large town, spent about an hour there and decided to get out as quickly as possible. We don´t have a good record in major centres. We found a camp site just outside the town on the side of the highway, and as it was not raining, decided to give camping a go. We were the only guests and the site, aside from the traffic, barking dogs and some very noisy birds it was pretty pleasant.

daily total : 90kms

27 December 2002 Photos

Got going for our next destination - an easy 50kms or so away. We met a local cyclist who gave Illana a push up one of the hills - very nice of him, it made a significant difference. We also intersected with a Swiss couple who have been cycling around the world for the last 2 and a half years. They have cycled through Europe, the Middle East, Asia (including Iran, Pakistan etc.), north America and are now crossing South America. They plan to spend another 3 years cycling around the world. We told them to get in touch with us when they get to Cape Town.

Our destination (Puerto Octay ) is a quaint town with a strong German influence. Apparently there were a lot of German settlers who came to this part of the world at the end of the 1800s. Many of the old houses, while mostly in a state of disrepair, give the town a distinctly European feel.

daily total : 50kms

28 December 2002

Woke up late and went for a walk along a small peninsula that ends off at a magnificent hotel. The scenery was stunning, with blue skies (for a change), the lake and Volcan Osorno in the background. One day we will return and stay at the Hotel Centinel. Got back to our Cabaña and tried to nap. Only thing was that the place is really just a roof (like an attic, with no house underneath), with yellow perspex sheets placed in the roof to give additional light, which creates an environment fit for hot house tomatoes, not shabbat afternoon naps.

Shabbat finishes really late - we saw stars at about 10pm. It is quite a challenge to stay entertained, without even a book to read (stollen). We sat in the town square watching the niños ride their bikes up and down and the stray dogs do what dogs do. For so many dogs, there are surprisingly few turds in Chile. One further dog observation: one would have thought that all stray dogs would have converged to the Chile pavement special by now (Chile has been independent for almost 200 years). However, this is not the case, and the variety of breeds is quite noticeable.

daily total : 0kms

29 December 2002

A really beautiful couple of kms to start the day. Finally got back to Ruta 5 (the highway) for the last 25kms into our next destination, Puerto Varas. The town is also very german, but far busier and more geared for tourists than Puerto Octay. It seems that locals are finally on holiday, and accommodation is filling up and getting more expensive. We found a three bedroomed cabaña for double what we usually pay, but still a steal at $20,000 (bargained down from $30,000 - all in Spanish-ish).

We caught a bus into Puerto Montt - a big town 15kms away - and booked tickets for a 5 day journey to the San Rafael glaciers by ferry. Unfortunately, they had run out of cabins, so we got two reclining chairs. Hold thumbs for no snorers. We will try to get a good night sleep tonight.

daily total : 60kms

30 December 2002 Photos

Hard work getting up in the morning but we managed to get to the boat on time. Had a very long negotiation in sign language with Carlos, the baggage guy, to try to establish if there was anywhere we could leave our bikes while we were on the ferry. We finally thought we had come to an arrangement with him to leave the bikes at the baggage section for the rest of the week. Turned out we had only arranged to leave the bikes there until 1:00. In the end we found a hostel nearby run by a Swiss artist where we left the bikes for a couple of Rand a day. Amnon managed to get her blood boiling by knocking her easle around and messing her neatly stacked pile of empty coffee tins. When it came time to pay $2400 for storage services, we had either $2390 or $2500. She chose to rather go upstairs and fetch $100 rather than forego $10 (1c US). With that kind of attention to detail at least we knew our bikes would be safe.

Prior to boarding the ferry, there was a very long announcement in Spanish probably informing all the Spanish speakers that they were, on no account, to assist English speakers even in the event of emergency. Luckily the guy making the announcements laughed at his own jokes, so we kind of knew what was going on.

We finally got going over 2 hours later than our scheduled time. On deck we met a fellow commonwealthian, Peter from New Zealand who was fortunate enough to have booked a cabin several months ago.

Our seats were in Butacas A, a large room containing about 300 airoplane seats (to be fair, they are like business class seats). The air in the room was definately poisened (according to Illana) - and the locals kept closing the two small windows, one of which was located near our seats. On close inspection of the floor, there were small boat bugs crawling all over the place (one should never undertake close inspections). To add insult to injury, the butacas actually faced backwards, with a fine view of the cars, motorbikes and lorries on board. In short, the accommodation failed miserably to meet expectations and our advice to any potential traveller is: if you can´t get a cabin, get a picture of the laguna and look at it with your freezer door open. At least we had seats on the corner, right in the front of the room, minimising the risk of snoring by a factor of 4 (according to Amnon). Didn´t help. We had a snorer next to who despite getting elbowed (discretely) several times in the course of the night, continued snoring. With the noise from the fiesta upstairs, there was no way Illana was getting any sleep, so with much blaspheming and swearing, she made her way downstairs to Butacas B, a more pleasant, less populous and smaller version of Butacas A. Finally managed to get some sleep. daily total : 25kms

31 December 2002 Photos

Got woken up by a loud announcement in Spanish (all the annoucements started with 'señores passajores?followed in Spanish by an instruction not to translate for any English speakers) informing all that breakfast was served. Not too much to eat (especially if ham and cheese sandwhiches are not your thing) - lucky we had our own food.

To be fair, we should try to accentuate the positive (Amnon´s appeal to Illana). The showers were excellent (for Chile), the weather cleared up and the scenery was good (although the thing about scenery is that after hours of archipelagos in a stunning setting, they tend to get a bit monotonous, especially if the audience is sleep deprived).

Throughout the voyage, we were subjected to very loud, bad Chilean Muzak - mostly in 3/4 time, played on an accordian. Peter managed to break the PA system (he flipped a switch somewhere), so we had some silence while the entire crew were mobilised to fix the thing (got an electrician to do the job). We met a couple more non-Chileans (Trina and her folks from Canada, Ilona from London, Karyn from Australia as well as a Japanese tourist whose name we could not establish because she could not speak English and all we know in Japanese is sushi, sashimi, wasabe, kamakazi - our conversation was a bit short, but fun) as well as some really nice Chileans (Ramon and Jorge) who broke the embargo on communicating with us.

In order to escape the loud muzak after the PA system was repaired, we and Peter went to sit in the cafeteria (with the accent on the ria, rolling the r). We were soon invaded by the rochas (the red team) and before we knew it, we had volunteered to participate in the competition scheduled as the entertainment for the following evening, and a source of much excitement to the locals. Amnon was nominated as Sigñor pollo empecho (or something) which is meester hairy chest, Peter was meester legs and Illana had to do something which we could not establish. Luckily Trina was present to help make things a little clearer than they were.

Being new year´s eve, things got really exciting on deck. There was a fire works display (the captain lit all our flares - luckily we did not need them) and loud music plus a lot of hugging and kissing (local tradition to kiss everyone - Illana has adopted it as her own). In order to avoid another shocker of a night in the butacas, we decided to sleep on deck with our camping gear. While the concept was a good one, in practise it was just a little too windy and cold (we were near our glacier destination after all). We found a more sheltered spot outside the bridge and got a couple of hours of sleep, but not nearly enough to ward off Illana´s continuous moans.

daily total : 0kms

1 January 2003 Photos

Woke up to a lake filled with floating chuncks of ice, some as big as trucks. Very impressive, but with diminishing marginal impact as is the case when you go at about 10kms an hour. Tried to sleep, but the bad muzak put paid to that idea. Finally Illana got up and switched it off at the source. Took a few minutes before anyone noticed - she should have trashed the CDs.

The glacier itself is quite spectacular. To make things more dramatic, the crew put on this really loud muzak as we approached it, at the most dramatic point, playing the national anthem. Nothing like just enjoying the splendor of it. We were loaded into small boats, about 15 people at a time, and motored towards the glacier. Really spectacular to see the huge wall of ice (maybe 10 stories high), with hues of blue and white and huge ice blocks floating by. The one nice touch of the entire trip was the provision of cups and whiskey. We had to harvest our own ice blocks from the water though. It would appear that the attitude of the crew was that as this ferry was originally one for cars and lorries, we should be treated like cars and lorries. There was absolutely no attempt to add those things that are often not very costly, but make all the difference. The glacier was very nice indeed, although we cannot say for certain that it was worth it.

In an effort to maintain some semblance of personal hygene (we had been ´sleeping?in our clothes for 2 nights) Amnon decided to do some laundry. Turned out he washed his only clean shirt. Needs his mother at all times it appears.

Illana´s continuous moaning almost resulted in her almost being turfed off the boat by those pasajores who could understand her (remember Jonah). She in turn would have prefered that. She decided to make plans to abandon ship at the next port (Puerto Chacabuco) despite Amnon´s insistence that they were all in the same boat together and that it actually wasn´t that bad.

That night was the competition. The excitement was palpable and the locals took the whole thing very seriously. Especially the part comprising the national dance of Chile. This man-woman dance seems pretty uncoordinated, but the key feature is that both partners have a white handkerchief (dirty?) which they use in the course of the dance. The starting position is with the handkerchief on the shoulder and then it gets waved and flapped around for the duration of the dance, coming to rest breifly on the head every now and then. For the non-Chileans, this made up for all the bad entertainment thus far, although we might have annoyed the locals with our mirth in the face of their serious patriotic display. BTW Amnon won the hairy chest competition and Illana lost her game (still not quite sure what it was all about).

In order to get some sleep, we tried Butaca B again, but this time on the floor. Things were going quite well for Illana, until Amnon came to snuggle because he was cold. Illana was not charmed and got no more sleep.

daily total : 0kms

2 January 2003

Docked in Chacabuco at the crack of dawn. None of the English speakers knew what the story was. We got off the boat and walked about 1km to the nearest phone in the town, so that we could action Illana´s escape plan only to find that the phone was broken and that it was the only one in the town. Took a bus to the next town (Puerto Asien) along with a couple of other fellow english speakers.

Found a nice coffee bar and chatted for a while. Illana then found a travel agent and established that there was a flight from an airport 2 hours away to Puerto Montt at 5:30. We booked tickets, went back to the boat to get our stuff and were finally on our way back to Santiago for shabbat.

Our fellow passajores looked a little jealous, and we did feel like we were letting the side down, but we got over that soon enough. The thought of another night in the butacas was just too aweful to contemplate.

The ride to the airport took us through some lovelly scenery and the flight itself was a welcome change from the ferry. Firstly we were going at about 40 times the speed and was not significantly more expensive. Secondly the was an attempt by the crew to make us feel comfortable.

We arrived back in Puerto Montt, collected our bicycles and caught an 8:00 bus to Santiago. Butaca seats again!

daily total : 0kms

3 January 2003

Spent the morning making arrangements for travel documents, did our laundry, developed our photos and finally found a map of Chile (lucky there is only one main highway running north to south, with a couple of smaller roads coming off it, so navigation has not been too complex).

We made our way to Rabbi Horowitz (he studied in Baltimore with Rabbi Shippel) and were welcomed by the maid and 5 niños - Tzvi, Leah, Shaya, Ayelet (and cute friend called Batsheva) and Mordechai as well as a golden retriever called Angelita (could have been South Africa except the maid was white). We had a shower and nap before shul (next door). Supper was a glorious affair. Amnon was thrilled to have meat and chicken and it was wonderful to be around a shabbat table with excellent food, company and singing. Finally, Amnon had to admit that Illana was right to pester him to get the hell of that floating rat hole. We slept excellently, horizontal for the first time since Sunday night.

daily total : 0kms

4 January 2003

Amnon got to shul fairly early while Illana would have made it in time for Adon Olam, except they didn´t sing it. Lunch was at the shul. After shul we chatted to some of the people we met, and then had a long nap. In the interim, Angelita managed to get herself run over. Quite a mission getting hold of a vet on shabbat. Turned out the injuries appeared to be superficial and the hundt was fine. Went back to shul for se´udah shlishit. After shabbat we spent some time with the two older children on the internet, learning Spanish. We then went into Provedencia to celebrate the birthday of one of the other visitors.

daily total : 0kms

5 January 2003 Photos

Woke up too late to get our 8:30 bus. We left after breakfast laden with food which Shira (the rabbi´s wife, who went to summer camp with Adina Shippel) insisted that we take (bread, granola bars, cheese, breakfast cereal etc.). We caught a 1:00 bus to La Serena, a large town in the Chicco Norte. Another 7 hours on the bus. Yay!

Arrived at La Serena in time to find a campsite near the beach for $10,000. Set up the tent, made supper (courtesy of the Horowitz´s) and went to sleep. Nice to be in a tent again.

daily total : 8kms

6 January 2003 Photos

Left the campsite in fairly pleasant weather (the mist had come in) and went east. Aside from the start, the ride was fairly flat, following a river through the Elqui valley. The area is arid in general, but the valley is very fertile and is the centre of the Pisco industry (a grape based alchohol). Luckily we had a tail wind most of the way and the journey went by really quickly.

We arrived at a town called Vicuña, which is pretty enough. Found a campsite without aqua caliente (lucky the weather is hot enough), and settled in for the night.

daily total : 78kms

7 January 2003 Photos

Didn`t have a particularly restful night. Illana was starting to feel the effects of drinking the local water and tossed and turned. Amnon, as a result, slept only minimally. Struggled to get up and landed up wasting a misty early morning and the opportunity to get in some mileage before the heat. Started our journey at 10:35, just in time for the heat. Our route took us on a dirt road to the next town 46 kms away. What our map neglected to point out was that the road is poor and the terrain even worse. Given Illana`s poor diposition and fairly weak state, Amnon really got it in the ear. After 26kms Illana quite literally gave up. There was a huge climb to come, with minimal water, no passing traffic, sparse population and extreme desert conditions. Not an attractive proposition. Illana walked to the top of the current hill on which we were stationed to establish that there was no way she was going there by bike with full pack. Decided to hitch. Given the low frequency of cars, we were not too picky about the direction of our ride (during 5 hours, perhaps 10 cars had passed us). A pickup truck going back from whence we came (Vicuña) was the first feasible vehicle to pass and we flagged the driver down, loaded up our bikes and backtracked all the way back. We were quite impressed at the uphills we had managed to navigate, despite their futility. The driver was a really nice guy. When we got back to his house at Vicuña he brought us both drinks and offered for us to wash up (we think).

The thought of backtracking to La Serena was not altogether attractive. Decided to try our luck hitching, and were in an airconditioned pick up within minutes. The guy who picked us up was really nice and did his best to talk to us - althought the lack of common language did hinder conversation somewhat. We arrived in La Serena in time to find a different campsite on the beach.

daily total : 35kms

8 January 2003 Photos

Woke up fairly well rested despite a night disturbed by some loud heavy metal music emanating from the beach. Illana (in her pyjamas) walked over to the offending youngsters who had parked their car opposite the campsite for a drinking and loud music binge, and told them to shut up, which they did.

On the way out of La Serena, we stopped at a roadside fruitstall for melones and nectarines. As usual we did not understand the price we had to pay and so Illana asked the youngster serving her to write it down (in universal sign language for `write it down`). The guy obliged by writing out the amount in Spanish. An observation: Many of the people we ask for help are totally unimaginative when it comes to establishing what it is we need. For example, you walk into a supermercado and ask for chocolate (with a Spanish accent) and you get offered bread, or you ask for a hotel and you get a completely blank look. When they realise what you want, they do oblige, but it takes a lot of patience. Wish they spoke Eengleesh.

The road to Ovalle (pronounced Ovayay - LL is a Y here which is why everyone calls Illana Iyana) was fairly busy initially with many dogs, both alive and dead. We had to go over a 5km pass over a mountain in the heat of the day (a car stopped to offer Amnon a lift - must have looked like we were really struggling). The rest of the route was downhill from there although some strong headwinds made it tough going.

According to our guide book, there is nothing to see in Ovalle, and indeed, we saw nothing but a pretty big town. We camped at a swimming pool outside the town which rates fairly low as far as camping facilities go, but it was in the right place, and we were too tired to be picky.

daily total : 94kms

9 January 2003

Got an early start and went back into Ovalle to do some shopping (we had run out of everything). On the way we passed a bicycle repair shop (next to a clothing store called Bin Laden - a coincedence??) and were totally astounded to find that they sold chain breakers. A very good start to the day.

As is the norm, the day started off cloudy and cool, but got hot as we got on our way out the town. We stopped at a very small town called Monte Patria for lunch (a mini watermelon and some almonds) and then continued for another 25kms or so. We were both taking a bit of strain in the heat and decided to try our luck hitching once again (Amnon was reluctant at first, suggesting that we formulate a policy about hitching in general - after all we are supposed to be on a cycling holiday. Illana told him to piss off.) We waited for over an hour and with very little traffic going our way, we decided to refuel in preparation for another 20kms and a night camping wild (no campsite for another 40kms at least, according to the locals). As we were about to get going, a bus passed us by and stopped to let us on. The conductor helped us load our fully laden bikes into the hold and we were on our way to Combarbala for a total of $1,000 (R12). We arrived in the town to find no camp sites and 1 hotel, which is fairly nice as hotels in this part of the world go. We were upgraded from a doble to a triple - very nice of them.

After supper, we went walking through the town (lucky it is a small town because we are a little tired) looking for an internet place. Illana walked smack into a pole while reading a sign across the road. Not a subtle pole either, it really reverberated and the whole town had a good laugh.

daily total : 70kms

10 January 2003 Photos

Woke up to another hot and sweaty day in the life of Combarbala. Rather than cycle 80kms on a dirt road, and then about 30 on the highway, we decided to take a bus to our next destination of Los Vilos. We were a little conflicted about taking a bus and felt really stupid when the dirt road turned out to be newly paved and most of the route was downhill. We felt better when the quality of the road deteriorated and the bus had to navigate a series of washed away bridges.

We got to Los Vilos to find that it was not quite the seaside town we had in mind for a relaxing shabbat. The quality of the accommodation was better than butaca standard, but not by much. LV is a dusty little town with a pretty unattractive beach and not very much personality. We decided to head for the next town - called Pichidangui. We thought this would be 10kms away, but it turned out to be over 30, so we did manage to get some cycling in after all. The town had a range of cabañas and we chose one on the beach (Actually not our first choice, but the cabañas we wanted to stay in did not like the look of us and told us they were full). While it did not have a kitchen, it did have a deck and we managed to prepare a meal of assorted carbohydrates on our camping stove. Despite the noise of the fiesta in the on-site restaurant that continued until about 5:00, we managed to get some sleep.

daily total : 40kms

11 January 2003

Woke up to a beautiful day. Went for a walk on the playa, ate lunch and had a nap. On the whole a relaxing day.

daily total : 0kms

12 January 2003 Photos

Left Pichidangui for another 40kms of cycling on Ruta 5. Aside from some beautiful coastal towns, nothing much to report. We ran out of steam near a place called Pullally (or something like that) and had lunch at a windy picnic spot with some locals and a range of stray dogs (had enough of them - the dogs and the locals). After lunch we got off the highway and cycled towards the coast. The first town we got to had none of the infrastructure we required (camping and an autobank) so we continued south to a town called Zapallar, which is a spot for the rich and famous it would appear - the first town where Illana felt somewhat at home. The houses are beautiful. We found an autobank, but no camping so we walked around a bit and made for the next town with camping facilities about 10kms away.

We found our camping site, set up our tent and then went into the town (La Laguna) to see what it had on offer and to find an internet cafe. No luck on the latter. We got back to the campsite and had cold showers, at times in the dark (the light in the bathroom works on a movement sensor that does not extend to the shower area. When the lights go off you have to run out your shower (screaming in Illana`s case) and wave your arms frantically to get them to come on again.) We have become so immune to deprivation that we did not actually mind the cold showers, and we were soon warm and snug in our tent ready for a good night´s sleep.

daily total : 98kms

13 January 2003

Got our usual late start and continued on our route south. The cycling was themost unpleasant to date, on a small road with a lot of traffic and no shoulder. Got to a town called Concon and decided to take a bus into Santiago.

Bus was hot and sticky, with niños playing annoying gameboys. Arrived irritated and hungry. Decided to check into the bus station hotel (quite a nice hotel, although a little noisy - funnily enough there is a lot of traffic here) which saved us the hassle of getting our bikes too far. The roads in the area are just way too busy to navigate. Decided to go and retreive our bike boxes from the Hotel Majestic (the hotel we stayed at on our way in when we thought we were about to start a holiday) as we were already hot and sweaty. Quite unexpectedly given our rotten luck to date, the boxes were still there and we managed to get them back to our hotel with no problem.

Really enjoyed the sensation of showering barefoot, safe in the knowledge that the bathroom had been cleaned in the recent past. Nice to stay in a decent place - decided that we would try to do this more often when we go on holiday in the future.

daily total : 42kms

14 January 2003 Photos

Many chores to undertake today - had to collect passports from the SA embassy and get our tickets reissued. Managed to do both, with no more than the average level of irritation that has characterised this trip. Our own embassy tried to rip us off (they wanted to charge us double the listed price for our passports) and only backed down in the face of some fierce opposition from Illana. No amount of opposition could prevent us having to pay US$70 per ticket to get our airline tickets reissued. Will have to continue that battle from our home turf.

After we had managed to get all the necessaries out of the way, we were in no mood to play the happy tourist and walk around the local museums of see the sights of Santiago. Instead we went to see the new school that the Horowitz´s have helped to build in the community. It is quite an acheivement. Amnon enjoyed the swimming pool along with the Rabbi and his kids. We went back to the Rabbi for supper. The Horowitz home is almost as busy as the bus station - with a continuous stream of children and visitors leaving and joining the supper table. Left with a loaf of bread (we probably look hungry) for our journey home.

Got back to the hotel, packed up our bikes and wrote this final entry from Chile. Looking forward to going home where people speak English. Amnon is also looking forward to his meal on the plane - this culinary event is the highlight of any flight - probably a reflection of the poor quality of food at home, rather than the competence of airline chefs. Illana just hopes her meal is an improvement on what she was served on the inbound journey (a whole, raw baby cabbage with a couple of dirty mushrooms).

daily total : 0kms

15 January 2003

Well we thought it was all over. Not quite. Still had to fight with the bus company representative who wanted to charge us for an additional seat (as the airport bus was leaving) because we had a lot of luggage. Told the bus person to get stuffed - in no mood to be ripped off, and we had nada pesos. Then Lanchile airline (the Malaysian Air partner for the Santiago BA leg) wanted to charge us US$148 overweight because they allow only 20kgs per passajore and there is no agreement with Malaysian Airlines about transatlantic connections (we had a total of 80kgs). Told them to get stuffed as well (the supervisor agreed to waive the fee). Then we had to organise exit arrangements because immigration officials needed proof that we were actually in the country because there was no entry stamp in our passports. At least they didn't charge us anything.

Once we got through customs Illana was quite keen to buy some reading material in English as she had not really enjoyed her previous experiences of reading Spanish. Too bad there was not one English book or magazine to be found in the book stores / magazine stands at the airport.

When we arrived at BA airport we had better luck finding English books. Only thing was that they were priced exorbitantly - US$35 for a book with a cover price of US$7. The bookstands had placed their price sticker over the cover price and we spent some time unsticking the price labels (to see the real price) and then resticking them above (rather than over) the cover price for the benefit of other curious passajores ingleses. Lucky Lufthansa had newspapers for their customers (yesterday's papers telling yesterday's news) and we took two. There were a couple of announcements in German afterwards asking for the two Jews to return the newspapers, but we ignored them. Irritation set in after about 5 hours - and Amnon once again bore the brunt of it. Finally we got onto the plane which was full (yay!) and were well and truely on our way home (butacas for the last time for a while we hope).

daily total : 0kms

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