Day 13 – Sunday, February 8, 2026
I left my comfortable cabin at 8 am and wanted to do some shopping in Vallemar. The desert town was completely deserted on this Sunday morning. The town had been devasted by an earthquake about a hundred years ago. It was not the prettiest of all towns I have ever been to...
Not a lot going on on this Sunday morning
The only sign of life was a kiosk at the bus stop, them baking fresh bread, so I filled up my supplies, asking them to prepare a couple of sandwhiches. Talking about life, there was a sizable market at the edge of town. At the market, there was a young couple with a baby, they were the very few people who spoke English. They told me to take better care of my cellphone, which I left attached to the handlebar of the bicycle, while shopping for goodies. This was not the first time that I had been warned to watch of my belongings.
The freshly baked bread was yummy!
A market with reasonable prices
I rejoined the PanAmerican Highway. The weather was grey, the road had a strong incline - plus headwind. I was not a happy fellow that morning. After a few miles, I spotted a fork, a small road heading northwest, towards the coast.
So now I left Highway 5 and found myself on a two-lane highway with very little traffic.Memories of ny ride through Alaska in 2004 flashed back, I waved to each padding car, better to be friends, should I need help.
Then something (initially) scary happened. A car coming from the other direction started veering towards me. I was startled, but it happened so fast, I could not react. It was reall close, almost next to me, when a hand reached out, in it a full, fresh, cold bottle of Gatorade! It handed the bottle to me and without stopping, it sped away. You Chileans are quite something!
Now this was my narrow road...
...not much traffic, agree...?
As I was riding, there were some noteworthy things. THere was a huge mine, surrounded by caciii.
This is referred to as "cake"
Huge cactus
There weee also tiny, delicate flowers.
Tiny flower...
T...and more...
...and even more...
Having reached another fork, I noticed a national park in the vicinity, called Parque Nacional Lanos de Challe, promising lamas (more precisesly guanacos), bobcats and desert flowers in full blossom. Alas, even though the road was pretty, the three things I did not see were lamas, bobcats and desert flowers in full blossom. It turned out - later - that the blossom is just a few days in the year (in August).
The national park Lanos de Challe
What I did see there - and thought it was cool - was the cucumber-like cactii, called Copiapoa de Carrizal - these cdatii adapt to the desert fog.
Cool-looking cactii...
...called Copiapoa de Carrizal
The road eventually ended at the ocean shore and I thought a dip would not hurt, so I rode to the village called Carrizal Bajo. Here I took swim in the ocean for the second time - the folks at the food kiosk were so nice, they gave me wifi (I lost connection leaving the main road earler), they took care of my stuff while I was in the water, the let me take a shower afterwardsand even gave me a local map. Really nice, muchas gracias!
Chileans do not disappoint me...
I left the village, stopping at the local church, where Sunday mess was ongoing. I started riding on a very pretty coastal road with next to zero traffic - a beauty! I experienced a wonderful sunset.
A small church
Amazing sunset!
I had fun racing my shadow, we agreed on a draw.
It was fun racing my shadow
The day was not over - I rode on, even though it got dark. Mr. Fox greeted me and we looked curiously at each other. Supposedly there are a large number of foxes in this area.
A brief encounter with Mr. Fox
At around 10 pm, I reached the tiny settlement of Caleta Totoral, expecting to wild camp. I saw signs of life at a restaurant and after some haggling, a wonderful beach hut opened up to me, a steal for €20 (I would have paid three times as much).
The cabin the following morning
My ride that day wad 133 km and 945m of ascent.