A relaxed walk in La Serena, where we stayed with Paola (see also "who we met"). In the background you can see the Coastal Cordilleres with the Atacama Desert. This is now behind of us. How nice to be back at the ocean! Since Vancouver we've been close to the Pacific Coast and now our last coastal stage in South America started. (mi)

Even if the Panamericana is mostly a four lane highway for us the cycling out of the citys was very beautiful. There is only a few traffic, rest areas with picknic tables, even free showers (!) and we also found shops to buy food. Here people sold delicios sweets. Elsewhere we could buy fruits or vegetables. (mi)

Some impressions: Staring the day on a cowfield (ma)

Short trip to the national park "Fray Jorge", along a sand slope! (mi)

Birds nest in a cactus and cactusses in the sunset (mi)

A traditional brickworks (mi)

This grave was decorated very colorfull. But it was not the only one we saw. In South America we often saw crosses along the roads decorated with bended licence plates, broken wind screens or rosty engine hoods. (mi)

A beautiful bay south of La Serena. Yet the Panamericana is a little hilly but further south it gets more and more flat.
This village is one of the many, which are nearly completely protected from the public. There were thick walls and you can enter only via an all day protected entrance. People who don't live there or don't have an invitation are not allowed to enter or in the best case have to pay an entrance fee. It doesn't depend so much on criminality, how we found out a little later. It is just tradition, that the rich people lock themselves from outside.
We thought, that we won't be able to visit one of this bays when we suddenly got an invitation (see also "Who we met"). (both mi)

Once we had to break our rule, not to cross fences, and passed through a hole to find a place to pich the tent. It was werth the work and we found a beautiful place in this great cowfield. Unfortunately the Panamericana is fenced in most areas, that the animals can't cross the road. (mi)

Here again we had good luck and found a romantic place on top of the cliffs. Because it has been quiet warm and there was not enough space for the whole tent we only built up our moscito net and slept under the sky. Isn't it a beautiful view? (ma)

The exclusive holiday towns near the Chilenian capital let only a view space for travellers with little money. Near the beautiful beach of Papudo picknic was forbidden, but nobody said anything, and so the lunch tasted even better. (mi)

But the last night, when we left the coast to head to Santiago de Chile it didn'went so good. I lost my sunglasses and went back a long way to search them but didn't find them. Therefore we have been too late to find a place for the tent and suddenly there were fences everywhere. Asking many people to tent in their yard didn't help and so we saw us cicling the whole night. But then at a gas station the gas station attendend offered this little room to us. And because we have been quiet close to the city we thought, it is safer, to take the bicycles with us.
How beautiful has it been afterwards, to wash away all the dust at Roswithas and Carlos in Santiago (see also at "Who we mwt"), put all the clothes into the washing mashine and sleep in the guest room! But their cute dog Scotty loved the smells from all over the world at our things so that he smelled a long time at every bag. (ma, mi)