Days 169 to 171: TalTal, CHL to Valparaiso, CHL

Day 169: TalTal, CHL to Chungungo, CHL (590 km)

Yet another day of boring desert riding. Towards the end of the day, we decided to that we would camp that night, so we headed towards the coast. We found a half decent spot close to the tiny village of Chungungo. We were surprised by the amount of trash in the surroundings of such a small and remote settlement, but our site was fairly clean. We had a delicious dinner of ramen noodles and canned tuna, drank some Sangani leftovers from La Paz, and called it a night.

 

Day 170: Chungungo, CHL to Valparaiso, CHL (490 km)

We took off fairly early, and rode 65 km to the next major town, La Serena. There, we found a shopping mall with a Walmart (called Lider in Chile), so we stopped for a budget supermarket lunch: baguette, cold cuts and cheese. Chile is just too pricey for us to eat in restaurants 3 times a day, and especially when spending 40 USD a day on gas alone... 

We just passed through La Serena, but I liked what I saw. Pretty modern town, good weather, palm trees... A bit of a californian flavour to it. 

We arrived in Valparaiso in the afternoon, and struggled a little to find lodging. Finally, we had to settle for a tiny double bed room for 60 USD a night. At least breakfast was included (but damn they were cheap on butter and jam!), and the location was good.

Only two photos from the day:

 

Day 171: Valparaiso, CHL 

We spent a day in Valaparaiso. The city is ok, but all in all kind of small. It took us about 4 hours to see pretty much most of what there was to see. We were there over a weekend, and the night life was kind of disappointing. I think bars are so expensive that most of the youth prefers to hang out and drink either on the streets, or at someone´s place.

If I had to do it again, I would skip Valparaiso, in order to spend more time in Santiago. More on that later.

Panorama of Valparaiso:

Several military ships are stationed in the port. 
 

A few nice squares here and there.

Local O.G.´s hanging out.
 

 
Great weather that day. These guys seemed to enjoy it a lot:

 

Since most of the city is built on steep slopes, there are a few of these ancient lifts around. They are still functioning.

Someone seems to be really into Canada....

These guys were stripping the paint off this beat using a few grinders and abrasive wheels. It gave me painful flashbacks from my days of rebuilding a Lada Niva, and then the Suzuki Sidekick... Never again.

Some cool street art:

A few more random shots from around town: