So, when 9AM kicked around and I wasn't quite ready to go, I felt a little bad about letting the team (Mauricio) down, but when I arrived at maybe 9:07AM and he wasn't there, I didn't feel so guilty about delaying the big day out. I still had to fuel up, but not to worry, we can do that when we head off. I parked the bike and sat down on one of the park benches, enjoying the sun's warmth on my black bike jacket in the otherwise cool morning air.
An older gentlemen, perhaps in his 50's, has spotted me getting off the bike and sitting down, and has been casting furtive glances in my direction for a little while now, as he strolls the streets with a woman who I (naturally) assume is his wife. Eventually they both seem unable to help themselves and wander over in my direction, introduce themselves and commence a chat about the bike. Yes, it is big. Yes, it might go fast, but I don't really know – it does 100kph on the highway and dirt roads, which is sufficient for me. I've only had it for a few weeks now and I'm going for a ride today. Yes, I bought it here in Copiapo. They were very patient at trying to follow my grammatically poor Spanish, but they seemed to get it in the end. It turns out that he has a BMW650 of the similar style, hence his interest in having a chat. They wander off and, perhaps inspired by my warming myself on the park bench, install themselves on another one and watch the morning traffic (pedestrian and vehicular) moving lazily past.
Seeing as the morning is getting on a bit and still no sign of Mauricio, I give him a call. I'd been hoping to have no answer from him, which would mean that he was on his way already, but no, he answers the phone. Sounding a little bit flustered and in a hurry, he reckons he'll be on his way in 5 minutes. No problems, I'll take the opportunity to go and get fuel. As I take off, my BMW-riding friends are still sitting there, so I nod in acknowledgement to them and they wave in return. I crack open the throttle for a few seconds to give them a dose of the sound of the V-twin springing to life, as well as the crackling of the exhaust as I back off when approaching the next corner. Whether they heard it or not, I enjoyed the little burst!
Refueling is a similar exercise in chatting about the bike (again), so you'd be forgiven for thinking that I have it all figured out, yet the attendant manages to ask the same type of questions, but with different words, so yet again, I struggle to understand what the hell he is on about for the first minute or so. Eventually, I get what he's on about, so I hit him with the usual statements, and he seems happy enough with the answers (although it is always possible that what I am saying makes no sense at all, so he is just nodding along in the hope that I'll stop talking soon...)
Back to the Plaza and still no sign of Mauricio. My BMW friends are also gone, which is a relief – no more complicated questions. I walk about 20m to look at the artisanal craft stalls and Mauricio arrives. Good timing. We discuss the fact that I've just refuelled and he needs to do so, so we agree to meet at the Petrobras station. I assume it will be the same one I just visited, but after thinking about our conversation, and the fact that he headed off in what I consider to be an odd direction, perhaps I have misunderstood. Bother. I'm very relieved to find him where I thought he'd be when I arrive a few minutes later...
After a few minutes of chat about where we might actually go today, we agree that we'll go south down the Copiapo Valley towards Los Loros, and further to the south. A journey along the valley to Los Loros was one of the first I did when I arrived in Copiapo, so this promises to be good fun on the bike. As we zoom along, I'm pleased to find that there are signs of green in all of the vineyards that line the valley floor – budburst has been and gone and the first shoots are perhaps 15cm or so in length. It won't be long before the Valley is the verdant ribbon seen in many of the tourist-oriented photo's that you find of the Copiapo area on the 'net.
The road is good fun and despite the occasional quick break for a photo, we make good progress and eventually get to Los Loros. Passing through the town, I come to the conclusion that I'm starting to feel a bit stiff. A few k's to the south and it is definitely time for a stop. I pull over and climb off, and Mauri pulls up behind me. He climbs off as stiffly as I reckon I did. Both of us make the exact same noises – something along the lines of "uuurrrggghhhh" as we uncoil our limbs and stretch – which of course also prompts a bit of a laugh as we discuss how sore our bums are. Our discussion soon turns to more interesting things – I hadn't realised that Mauri works at least one day in the week in the Valley as part of his job as a sales rep for Coke. While it is all new for me, he is a veteran of the run and knows what to expect and where to expect it.
It's also starting to feel quite warm – winter has definitely left us. Here in a sheltered part of the Valley, it feels really quite hot (the temperature readout on the bike later indicates a temperature around 28 degrees!), so several layers of clothes come off and go into the storage box, after which, riding is quite pleasant.
The Valley continues to narrow, but those vineyards are still there, taking up almost every available piece of suitable ground. Mauri tells me that there is difference in harvest time of around 3 weeks from the Copiapo end of the Valley to here – amazing what a little bit of altitude and the variation in microclimate can do.
Eventually we reach a point where we can start to see the remnants of recent snowfalls on the sheltered sides of the hills, which adds to the beauty of the scenery and soon enough, the Valley has narrowed to a degree that there are no more vines to be found. Another few corners, sharper and sharper and suddenly the road divides and the bitumen ends. We stop for another break and decide where to go. The road to the left looks pretty significant and it seems that it will eventually loop its way right up into the high mountains and meet up with some new mining projects and then on to the road near the Paso Pircas Negras. It is far too far for us to attempt today and would require additional fuel, food and potentially even an overnight camp-out. Something to plan for, rather than a spur-of-the-moment kind of trip. Mauri is of the opinion that the road ahead (the one less travelled) is scenic enough and I think I understand that there is another little settlement ahead, so off we go again.
The road narrows quickly and winds its way up the small Valley. We cross bridges with signs indicating a 3 ton limit, so it's pretty obvious that there isn't going to be much in the way of restaurants for lunch up here. We pull off the road again for a reason I can't quite remember just at the moment, but there must have been something to see (perhaps the mountains with snow behind us?). While we didn't stop specifically to see it, we are rewarded with a view of a very large bird soaring in the thermals nearby. Mauri is of the opinion that it is a condor. If it is, I'm glad that it is doing its soaring a little bit away from us, rather than being interested in the exact location we are in. It looks big enough to carry one of us away for a bit of a snack!
A few more kilometres and the road ends suddenly at someone's house! Nobody appears to be at home – certainly if anyone was there, they had little interest in the two hombres on motorbikes parked at their front gate. We climb a little way up the side of the hill and take a seat to enjoy the view across the valley and take in the silence, broken only by the occasional farm animal noise (chooks in particular). It is very serene/idyllic and but for the fact that I didn't have a hat, I could've sat for a long time. At one point, both of us looked at each other and made an "Ommm" kind of sound, before having a bit of a laugh. I think we'd both been thinking pretty much the same kind of thing.
Back on to the bikes and the plan is to blast back to Los Loros for lunch, however when we get there, the restaurant is closed. There is a place opposite that is open but Mauri's crinkled up nose suggests that it might not be the most savoury kind of place for a meal, so after a brief discussion, we agree to head on back to Copiapo and think further from there. We pull into my apartment at around 4pm, pretty late, and I'm certainly starting to feel the worms biting a little bit. Fortunately I have some leftovers from a few days ago – a vegetable and chickpea pie, along with some poached pears for dessert. While we're waiting for the pie to warm up in the oven, we duck downstairs for an icecream – it's such western-style thinking to insist on having ice-cream at the end of the meal, don't you think?
All up, we've covered around 300km today. In the end, it's worked out well and has been good practice for the coming weekend trip to San Pedro. I know I can manage at least 300km in the day without too many problems, even if we didn't start out so well today. It seems I can manage a good half hour or so before wanting to have a stop and a stretch, which isn't so bad. The bike is also proving itself to be quite economical, today returning fuel usage of around 19km/L, so there is a good chance of getting around 400km out of one tank!
Despite thinking that I'll then have a nice quiet evening, catching up on some writing and listening to some tunes, I get a phone call from Alexis indicating that there's to be a BBQ at the Guest House tonight, just for the sake of having a BBQ. It's a dilemma... Another entertaining evening, following another great day.
Saludos!
A
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