There is a mining town approximately 200km to the northeast of Copiapo called "El Salvador". As usual for this part of the world, it's a copper mine, but unlike most of the towns here, for some reason (presumably a sponsorship deal) it has its own football side in the Chilean national league. As a result of that, it has its own good quality stadium, which allegedly holds around 20,000 people, substantially more than the entire population of the town! This weekend, the local team (Cobresal) were playing a team from Santiago, Universidad Catolica.
Lizette and her husband were definitely going, due to Mauricio being a Universidad Catolica fan, and he wasn't going to miss out on seeing his team play when they were so close, and Alexis was keen to go in order to visit his brother who works there. He'd also spent time working there in the past, and was keen to catch up with some friends. I was invited to come along, which was the perfect opportunity to unleash the bike on a good long distance run over the weekend.
To get to El Salvador, there are a couple of options. The most obvious is via the bitumen road to the north via the towns of Inca de Oro and Diedgo de Almagro. Inca is tiny, but has a claim to fame in at least astronomical circles, in that a large telescope array is located here (which was in the news recently for a discovery that was made by it). Diego is a town located at a cross roads, but is at least locally important as a staging point for copper being transported to the coast from various mines in the area. Neither of them are particularly beautiful, but for me, Inca has more character, despite being much more obviously poor. It also has the largest speed bumps in the main street that I've encountered here in Chile (so far)!
The other option is to go via the Andes, which adds significantly to the appeal of the weekend. I've been on the first part of the route before, but in a 4WD, perhaps 2 months ago now, so it is definitely time to renew my acquaintance with those mountains, and especially on the bike. I've spent the last couple of days slowly getting myself organised for the trip. Boots, jacket, pants and gloves suitable for the cold of the mountains, along with my swag (in case something goes amiss and I have to camp out overnight), 10L of spare fuel, spare clothes for tomorrow and a heap of water to avoid dehydration in the dry air. The panniers on the bike swallow up all of the stuff with room left over, except of course for the swag, which is far too large. It gets strapped to the seat behind me, which turns out to be an extremely satisfying benefit, as it is in the perfect position to double as a very comfortable back rest, as well as prompting a good riding position.
My final preparations take the form of loading my GPS with a series of waypoints for areas that look like they might have confusing intersections on the Google Earth imagery, plus making some maps of the route and leaving them with my rescue team (Alexis). The bike has a 12V power outlet built into the dash, so the GPS can be connected to that all day, with no worries about batteries. I have to carry it in my pocket, which is a small hassle for reading it as I travel along, so I'll have to investigate buying a proper holder at some point!
The road heads north out of Copiapo towards Inca, but then turns east towards the Paso Sanfrancisco (and Argentina) and the bitumen disappears. The dirt road is in excellent condition, and soon enough, the valley narrows and I'm winding my way amongst the mountains. It really is difficult to rave too much about how starkly beautiful the mountains are, and I find myself travelling quite slowly so that I can take it all in. I realise quite how slowly I'm going when I get overtaken by a 4WD drive ute from one of the mines along the route, showering me with dust and a little gravel.
The road winds onwards and upwards, and with the slow travel and frequent stops for photo's water and a bit of a stretch, I reckon I might be a bit late for getting to El Salvador in time for the game, which is at 4PM (I'd planned to leave Copiapo at 9AM, but didn't get away until about 10). Not to worry, as long as I get there before dark, which would trigger concern amongst the rescue team!
The day has turned out to be quite pleasantly warm in the lower parts of the valley, particularly when I'm in the sun, however when I'm in the shade, it is quite cool, so I'm very thankful for the good equipment I have, and even more so as I climb into the high altitudes. At around 3,500m I find the first ice on the edge of the road, thankfully not in the middle of it! The road continues to climb and tops out at around 4,100m. I suffer no effects from the altitude, which is fortunate. It wouldn't be the most pleasant experience to have to ride another 200 or so kilometres with a pounding headache!
One of the sections of the route contains a particularly interesting series of switch-backs along the road, reducing me to first gear around the hairpins (see the track route picture from the GPS), and right in the middle of it all, what did I find? I bloody great bus, heading in the same direction as me. It was about the last thing I'd expected to see, and gave me quite a shock to start with, but at least it was going in the same direction. It would have been a rude surprise to find it coming straight at me around one of the corners!
I wound my way down off the heights to the next plain at about 3,500m, where the Salar de Maricunga is located. This is a quite amazing salt lake with spectacular surrounding mountains. It also has a border control point for inspection and processing of those pesky little passport things, so I'll be turning off this route before I get to having to negotiate that little problem! Fortunately, there is an escape route that I can take without a problem.
The road I take heads to the north, and the Salar de Pedernales. Alexis rated this salt lake pretty highly as well, so I was looking forward to seeing it. The road contained a few little surprises, with occasional patches of soft "bulldust" ready to trap the unwary traveller. That would be me, particularly for the first one, which I barreled into at about 90 kph after going over a small crest. Major wobbles and a little bit of a fright, but I was out of it soon enough and with confidence suitably pricked, I was now on the lookout for these patches, and negotiated the rest of them without a problem.
The valley contains patches of the most extraordinarily coloured grass - a vivid yellow/orange kind of colour that forms a wonderful contrast with the blue sky and grey mountains. A little further along and I can see a beautiful cone-shaped mountain directly ahead, and before too long there is a sign indicating that it is the Dona Ines (pronounced Donya In-ezz) volcano. It would have to be one of the better shaped volcanoes in the world, at least from this angle!
I eventually arrive at the Salar de Pedernales and will have to disagree with Alexis about its beauty. Sure, it is not so bad, especially with Dona Ines in the background, but I'd rate Maricunga much more highly. Pedernales is very wind-swept, as evidenced by the large amounts of salt dust that extend beyond the actual margins of the lake. There are the usual types of signs here, indicating to people that they would be quite silly to attempt to drive on the surface of the lake, no matter how tempting it might actually look!
The road swings to the west here and passes through an area that on the satellite imagery looks like it might be a bit difficult to negotiate, however those concerns are ill-founded, as the road is in brilliant condition and there are even a couple of road signs to keep me headed in the direction of El Salvador.
Another 20 or so k's and I come to what can best be described as a precipice! I have to get from the top of the plain to the bottom of the valley, which the closer I get, the deeper I realise it is. The road is literally carved into the side of the hill and does a series of long switch backs to get to the bottom. I estimate that in the next few kilometres, I'll be dropping down a good 400-500m. The scale is just awesome. As I'm snapping some photo's, another traveller and his father stop and ask if I'm OK. I proudly rattle off everything that I'm up to (in Spanish) and get happy nods in response, along with wishes of "good luck" (in English). It's coming along slowly, but I'm getting there...
Down into the valley, before long I come across a train line that services one of the mines here and shortly after that, an old "refueling and water" point for the STEAM trains that once ran along the route. In the absolute middle of nowhere, it comes as quite a surprise!
Not much further to El Salvador now, and through a series of intersections with a variety of trucks to avoid, I begin the climb out of the valley and up to El Salvador, which is situated at about 2,200m (from memory), pretty much about the height of Mt Kosciuzsko.
I finally roll into El Salvador just before 3PM and after receiving instructions, make my way to Alexis' brothers house, to be greeted by Lizette and Mauricio. In all, it's taken about 5 hours to travel 350km, but I've loved just about every minute of it. I'm feeling a little bit stiff, but nothing a little walk and stretch won't fix. The bike has done brilliantly. Very comfortable with the weight of my gear on the back (it's a bit too firm without it, so I'll have to figure out how to adjust the suspension), and all done without the need for the extra fuel. The tank only holds 20L, so it's looking like the fuel economy is excellent!
I'm well pleased with myself so far, and after meeting Solidad and Ayilen (Edward is at work), we settle down to lunch. Solidad (Alexis' sister-in-law) is a pocket dynamo - very short, highly organised and efficient, and talks at a million miles per hour, such that I struggle to follow anything she says. She has also prepared food especially for me, which is extremely kind.
It turns out that Alexis is not yet here in El Salvador because one of the team has managed to roll one of our utes this morning, resulting in some signficant damage, however the people are OK, with barely any scratches. Sounds like a lot of luck for all concerned except Alexis, who has had to stay back to try and investigate the whole thing in conjunction with our safety advisor and organise for replacement bits and pieces. He'll still be here, but not until later this afternoon/evening.
At 4PM, we head down to the stadium to watch the game. Due to my late arrival, we miss the start of the game by a few minutes, but no matter, there has been no score. A ticket to the galleries costs about A$11 and we're soon settled down to watch, however we've chosen seats that look directly into the sun, so after a few minutes, we decide to move to the other side of the ground - a good move, as the sun has some bite at this altitude and despite the sunscreen, I'm not keen on the "Le Lobster" look.
Cobresal are apparently about 7th on the league ladder and Catolica are 2nd, however it is only early in the season. Catolica certainly don't look the better side, with Cobresal showing much more enthusiasm for attacking attempts, although with perhaps slightly less skill?
The game is being played to a soundtrack of live music and singing provided by the crowd at one end of the ground, and it's all very festive. The crowd are, as you might expect, largely in favour of Cobresal, and it is they who score first with a lovely attacking move. This brings celebrations from the partison crowd, but the happiness is relatively short-lived as Catolica level the score soon afterwards. There is an expectation that Catolica might go on with it now and break away, however the opposite eventually turns out to be true, with Cobresal delivering another goal to go ahead 2-1, and then topping it off with yet another for a 3-1 win over the favourites. It's been a very entertaining game, both on the field and off. I must ensure I make it to see a game in Santiago some time.
Back at Edward and Solidad's house, Alexis and Giselle (his sister) have finally arrived. Mauricio and Lizette head back to Copiapo pretty much straight away. I settle in to the couch and get Spanish lessons from Ayilen (8 and a half years old), Giselle and another little boy (Diego) who is being looked after for the afternoon. Edward eventually makes it home from work and there is much chatting and catch-up until nearly night.
At about 11.30PM, Alexis and I head out for dinner at a local club (something vaguely like an RSL?), which features possibly the worst "public" toilets I have come across so far in Chile. I can't bring myself to write about them at the moment, but suffice to say, it doesn't look like the cleaners spend much of their time in there during their daily rounds.
After dinner, we decide to investigate a local bar, but end up in a smoke-filled disco. We spend the next couple of hours trying to chat over the doof-doof music about which of the girls here Alexis will marry (he's set himself the optimistic target of being married by the end of the year), but in the end, it is all to no avail and we head off at around 2.30AM.
Despite going to bed relatively late, I'm awake by about 8.30AM, although I do manage to doze a little before finally getting up. I'm not sure if I've managed to wake everyone else up, or we've all been lying there quietly (and futilely) such that we don't wake the others up, but my rising seems to have prompted everyone else to be up. Alexis has plans to cook breakfast for all, which sounds great, but requires a little bit of shopping, so off we go.
Visit # 1 goes quite smoothly, with the exception of getting 'home' and finding that we've forgotten some of the keys ingredients we went for.
Visit # 2 is nearly as smooth, except for the fact that the checkout queues are now much longer. So, less items, longer time.
Visit # 3 (which I'm responsible for) is an unmitigated disaster, as for the two items I'm buying, it takes the longest time yet - a good 20 minutes in the queue. It seems like the entire population of El Salvador is here at the supermarket. Along with that, some of the local peanut brigade manage to hold up the process by requiring that their entourage arrive from locations around the shop, push their way through the queue and add their bits and pieces to the entire lot. Even when they are through paying for their stuff, they hold things up further by standing in the way of the next people trying to get through and refusing to move while they idly chat. They can be particularly inconsiderate...
Eventually, breakfast is done and dusted just before mid-day. Alexis proves himself a dab hand in the kitchen with a grand omelette, which goes down a treat! After that, it's time to head for the various local lookouts around town to get an overview of things here. In some respects, I'm reminded of the Pilbara, although the mountains aren't quite as high and I can't recall too many snow-capped volcanoes there!
We also make a visit to a friend of Alexis' who has had a baby a couple of months ago such that he can give her a present, but also to catch up with some other family members in another room that I didn't get to meet. I hang with Giselle and pull faces at the baby, who responds with a mixture of apparent amusement, followed by looks of concern at the weirdo in front of him. Despite being offered the opportunity of having a hold, I refrain. Screaming babies aren't really my scene - your own are OK, those of other people are a bit much, especially those that howl in a foreign language... I also have a 100% record for not having ever dropped a baby, which I'm keen to keep.
Lunch rolls around rather later than one might expect, completed some time after 4PM! The day is drifting away, and I'm starting to get a bit worried about the ride I have ahead of me having to be completed at least partially in the dark. Getting myself organised takes a little while with the various bits and pieces to put in the right places and of course once I have everything nicely organised, I find the last little piece of the puzzle that I've forgotten and needs to go in the box that is the hardest to get to. I have a little smile to myself and resort to plan B. Alexis can take the extra bits back for me in the ute. Ha ha!
Finally I'm underway at about 5PM and after refuelling (350km on 18L - 19.1 k's per L - awesome), it is off to the west, riding (directly) into the setting sun. I knew there was a reason I'd planned to get away earlier! After a ride along the plain, we go through another set of fabulous switchbacks to get to the bottom of the valley, but this time the road is sealed. Despite being tempted to turn around and head back up, I carry on again towards Diego. Not the most scenic of roads that you'll come across in Chile, but not so bad either. Before long, it's time to turn left towards Inca and once I'm out of town, it's time for a few final snaps of the scenery before the fading light renders photography impossible. Bugger, but I reckon I've got a good hour and a half to go before Copiapo and it's pretty much dark. Still, I guess there's not as much risk to riding in the dark here - no suicidal kangaroos/sheep/cows etc to watch out for!
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