January 30, 1998 Chile, - {Camped on an ocean shore cliff} R80G/S 35824 R100GS 25448 By the time we were finally on the road and filled up with gas, it was 10:40am. There are two roads heading South of Iquique. The PanAmerican highway which is in land 48km, paved, and we were told hot despite it being at an altitude of 2,000-3,000 meters. We decided to take the coastal route which promised to be beautiful, and we were told cool despite being near sea level. It was beautiful with high cliffs overlooking the ocean, cool, and nicely paved. However, we drove 150 miles before we saw a gas station at Tocopilla. All along the coast, we saw local vacationers camped out in their tents near the ocean. With so many people camping visible from the road, we got the idea that it was safe. We had asked around in Iquique, to which we were also told it was safe, and so considered doing so. We stopped in Tocopilla, and had some lunch at a chain restaurant called Bavaria. Sharon says she thought it was like a top notch Denny's, However the waiters were nicely dressed with pressed white shirts, and black bow ties. This appeared to be the top notch restaurant in this transit/oil town. The parking lot was full of new american and japanese family size cars. Just South of Tocopilla, the mountain cliffs are full of caves with green rubble pouring out. Near the road is a green boulder that looks like it came from one of these caves. This area is the copper mining capital of the world, and it's no doubt why with green boulders of copper lying about. We found an incredibly scenic wild campsite. Around one of the many mountains that jut out from the sea, there was a little path way to walk from the mainland to get around the rock. On the side of this was a small patch of flat level sandy ground, perfect for placing a tent. For about 270 degrees around this campsite is a cliff falling off into the ocean 100 feet below. Excellent place for hanging around the rest of the afternoon, resting, watching the emerald white tipped waves beat the rocks. The wind is nice and cool and smells like salt water. Occasionally sea gulls come over riding the wind hovering near our camp site. Sharon says they sound like they're laughing. As I'm sitting on this campsite overlooking the ocean, a flock of 5 pelicans comes over the ridge slowly gliding silently into the wind towards the water below. They don't plunge, but rather ride the wind just above the water. I can faintly taste salt on my lips which is likely from the salt laced wind that is blowing over. For a moment I think about the corrosive salty wind blowing over and through the palmtop computer, and then the bikes, and decide I'm not going to worry about it for the next two hours, and just enjoy the moment. We parked our bikes on the other side of the isthmus crossing but still within sight of our campsite. Since we're up wind, and surrounded by crashing waves, were not with in ear shot of the bikes though. Later on, we climbed down to the water. In front of our peninsula is a fissure where the rock has split forming a two meter wide channel for sea water to flow through. On one side it becomes a tunnel, however both ends lead to the sea. Occasionally it sounds like a loud low sub-woofer or bass drum boom as the two waves collide in the cave surging from both ends. Further on, we found what looked like several iced over puddles. Obviously it was salt that had crystallized into a sheet. This location was just high enough to get sprayed with the ocean salt water, but not so much that it would run off. The salt water just collected here and slowly evaporated. A little further down the coast, there was a white islet out in the water. All of the surrounding islets were brown with green flecks. With my binoculars, I could see it was a nesting area for sea birds. The white color was due to it being completely covered in guano which explains the occasional wafts of stench. If I were a bird, I think I'd lay down a ground rule, "no shitting in the house, we're surrounded by the largest flowing water system in the world, the Pacific ocean, go there..." We ate so much for lunch that around dinner time, we were only feeling like snacking on peanuts, and peanut butter and crackers we had. However with only water to drink, I made a beer run into town, and came back with four cold Royal beers just in time to see the sun set which turned out to be a let down. One moment there was a glowing orange ball near the horizon, 60 seconds later when my attention returned, it was hidden behind clouds off in the distance.... that was it. January 31, 1998 Atacama Desert, Chile - {Camped} r100GS 25628 R80G/S 35985 This is such a change from North of Peru. In Ecuador, we guestimated our time based on the bus travel times in our guide book +/- some, and depending on whether the road went through mountains. Conditions of the upcoming road could be foggy pot holed and or rainy. In Peru, and Chile so far the roads are straight, in excellent condition, and it doesn't rain beyond a mild mist in the desert. As we were driving across one plain, I clocked that we drove straight and flat for 13 miles where the road then took a 20 degree veer to right and went straight and flat for 6 miles followed by a 20 degree veer to the left for another straight 8 miles, etc. A CD player would be excellent for these stretches. Just North of Antofagasta, we passed a sign on the road that said that we were passing the tropic of capricorn. I wanted to pull over and take a picture with our bikes in front, as a sort of posterity mile stone, however the sign was right in front of a Chilean air force base. In front of military bases in Peru, there are signs all over that say no photos allowed, and armed guards at guard towers enforcing that rule, I thought it unwise to take a photo here. About a mile down the road, I got Sharon to pull over to look at the GPS. It said we were at latitude 23 degrees 27 minutes, which meant we still had 3 minutes further to go before we crossed. Sharon considers me a geek for caring enough to notice. It's true, but I enjoy checking it out anyway. She could care less when I pointed out that the equator mark spray painted on the highway in Ecuador was a 1/4 mile off. Not in the mood for Mama Wanita's road side stand food, we were looking for something at least at restaurant level. Antofagasta is a descent size city with more office buildings than tourism infrastructure despite it being on the coast. Sharon pulled off at the first restaurant she saw that was just before a giant 30 foot can of Coca Cola wearing sun glasses and walkman headphones. The restaurant looked nice enough from the road, and so we pulled in and sat down. It turned out to be much nicer than we expected, and we ended up paying 3 times more than we wanted to. However we ended up with a wonderful meal. We both had a large fresh Corvina fillet generously topped with a champagne cream sauce and a sprinkling of cooked raisins that went very nice together. They made their own bread there, which was delicious served with a creamy garlic chive sauce. I told them so, and they gave us two mini loaves for the road. We saved it intending to have for breakfast while camping. Just outside of town, we found some gas stations that had showers. Since camping is so popular, these showers at gas stations are too. Since this was a nice shower that was cleaned up after each person used it, they charge 600 pesos ($1.25). We filled up with gas before we left. South of Antofagasta, there isn't another town for 250 miles. However 150 miles down the road, there is a strategically placed gas station. About 40 miles South of Antofagasta, in the open desert, is a giant 30 foot hand sticking half way out of the sand. It's a statue called "the hand of the desert". People drive by parking in front to take a picture such that it looks like there vehicle is about to be grabbed into the depths of the sand by a giant hand. Of course, I took advantage of this Kodak spot. South of Antofagasta is the start of the really dry part of the Atacama desert of Chile. The driest desert in the world where no water has fallen in recorded history. It certainly looks dry. The desert is completely barren with no visible vegetation or life inhabitants. In places where the rocks are reddish brown it resembles those National Geographic published pictures of the Mars Viking landings. Other than how fast my sweaty socks dry, I don't have a hygrometer and can't tell what the humidity is, but my nose is dry and lips are cracking, and Sharon says she hears static when she runs her hand through her hair. Further down the road from the giant hand we looked for camping spots. I pulled into one area which turned out to be a quarry. It looked like a quarry for cement. The ground was covered with several inches of a fluffy, grayish white fine powder that resembled cement before it is mixed with sand and water. This spot sucked for camping, so we went on. Forty miles further on, we set up camp about 500 meters from the Pan American highway. I got some sand riding practice as I drove both bikes to our selected spot for the night. As I quickly set up the camp stove for some dinner, I could see the light dimming as the sun dropped behind the distant mountains. As soon as the direct sun disappears, the wind died down to a mild breeze. By midnight, there was no wind. There was little or no wind at night and in early morning, but steadily gusting in the late afternoon while the sun was shining. As the sun was setting, the crescent moon was visible. In the East, the last bit of sun formed a ban somewhat like a flat rainbow lying on the horizon. Way off in the distance, the ground was dark followed by a thin band of blue, violet, red, pink, orange, and then a dim sky blue. The temperature dropped fast as the sun disappeared. The sun makes it feel like mid 90's, however the late afternoon strong wind makes it comfortable. In the shade it feels like mid 70's. As soon as the sun set, I got out my fleece as the temperature became uncomfortably cool, however warmth still radiated from the ground. By 5:00am, my Casio watch thermometer was reading 10.6 Celsius (51 degrees Fahrenheit). It also said we were at an altitude of 1625 meters (5362 feet). As dusk was setting in, we made our dinner from camping food we've been carrying since Louisiana. We had a surprisingly nice dinner made from a Lipton Cajun rice dinner packet mixed with US department of commerce inspected tuna. Our tastes may be jaded from all that fried chicken and bad french fries we've been subjected to eating lately. Even though we had plenty of water, I spared our water by washing the dishes with sand. However this desert is more pebbles and fine dust than sand, so it didn't work so well. As the sky grew darker, more and more stars appeared. Orion was still visible, however that was the only constellation I recognized left from the Northern hemisphere. The milky way was easily seen. It was incredible how clear the sky was here in this dry desert. In the far South, I spotted what brightly appeared to be four stars that formed a cross or *rhombus diamond. I assumed this was the Southern, cross. It stands out about as obvious as the big dipper in the North. While lying there for a little while, I spotted 5 satellites zipping from North to South across the sky so fast that they were within my hemisphere of vision for only 5 minutes. My GPS showed 10 GPS satellites within view in the sky at that time which were not any of the five I spotted. They have an orbital period of once per 12 hours, not nearly as fast these. That makes 17 satellites not including any communication satellites, weather satellites, spy satellites, shuttle craft gas tanks, remote control telescopes or space stations. Makes me wander how many man made satellites are visible at one given time. Rather than sleep in the tent, I pulled my sleeping bag out and set it on my Therma-rest mattress which I put on top of my motorcycle cover that I had laid on the ground. Sharon didn't share my enthusiasm for sleeping out under the stars tonight and so slept in the tent. It's not often that conditions are so ideal for doing so. There are no insects, reptiles or animals of any kind in this absolutely barren desert. And since it hasn't rained here in recorded history, it's likely not going to rain tonight. I fell asleep around 11:00pm, I woke up again at 2:00am. There were at least a hundred times more stars out now than when I fell asleep before the crescent sliver moon had set beyond the horizon. I have never seen so many stars in my life. There were several nebulae to the South, that I've never seen before, including a dark area in the Milky Way that seemed like an obvious void in the sky for stars. Another fuzzy nebulae, that looked like a faintly glowing cloud, was in the same spot that I had seen it yesterday. I awoke again at 5:00am. February 1, 1998 5 miles North of Caldera, Chile - {Camped} R80G/S 36179 R100GS 25821 Sharon made some real oatmeal in the morning from what we had left over from Quito. She had an accident with the cinnamon, and oatmeal sort of tasted like cinnamon red -hots. However it was a nice change from scrambled eggs and or continental breakfasts. We were on the road by 10:00am. When we stopped moving, we sizzled in the strong sun, however when we were moving it was nice and cool. However, across one section, it was almost cool enough to put on our fleeces under our leather jackets. After a few hours of desert driving, Sharon puts on her turn signal, and immediately pulls over to the side of the road during a boring straight desert stretch. I ride up to her and ask, "What's up, babe?" She says, "I'm in the mood for chocolate..." We get out our Peruvian chocolate from our chocolate tasting we had in Arequipa, and our Planters Peanut butter we bought in Arica, Chile. Occasionally a car or truck would pass by as we stood to the side of the road dipping our chocolate in our peanut butter. The Vegetation started again near the turn off to Taltal, in the form of little desert flowers on the side of the road. We've passed so many different kinds of deserts since entering Peru and Chile. There are flat plain hard packed sand deserts, There are wind textured soft sand deserts, giant dune deserts. There are deserts full of nothing but 1-200lbs rocks evenly distributed through out. Some with vegetation, cacti, some with no cacti, just scrub bush. Some are surrounded by rocky mountains, others just permanent dunes that stretch several thousand feet. In Chanaral, we stopped at a Shell gas station, and had an unremarkable but reasonably priced lunch. These gas stations eatery places are not like back home, where the only food sold are hotdogs, pre-made spam sandwiches with wilted lettuce, or frozen microwave dinners. In Chile, these gas station eateries have a cook and waitresses. The food is cheap and not bad. We met a Chilean couple from Santiago on a '90 BMW R100PD who were touring Northern Chile for two weeks. They gave me addresses for cheap places to buy BMW parts in Santiago. After lunch, we continued South for a while, keeping our eyes out for a nice place to camp. There are commercial camp grounds all over, however they look like a visit into hell. People are crammed into a tiny space, sometimes with their tent parked touching each other on asphalt. Given our experience of how loud Latin Americans are at night and in the early morning while others are sleeping, staying there would be self inflicted torture. No thanks. About 5 miles North of Caldera, we found an area 700 meters from the PanAm, that looked suitable for camping, obscured by the landscape from the road. I drove one bike to the campsite, and then headed back to get the other. As I was walking back to Sharon through the rock, sand and brush, I noticed a ravine full of little gold flecks. I told Sharon, over the walkie talkie, we're either rich, or I've just found a load of pyrite. She said she noticed that the granite boulders throughout here are full of pyrite gold flecks. We set up camp, worked on the journal, and made dinner. The sky was overcast, so we didn't get to check out the stars... February 2, 1998 20 miles North of , Chile - {Camped} R80G/S 36408 R100GS 26046 Sharon had a dream that I somehow injured my head. She looked for a brain surgeon, and with all of her searching, all she could find was a guy who was a part time brain surgeon, part time taxi driver... We woke up to a slight occasional mist. When we went to bed, the sky had clouded over, and it was still cloudy this morning. No hot sun this morning. It was actually cold enough that I thought about wearing a second liner on the motorcycle. We had a breakfast of fried breaded fish fillets, bread and tea, at an Esso gas station in Caldera. Not a bad meal for 1400 pesos each ($3). Afterwards, we took a shower there for 500 pesos. Camping has made Northern Chile very pleasant so far. Our stay in hotels in Arica and Iquique were really disappointing primarily because they were hot, noisy, and expensive. Wild camping has been cool, quiet, beautiful, and free. After picking up gas, water, and some groceries in Copiapo, we headed off South into the desert again, and camped. We drove upon a desert valley with a few hills off several miles from the road, and mountains visible in the distance. This desert had some scrub and desert flowers with a few cacti. I drove off the highway onto a dirt road in search of a camp sight. I took the road way back to the top of a hill that overlooked the entire desert valley. This was to be our camp site for the night. It had a 360 degree scenic view of the surrounding valley. Unfortunately, since I had left Sharon at the highway, I had to hike back to get her since she doesn't feel comfortable riding on dirt/sand roads. I left most of my gear, took a bearing on her which I could just barely make out with my binoculars, and headed to her. After about 5 minutes, she switched on her walkie talkie and I told her what was going on. I was deceived by the distances. What I estimated would take me 20 minutes to get to her actually took nearly 40 minutes. I suspect I had a 2-3 mile walk back to the Pan American highway. With the groceries we picked up, Sharon made a wonderful camp dinner. She mixed some tomato sauce with Italian spices, and garlic powder, heavy on the spices. This cooked and sat for a while as the spices mixed and mellowed with the sauce. Later we had spaghetti, and I made some garlic bread with some excellent butter Sharon bought. Sharon picked up some red table wine. at the store. In Northern Chile a bottle of soda pop sells for about 900 pesos for a 1.5 liter bottle ($2). For 850 pesos, one can buy 1 liter of a descent Chilean table wine. tough choice huh? The equivalent price in the states would buy a guaranteed hangover. We enjoyed the beautiful sunset that lit up the wispy cirrus and stratos clouds that swirled through the sky. Hadn't seen a sunset this beautiful since Nicaragua. Sharon commented on how she was getting high on life with all the beautiful scenery, good food and of course, the wine. February 3, 1998 R100GS 26184 R80G/S 36546 La Serena, Chile - {Hotel Alameda} We drove to La Serena and found a nice hotel that let us park our bikes in their courtyard. A local had recommended a restaurant to us near where our hotel was. The name on the restaurant was "Restaurant". Even at 4:00 in the afternoon, it still looked like it had good business going. The waitress told about the specials. We both ordered the same, fish*. It was called congrio. A Chilean specialty that we were not familiar with. The waitress said it was good. She also recommended Escudo beer which I ordered, and turned out to be my favorite in Chile above Schorr, Royal and Cristal. She brought out some wonderful crusty bread and excellent butter. Sharon and I agreed that the fresh crusty bread would sell in France, while the fresh salted pasteurized butter could sell in Holland. The pilsner beer would do well in Pilsen , Czech Republic, and the fresh fish would sell at any coastal town restaurant in Chile. Delicious meal. Note: We later found out (two week later) that it wasn't a fish at all, but rather congrio translates to Conger eel. Knowing this, explains the strange shape of the _fish_ meat. We stopped in an Italian style ice cream shop, called Bravisimo, that must have had 50 delicious home made flavors which we sampled a portion of. I asked for a large ice cream cone, which to my surprise must have been filled with a pint of ice cream. Sharon ordered a cup which was also overflowing. Sharon said it was absolutely delicious and tasted like Italian gilato. Like other plaza del armas's in Chile it was beautiful and well shaded. The crowds kept growing as it became later. It was getting more and more crowded and was still peaking when we left at 11:00pm on this Wednesday night. There were plenty of street performers around. There was a nice Mexican band wearing large sombreros and formal Mexican studded celebration suits; There was an acting company with some players on stilts, all with painted faces. They later performed a play in the open square. There were flaming baton jugglers and mimes that pretended to be statues. A college age kid name Mario came up to us and began speaking to us. He has been studying English with the Mormons since they offered free classes. He rolled his eyes when he said he wasn't going to join their church though. He had been studying English for the last 15 months and was sounding pretty fluent, however his comprehension lagged his speaking. We talked about the economies of South American countries, and about Chile. He said there is a large disparity between rich and poor in Chile. I've been so use to seeing this throughout all of Latin America, I hadn't noticed it. Although I see it. Another interesting thing he said was that he thought the United States was the most dangerous place in the world. Every night he sees violence, and racial problems in the US on the news, and very little else happening in the rest of the world. I can only imagine he watches CNN which focuses mostly on US news. The town has a strong European feel. Strikingly different from the rest of Latin America. All previous generalizations I made about Latin America may be exempt in Chile. I'm feeling very under dressed in my travel clothes. My sewn up travel pants make me look like a street person in these Chilean crowds. My shirts have faded from the intense sun. In the armpits, and below the waste line, they are still the original colors. Notes: graffiti- 3rd world countries it's been political. Where vanity is a little more affordable, like here and in the US, people buy spray paint and paint their name on the wall or who they're in love with. The anti Pinochet graffiti is there, but is dwarfed by the Los Angeles style graffiti of illegible graffiti artist names. Almost all the graffiti that I noticed between Mexico and Peru was political in nature. February 5, 1998 Vina del Mar, Chile - {Hotel Madrigal} R100GS 26324 R80G/S 36690 I sent some e-mail this morning. Connecting up at 8:45am, or 5:45am back home is the way to do it. Response time is fast, and had no problems sending and receiving. We had a nice leisurely morning, and got on the road just after noon. Along the road we passed several vendors on the side of the highway selling goat or goat cheese. They would stand next to a shack about the size of a one person guard shelter, holding an uncooked half a goat skinned with head and innards removed, up to vehicles as they passed by... kind of like a road side lemonade stand. Sometimes they sold goat cheese. Near the resort areas, road side vendors sold cotton candy that they would wave rapidly in front of the vehicles as they passed. The climate has noticeably changed since La Sarena. Not feeling like bulking up with two liners, I drove with the electric jacket plugged in most of the day. Sharon did also. However even though Sharon drove with the head light off the whole day, the battery was drained, and would barely start by the time we made it to Vina del Mar. As we approached Vina del Mar, we drove along the built up ocean front past so many high rise condominium towers. This ocean front looks like a popular weekend resort area for wealthy Chileans from Santiago. I didn't see much of a beach to speak of. The condominiums just a have a view of he ocean waves coming in. At a stop light, a motorcycle traveller pulled up to us, and introduced himself. We found out that we were both headed to Vina del Mar. We later lost him at a fork in a road, and met up again 15 miles further. Pulling over to the side of the road, we found out he was Gabriel, an Argentinian motorcycle traveller from Buenos Aires who had driven up to Lima, Peru with his fiance. However due to an accidental run in with a Taxi driver which resulted in his fiance breaking her leg, she flew back while he had to ride the bike back solo. He was not in good shape himself, with scabs on his arms, scratched up watch, and prescription glasses with one arm missing. He spoke excellent English for having only studied the past 10 months. The three of us drove on to Vina del Mar. We were a bit surprised at this sea side pueblo which our guide book described as one of the premier sea side resorts in all of South America. It turned out to be a 400,000 population city with an adjoining 600,000 population city. Had we known it was this big, we certainly would have avoided it. We had a long day of riding, and around dusk arrived and began to look for a place to stay for the night. Being a big city of a million people, drivers drove like a city of around a million. Sharon, tired, and not up to fighting traffic hung out in the central park while Gabriel and I went off looking for a hotel. A half hour later we had found, and decided to stay at the first place we checked out. We found a nice Bed and Breakfast which normally would cost Sharon and I $50 for the night, however we were able to negotiate $40. This being a bit higher than usual, we made an exception since it was about 10pm, and as another consolation to our wallet, we said we had to stay in a nice place given that it was my birthday. We had a nice dinner at a small but rich in character Italian restaurant that our hotel owner recommended. Gabriel and I had a ganocchi pasta with a shrimp bisque sauce. Sharon had cheese and vegetable ravioli with a light gorganzala sauce. With our dinner we had a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. We talked with Gabriel getting to know him over dinner. He invited us to stay with him in Buenos Aires should we need a place to stay. February 6, 1998 Vina del Mar, Chile - {Hotel Madrigal B&B) During the day, we walked around the downtown area. Picked up some Pino empinadas which we have grown to like in Chile. The Pino empinadas are made with a sort of pie dough crust containing beef, onions, some hard boiled egg, and often a kalamata olive. We walked around town in the evening. We walked by the elegant casino which has a suit and tie dress requirement. >From the outside all I could see were computer video slot machines. Horse drawn open air carriages taxied local tourists along the ocean front. High tide was near dusk, and people walking along the sidewalk, near the shore breakers, were taking a chance at getting drenched. We crossed the street just in time before a huge wave poured onto where we would have been. Cars parked near the sidewalk were doused with buckets of salt water. The crashing waves spewed water 20 feet in the air. Sharon wanted to go out and celebrate my birthday with a nice dinner since although very nice, She didn't feel yesterday was much of a celebration. We found a very nice Mexican restaurant, the quality of which could compete with any Mexican restaurant in Arizona, Texas, or California. However it was no bargain. Looking at the menu, I figured they must get their beef flown in from Iceland to justify the $9 per hamburger price tag. We ordered an $18 pitcher of margaritas, and a loaded 2 person course of fajitas that turned out to be excellent. Chicken and beef served, as they usually are, on a sizzling grill platter, with fried onions and peppers. As condiments this came with a wonderful guacamole, sour cream, wonderful fresh tomato cilantro salsa, grated cheese, mexican rice, delicious red beans, and a nice verde sauce. The margaritas were strong, and we had a good time. We hadn't eaten Mexican food this good since the Iguana Wanna restaurant in Cancun, or prior to that in Phoenix, Arizona. January 7, 1998 Curico, Chile - {Hotel Prat} R80GS 36967 R100GS 26589 I topped off the batteries with distilled water we bought at a gas station. BTW, distilled "battery water" has been available in every town throughout our travels so far. The batteries were low, however the plates not yet exposed. I also swapped the stock voltage regulator out of the R80G/S for a high output voltage regulator to supply more power at slower speeds. The R80G/S has had a problem keeping the battery fully charged. The battery is close to three years old. I hope to replace it after Buenos Aires in Europe. We took off around noon. Highways are labeled by their destination and what they pass through rather than by a name. For example. several highways from Vina del Mar are labeled to Santiago however they are differentiated by the name of some town that they pass by. If one isn't familiar with all the towns a particular highway passes through, one doesn't know if this is the road they want. Such was our case. It took us over an hour to get on the correct highway. We must have asked 10 people who each confidently volunteered an answer, however some answers are wrong, most are partially correct, or else we just didn't fully understand the answer. By the 10th time asking and 7th U-turn, we were both pretty frustrated with just trying to get out of this town. Unfortunately, our confusion didn't end there, and it took us nearly 7 hours to travel what we figured should take us 4 hours to drive. Sticking to the Pan American is easy driving in Chile. However we wanted to avoid Santiago, and drove from Vina del Mar to Casablanca, San Antonio, San Fenando, to Curico. This indirect path meant many not-so-well marked turns until we got to San Antonio and caught our first labeled road, route 66 to the Pan American (5). The whole path would have been easier had we known what is where, or could easily look at a map while driving. We arrived in town at dusk, and fortunately the first place we checked into turned out to be nice enough with motorcycle parking down the hall. It had a nice courtyard that was shaded with a good size grape arbor. Two grape vines supplied enough shade for a 10 foot by 10 foot area, and likely had about 50 pounds of green grapes hanging from it. Our guide book recommended a restaurant which said it had a good selection of wine, and lots of meat. We went there. The owner, who acted as our Salami (Can't remember how to spell Samollei) showed us the selection of wines from this area he had. He recommended, Miguel Torres 1994 Cabernet which sold for $9. He had some Torres wines for export which I recognized from the liquor stores back home, and opted for the non-export wine. The Torres winery is located a couple kilometers South of here. It was a nice table wine, but at $9, not a bargain. However it did turn out to be the best part of the meal. We ordered the specialty of the restaurant which was a grilled meat platter, containing various types of grilled beef, pork chops and sausage. The meat had no spices, and had a faint taste of the unpleasant odor we've commonly encountered from open air (unrefrigerated) meat markets. The meat seemed to be of odd cuts, and grisly in part. We used our separate order of grilled onions to mask the off flavors of the meat. Fortunately for our gastro intestinal tract, but maybe not for our palate, the meat was all cooked well done. Pouring salt on our wounds, they brought us a bill for over US$23. January 8, 1998 Curico, Chile - {Hotel Prat} We bought some blue jeans for Sharon. What a treat. Her pants had been disintegrating. She had been patching them up with colorful pretty stitching, however the deteriorating fabric was no longer holding together even where it was stitched, so it was long past time for replacement. Changed the engine oil and filter, transmission, and final drive for both the R80G/S and R100GS at a Mobil gas station. Engine oil is outrageous in this country. A liter of dino-juice engine oil (non-synthetic) sells for 2100 pesos ($4.62). Synthetic is about 50% more. I used Mobil Super XHP 20W50 for the engine, and Mobil 80W90 for the transmission and drive shaft. I held off on changing the final drive oil since I didn't have a convenient way to measure the amount of oil for refill. There's a big difference in culture here relative to more Northern Latin America. Generalizing, I notice a change in work ethic, education level, self confidence, demeanor and economic prosperity relative to other Latin American countries we've driven through. Police have a very noticeable presence, even more so than in Panama. I suspect that this may be a hold over from the Pinochet days. The police have take there job seriously. They are always decked out in clean formal uniforms. One Brazilian had volunteered a warning, never attempt to bribe a Chilean cop. Traffic seems law abiding, and fear of theft certainly seems less than we've grown to expect. Gabriel had said that Chile is generally safer from theft, since the police are very strict. Never the less, I'll error on caution, and hold off on letting down my guard. We haven't found the fine dining establishments of this town. Having lost all faith in our guide book for restaurants after last night, We searched around the central area of town again. We found one that had less emphasis on pure meat, and more on Italian cuisine. We had what I thought (Sharon disagreed), was a nice tomato oregano cheese pizza. With this we had what they said was their nicest wine, a red, non vintage bottle of Los Robles Gran Roble which sold in the restaurant for 1800 pesos ($4). Other than not having a metal cap, I'm sure this wine would do well marketed for making Sangria. January 9, 1998 Curico, Chile - {Hotel Prat} We found a nice bakery and had pino empinadas with cappuccino for breakfast. We met a couple from the London area at an outdoor cafe who were travelling through Chile. We talked for a while, and they invited us to stay at their place just down the road from where Jane Austin lived on land that was granted by Queen Elizabeth I to an Admiral in the navy after the defeat of the Spanish Armada. They were planning to get married in June in a traditional Scottish wedding. Unfortunately, we wrote down their address on the back of a receipt which we later lost. At a travel agency, we booked passage on a boat from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. Talking with other travellers, we decided that taking the boat down, and driving up would be ideal since this would allow us to see Patagonia by land and by sea, and both aspects of wild life in between. We stopped at the tourist office, since this is the first time it was open while we were in town, and found out that our guide book is a about 100km off on the focus of the wine region. While their are three wineries around here (Concho y Torro, Miguel Torres, and ___), There are around 25 wineries around San Javier, just South of Talca. Concho y Torro wineries seems to be all over. Tired of having disappointing over priced meals, we took tonight's dinner into our own hands, and stopped in at the grocery store. From their huge selection of wines from the area, we picked up a Medalla Real Reserva Especial 1995 Cabernet from Santa Rita, Valle de Maipo, which we later liked. With that we picked up a baguette, delicious smoked turkey, Roquefort which was a bargain, and some oregano covered provolone cheese. We went back to our hotel into the courtyard under the grape arbor, and ate our dinner while talking with interesting travellers at our hotel. ---- Dave Thompson thompson@pdnt.com www - http://sdg.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~mag/Thompson Net-Tamer V 1.09 Palm Top - Registered