Thursday May 12, 2016, 128 miles (206 km) – Total so far: 17,188 miles (27,661 km)

May 11, 2016 We continued south from Chanaral along the rocky coastline for a nice scenery change. There are many small beach towns that are empty because of the offseason. Summer here starts in December and runs until March so it was pretty much deserted. The following two nights we spent camping on beaches. It is so nice to fall asleep while listening to the waves break on the beach. With the high nearby mountains, we don’t see the sun until after 8:30 so it is hard to get an early start. But it really doesn’t matter as long as we can pull over somewhere before dark to set up camp. Yesterday we rode into the small town of Bahia Inglesa (Church Bay) with a beautiful beach. Since our route was taking us inland again we decided to spend the night here in a bungalow complete with two rooms and a kitchen. We went to the local super Mercado and bought lots of fruit and other stuff. Most of the other accommodations were closed for the winter so this was ours at a cheap price. There were a few restaurants open and we had delicious local seafood. I opted for the abalone which I haven’t had in over 25 years. While growing up in Oxnard, California I used to dive and pry abalone off the coastal rocks and islands and my mom would cook up delicious abalone meals. Abalone is all but gone in California now but plentiful here. What a treat it was to experience this again and reminisce old times at home with mom and dad.

This morning was perfect weather, not like the cloudy cold days we have had. We ate cereal, cold milk and lots of fruit. We decided to stay another day and hang out at the beach. Unfortunately, all the kayak rental places were closed. After a delicious lunch of seafood chowder, we went to the market again for our dinner of burritos. Back on the desert inland road tomorrow.

May 12, 2016 After two nights in a bungalow it seemed like we had moved in as our stuff was scattered everywhere, hence once again a late start at 11. We are working our way inland again due to the lack of a coastal road. About half way to our destination of Copiapo I heard a faint “Hola, Hola” and turned to see a cyclist headed the other way. We immediately stopped and met Sean Kane from Ireland. The funny thing is that he has been following us on crazyguyonabike.com and was sure he would run into us as he heads north and he did! We swapped “tales from the road”. He flew to Buenos Aires biked to Ushuaia and is headed north to Brazil. You can follow him and his very extensive journal at:

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=16943

We did arrive in the large city of Copiapo, found a cheap hotel, and a huge mall that baffled us. We ate at the food court which included a pitcher of draft beer surprisingly, then went across the street to a Chilean Walmart called Lider, bought some snacks and settled down into our room. Another great day!