We met Rosa while viewing the mural of the history of Concepción, who was proud to say that she is an indigenous Mapuche Indian. They stopped the southward expansion of the Inca Empire at the Maule river and also kept the Spanish north of the Rio Biobio until the mid-1800s. We followed the valley of the wide, shallow Rio Biobio inland from the coast and were passed by many racing cyclists on the Ruta Madera, (the route of wood), and many logging trucks also passed us. This is my 200^th day of travel; 200 different hotels and, remarkably, we’ve not yet left anything behind in our room (knock on wood).

Spanish conquistadors battling the Mapuche.

Rosa Elvira Huaiguiman Calderon

Horse & buggy in Guarlihue.

Guillermo has been cycling for five years through Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia on a bike with no saddle and carrying two long poles for a tarp.  He looks like a homeless man; not so different from me (until I get my hair cut).  I think he pushes his single speed bike a lot.  It looks like he could sit on top of his gear and pedal, but when he departed he was pushing the bike.

Guillermo, a Chilean cyclist.

We are the center of attention for these boys on summer break in Quirihue.

Classic rock from the 70s is blaring in the plaza where I’m doing this blog on free Wi-Fi.  I visit with street hawkers who love Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. We headed inland from the coast and climbed through pine forests, managed for logging; and stopped cycling by six pm after several days of biking ’till dark.  Maybe we’ll get back on schedule by starting earlier tomorrow.

"Return to Belief"

We can’t buy beer because today is election day.  Conservative and wealthy Piñera won after outspending his opponent, Frei.  He has many more roadsigns (maybe 10:1) featuring a multicolored asymmetrical star. The photo shows him with a candidate for a local office who is the grandson of Agosto Pinochet, dastardly dictator of Chile from 1973-1990.  Michele Bachelet, the popular current president, is a socialist and agnostic single mom who cannot run for a consecutive 4-year term.

Cobquecura sunset

Mario Cancha & his fresh strawberries.

Three chicas: Lady (15), Magdalena (10), and Angelina (22)

Three chicas we met on an overlook recognized us from TV, so our mugs must have been shown outside the metropolitan region.  Even though Chile is becoming Latin America’s first “First World” economy;  farmers still use two-oxen teams joined with a wooden yoke.  This friendly hostel has Wi-Fi so Julie could Skype her book group meeting back in Saint Paul.

Farmer Carlos and his Ox team.

A dinosaur bone beside the road.

Raul from Iquique, Chile on a 5-day tour.

Walking the bike down after being battered and bruised.

Julie took a spill descending another loose gravel road down to the coast.  After an empanada lunch we followed a mostly level, paved road along the coast; with a tailwind!  We met some local bike racers on our way into this lumbering town, and an Italian cyclist on a two-month tour is staying at our hotel.

Black-necked Swans

Constitucion is at the mouth of the deep Maule River valley.

"I think this is a bad idea"

Little boy holding a big rooster.

Julie said “I think this is a bad idea”, pushing her bike up a very steep hill on the kind of loose gravel road we like to avoid.  I’m pushing my bike, too, to the crest of a 300m ridge along the Pacific with views of the snow-capped Andes 160 km to the east.  It’s like climbing to the crest of Minnesota’s Sawtooth range and looking down on Lake Superior.  We drop down to Lago Vichuquén and follow a hilly road along the shore lined with vacation homes and sailboats and sailboards sailing on the white-capped blue water.  We’re camping in a real campground.

Find surfers crossing the rocks at Punta de Lobos.

The coast road south of Pichilemu.

The beach at Pichilemu.

We normally eat light while cycling, but today tried a local stew, porotos, that came in a larger bowl than we expected; but the blend of beans, corn, and squash was so delicious that we hated to leave any uneaten.  The snow-capped Andes are visible from hilltops near the sea as we climbed over a thousand meters through pine woods that are being logged.  London cyclist Alex Monty was eating fresh strawberries when we caught him on the highest climb of the day.  He is cycling from Quito to Ushuaia and has traveled with the Verhages family in Peru.  He plans to camp-out before reaching this surfing town.

Porotos stew & fresh strawberry milkshake.

Red field of ripening quinoa, grain of the Incas.

Alex Monty, on the road to Ushuaia.

Old palms in the plaza at Pichilemu.

Musings of a poet: wine, women, and the sea.

Chile honors it’s poets with fame and fortune.  Pablo Neruda owned three houses and could have been president (he supported Allende instead).  The portrait of Gabriela Mistral, another Nobel Laureate, is featured on the currency.  We squandered this morning slowly cycling through seaside towns thronging with tourists, as this is the closest shore to Santiago, capital of Chile.  We enjoyed the older, dilapidated town of Cartagena which is a working-class resort; and see no other foreign tourists.  The family of Gladys Miranda Gonzalez Bartelme, Abuelita to my kids, once owned property here.

“When I see the sea once more will the sea have seen or not seen me?”.

On the beach at Cartagena.

The malecon at Cartagena connects the big beach & the little beach.

Visiting with street vendors Marisol and Carmen.

Cheese empanadas, just like Abuelita used to make.

Wildfire! (possibly under control).

We’re famous!  A TV crew interviewed us as we arrived in Valparaiso, and now as we’re departing on our bikes people honk or hop out of their cars to take photos with us.  This has happened before, but folks are more excited now that we’ve been on TV.  We left the city on the autopista (freeway) that we could stay on all through Chile, but soon exited onto the old, narrow, concrete highway and then a country lane through pine and eucalyptus woods back to the Pacific shore, crowded with high-rise hotels and condos.