Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA
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Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA |
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May 3 - La Serena, Chile Copiapo to La Serena - 225 miles |
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After many days of riding in the sun in the barren Atacama Desert, today was quite different. Fog in the desert? We rode the first 100 miles of the desert, in and under fog! One wouldn't expect that, where the desert road is about 25-30 miles inland. This part of the desert is more of Highway 5, the "Pan American Highway". On various days we have seen road signs saying "Peligroso - Zona de Neblina", which I had thought might mean "Danger - Zone of Sand Storms", but it actually means "Danger - Zone of Fog". I guess that the moist air pushed inland by the Pacific Ocean meets the dryness and heat of the desert, and that produces the fog. As far as sand storms go, even though we have had lots of wind on the desert, we have had no blowing sand or dust. I guess that so many years of wind has blown all of the fine sand and dust over the hills and farther inland, so only the heavy stuff is still there. After 100 miles of fog, we had the clouds open up and let sun through for about 60miles. Then we headed back toward the Coast, and went into and under the fog again. That lasted for the rest of our riding day. Once again we are in a hotel very near the main plaza, and in walking around I think this city of La Serena is the prettiest city we've seen in South America. Its obvious that the city and its businesses in this downtown area have tried very hard to update and clean up the streets and buildings. There is a nice mixture of the colonial architecture and modern, with the modern buildings fitting in very nicely with the older ones. (Notice also that the trees have lost their leaves. - It's Autumn in South America!)
Here is another example of the nice blend of much older architecture and new.
The city also has widened the sidewalks and applied new tile, making walking "malls", with cars allowed in one-way streets in the middle. Also, internal "small mall" shopping areas along the streets are very attractive. Most of the time, we've seen the downtown areas deteriorating, but this city is really attractive. One more day of riding, and we'll be back to our starting place, I'll put in some statistics on mileage after that. |
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