Doff and Ewa Travels: Some Fun pictures

I answered “Yes” Ewa’s question, only later realising that her question was “Do you do this for the TIPS?”

I decided to take Ewa on a walking tour of the markets, backstreets and parks of Santiago of which I knew absolutely nothing. We were having a great time and a lot of laughs when she asked me the question. The question that I thought she said would have been as appropriate, as the woman of Santiago are either genetically different to the world average or they get a lot of assistance or should I say support from the lingerie manufacturers, which was much in evidence on our walk through the labyrinth of market stalls.

Santiago Park

There is also very little reserve shown by courting couples. This may sound like a strange observation, but as you stroll through any of the parks, it would hardly be possible to take a photograph which did not include at least one embracing couple. However that being said neither of the above is done with any sense of showmanship, it is just the way the people are. Very un-British!

Watch your behind

Clothing Stall

You can buy absolutely anything from the street markets at ridiculously low prices. All manner of clothing, beads, coloured strings, dress up party stuff, personalised embroidery articles, suits, ties, electrical gadgets, fabrics. Anything and everything. On to the main fruit and veg market. Pyramids of every conceivable fruit and veg. Barrel upon barrel of olives. Sack upon sack of nuts, spices, teas. Ewa thought she had died and gone to Heaven!

Fruit and Veg Market

Pyramids of fruit

Great choice

Lunch break

Interspersed amongst the fruit stalls are food stalls for the workers. The daily menu was good enough for us. The taste was great, the atmosphere friendly, the servings massive and the cost very little. We waddled away from lunch through the adjoining meat market, then through to the fish market. A week in this place would certainly add more weight to the motorbike. You have to be seriously strong willed to resist the offerings, or broke.

Santiago is a liveable city. It is hard to put your finger on it but it has it all. Art, Culture, History, Education. It is surrounded by mountains the highest of which are snow-capped throughout the year; the sea and beach are not far away. The architecture is really interesting and on a human scale. The weather is excellent but it has a. massive negative. Air pollution, there is smog. The city sits in the bowl of the surrounding mountains and they do not have the Cape Doctor to blow it away. We were told it does improve in summer, but our observation was it certainly made the surrounding mountains look like hazy clouds.

Santiago Smog

Need a ladder to reach Him?

Front view

More Smog

Let me go back to where my last blog ended.

Having left our beach house at Duao, we decided to take a rather circuitous route to Santiago, mainly because we did not want to arrive in Santiago in rush hour traffic with nowhere to stay. Whatever time we wake up, we find it hard to have the bike packed and ready to go before 11.00 am. It would be very easy to travel the length of Chile in very little time on the Pan American Highway, but that certainly is not the way we travel, so it was with a touch of sadness that we left the luxury of our beach house to once again start heading north.

As you move into the central region of Chile, you realise that the farming methods and somewhat domestic approach to life in the South is changing. We were moving into the bread basket of Chile. Large wine farms, fruit farms, wheat and maize. This was becoming serious farming. My GPS is set to avoid toll roads, so we meandered through some beautiful countryside. Dusk had us close to Lago Rapel. The sign of a tent was good news. We took a left turn and ended up at a really beautiful comp site on the water’s edge. Round one saw the owner chancing it a bit with the price, but one glance at my wife’s face made him make an instant reduction! We have now decided that as we are the only people at the out of season camp sites, we will tell them what we are prepared to pay and make it their call to accept our offer or not!

Lago Rapel

Broederbond escape

Won't find me here!

It was next to our camp site that we came across our ex Finance Minister hide away. I recall a 1977 story told by Robin Constance, the owner of Cock Robin Restaurant in Johannesburg. He said that one of his patrons was a pilot who in his inebriated state boasted about flying in the hit-man who killed Dr Smit, who apparently was about to blow the whistle on various ministers who were enriching themselves at the tax payers expense with deposits into Swiss Banks! I think the story eventually came out in the Sunday Times. So a hideaway house on the banks of a Lago in Chile is certainly not that farfetched. Maybe some of our ex-ministers were friendly with the some of the Germans who also set up shop in Chile and Argentine? The ones who brought Stradavarius violins with them! I digress.

Having spent a very comfortable night on the Lago shores, we decided to find a camp site within striking distance of Santiago where we could leave the bike and most of our baggage, as we had no idea where to find accommodation that could house us and our motorbike. Twenty Kilometres out we saw a camping sign pointing to another lake call Isla de Maipu. We took the off ramp and came to a T junction. 100 meters on the right was a fruit and Veg road side stall displaying really wonderful food, avos and melons to die for. We demounted and Ewa started to play charades in her best (and might I add improving) Spanish. A really delightful, not too skint, lady intervened and in perfect English offered assistance and started chatting to us while her four-year-old remonstrated from the 4*4. Two more delightful ladies arrived and in no time at all we were having offers we could not refuse. If we were prepared to follow her to her home, we could park the bike under the cover of their pool cum barbeque room in the garden, where it would be perfectly safe while we were away in Santiago, and if we were to do that she had to go in to Santiago to see her parents so she would give us a lift into the centre of the City! I might add that the owner of the fruit and Veg stall had the broom out and was sweeping a place for us to park the bike prior to the better offer! I cannot believe the hospitality that has been extended to us. We followed Veronica Chacon to her boom controlled development, where we parked the bike under cover as described. We showered, in the pool room Banos and changed into our best clothing, before being driven into the middle of Santiago with only one small bag of luggage. Now how lucky is that? We have also had an offer to visit their holiday house in the South when we next return!

Veronica Chacon & Ewa

We found an amazing Hostel in the centre of the city. 5* luxury with en-suite bathroom for very little money. It is no wonder we liked Santiago and we will certainly return.Well maybe not quite 5* in the real world but for us after camping it certainly felt like that!

The good luck story continues. When we left Santiago we headed for Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. The no toll route took us through some beautiful scenery and over an amazing pass.

Top of the pass

We decided on much the same tactic as Santiago, as the motorbike is not the most agile piece of equipment when fully loaded. With us on it the total weight is about 500kg, so if we toppled over lifting it up would certainly require us to eat a bit more porridge! Vina del Mar is the Plett of Chile. Even though it was “off season” it was reasonably busy on Saturday afternoon and we had not a clue where to begin looking for a camp site. We headed for the beach front and decided that if we move up the coast we would find some place to stay. As we were driving along the promenade, we passed a group of “Bikers” on the other side of the road. They “High Fived” me and I “High Fived” them back. (In England they just tilt their helmets!) Not 200m later I decided to turn around and ask the “Bikers” where there was a camp site. So begun an amazing experience. We were greeted as long lost friends. There were about eight members of the Mamba Negra discussing the following days outing. After much discussion trying to explain how to get to the only camp site they knew, ”Yellow Jacket” (Daniel) said we were to follow him and he would take us to a camp site, but not before “Gringo” invited us to join them on the following days outing!

Meet the President

Check behind you

Ironside

Yellow Jacket Daniel

We followed Daniel to a camp site which was closed for renovation. After a small amount of discussion the paint splattered owner welcomed us in, and Daniel said he would be back at 9.00am the following morning to take us to the gathering place of the Sunday Breakfast Run!

Motorway campsite

The camp site left a little bit to be desired, not because of the building materials, its proximity to the motorway or the lack of Wi-Fi. It was located in the centre of No-tell Motel district and within such districts there are discotheques and dance places that play music till the early hours of the morning. However, the site was secure and we did manage to get SOME sleep before our alarm went off at 7.30 in order that we would be ready for the 9.00 am bike ride.

Had we known that 50 metres from our camp site there was a restaurant which had a live band playing some really great music, we would have definitely popped our heads in for a meal and a dance. As it was we just listened to the music. Not only were we unaware of the restaurant we were unaware of the Motel next door which became apparent as we left the following morning. I include a picture of the rates of Hotel Passion. You will see that the room rates range from 3 hours to 12 hours. Ewa made the observation that if you were travelling with the family and slept five in the room; it was a pretty cheap deal!Six now…in fact six and a half! You also had the benefit of secure parking!

Good Deal

Daniel arrived promptly and we followed him into town to join the other 60 members of Mamba Negra. We were to drive to Quillota where we would join up with the Motoqueros of Quilpue; the Halcones of Quillota; the Falconers of San Antonio; the Condor MC of La Calera; the Geupo Amigos the Gremiums visiting from Venezuala; and various other clubs. All in all there must have been 200 odd bikes including the OAP’s from Cape Town!

I have never been to or taken part in any biking rally. I have only witnessed the Teddy Bear run in Cape Town! We were now riding with real Bikers. As you drive through the towns they simply block off the intersections until the procession is passed. There is no need to look left and right!

Lobo

Dr Who?

Each Club has different rules, but rules there are a plenty. You certainly cannot wear the Club Colours without some voting process taking place and only after a probation period. Everybody has a nickname Lobo, Gringo, Tormentor, Road-Captain, Kalamardo, Nitro, Angelito etc.

Gringo the Proff of English

Me and Venezuelans

Fashion Show

Ewa's big Mate!

As I was saying!

Prize Giving!

Certificates

Leon and Tormentor

I have a beach house you can use!

We arrived at a recreational park in Quillota, all two hundred of us! Ewa and I were treated like royalty. All the presidents of the various clubs came up to us, introduced themselves and welcomed us. There were live bands playing on stage and beers and braais all around. We thought it would take a couple of hours before we would return to Vina to look for better accommodation. No way Jose, this was an all-day affair and there was no way we could leave. There was also no need for us to worry about accommodation. We were offered free accommodation, offers of holiday homes up the coast and hospitality like you cannot believe. We were ushered onto the stage and officially welcomed by the MC and given certificates of attendance and mementos of glasses, badges and stickers. Gringo turned out to be Proff of English at Vina del Mar university. Road-Captain an Air Traffic Controller and so it went on. One thing is for sure we have friends in South America that we did not expect to meet all because of a U turn to ask directions!

Juan Carlos Arellano alias Managua of Mamba Negra Vina del Mar Bike Club, opened up his flat to us and said while we were in Vina his home was our home. Vina del Mar is a dormitory town 9 km from Valparaiso. We are told it is where the well-healed (the ones who get healed properly!)from Santiago come and spend their summer vacations in the seaside apartment’s blocks in evidence along the beachfront. Quite frankly you would not easily get me to take up residence in any high-rise building in Chile; I would be too weary of the terramoto! Vine’s pedestrianized Valparaiso street with shopping on either side is pleasant enough, but not really our cup of tea, we much preferred the hassle and bustle of the back streets.

Valparaiso on the other hand is a completely different story. It is a city with an active working harbour. If you were aged, walked with a Zimmer frame, were confined to a wheelchair, were overweight, you would not chose to live in Valparaiso! It is a city built on hills. Once you leave the narrow strip of flat land following the coast the hills rise steeply up. The cobbled streets have a gradient that would have the Health and Safety laws of the UK in a tizz. Off these cobbled streets are stairways which lead to the houses and apartments. Exercise cannot be avoided. Once you walk out of your front door you will have to go up or down. Maybe the reason for the establishment of Vina del Mar was because the city area is flatter. Not flat, just less hilly than Valparaiso.

How I feel some days

Valparaiso view

Great Graffiti

Harbour View

How I feel at other times

Confused

Room with a view

You cannot help but be taken in by the colourful, largely corrugated iron clad houses that line the cobbled streets of Valparaiso. The graffiti on the walls is an art form in itself, if it has not been documented already, this would be a project well worth doing. Because of the changing elevations there are always tantalising views of the harbour or distant houses. There are lifts or ascensores that move you from one level to the next should you be carrying the shopping!

Keep you fit

We found a wonderful place to stay in the Cerro Alegre area of Valparaiso, called Residencia en el Cerro. While taking stroll we came across the following advertisement.