Hitting The Road Take 2

Kathryn >> The early mornings of jet lag appearing to be well behind us, we woke late, rehung our curtains and finally organised all our things into the various cupboards of Azulita. A 'quick' oil and water check revealed the need for an oil top up (unsuprising as she had been haemorrhaging quite significantly! As usual this sent us scurrying down the road to buy yet another something - this time a funnel. While Azulita had come with quite a collection of stuff, more and more it seemed tubes of dried out glue and empty cigarette lighters weren't entirely what we needed to survive on the road. Most contentious at present is the inflatable kayak, which takes up quite a lot of space (to my disgust) yet James claims could be highly valuable… I'll keep you posted on that one. Leaving Valpariso in stunning sunlight, we were finally properly hitting the road. Well, following yet another stop at Lidor – our go-to shop, for more camping accessories and some bread. The Chileans seem to love their bread, although mostly white, it comes in every shape and size

imaginable, and in bulk! Another quick stop at our initial 'first night in the van' lookout revealed dramatic ocean views, overlooked by massive high rises, not dissimilar to the Sunshine coast of Australia. Except they are built atop towering sand dunes. Other luxury resorts cling to the cliffs, barely meters from the sea, all these buildings seem a little risky given the tsunami warning signs meters from their doors. Winding our way along the coastal roads, James soon became tired and irritable so we looked up a camp ground and headed there for an overpriced 8000 paeso ($16AUD) per person night's stay in Parque Chagugua. Wifi not working, terrible public toilets (not a seat to be seen in the ladies'), things started to look up when they remembered to give us the key to our private bathroom. Everything we have read about camp grounds in Chile suggests that they become over-crowded with noisy locals during the summer. With the low season, many are closed, unsurprising as we were the only people staying.