December 14th through 16th, 2011
Southern Peru and Northern Chile is desert, one of the more arid places on earth. Hot during the day, cool at night, and with weird sculptures.
The main route south runs along the coast, and I decided to stay on that, mainly for cool ocean views like
Of course, there was also a lot of this
Chile meant I could easily camp again, and the beaches were good for that sort of thing, and as I rode south the terrain changed a little so I got more variety
Met this little guy on the side of the road
I distinctly remember taking a picture of him chatting with Blue, but there is no sign of it now. Maybe all the fresh air was messing with my brain.
As I started to get close to Antofagasta the bike started to miss and generally run rough. I quick inspection on the side of the road didn’t show any problems so I decided to get a hotel (I really needed a shower anyway) and pull my carb and air filter off for some cleaning. After cruising up and town the coastal strip a few times I found a place and got to work
As usual with this sort of thing, I didn’t find anything wrong, but taking everything apart and putting it back together fixed the problem. Once I was done I went for a walk
Looks like I could have camped here too.
As the sun set I found some dinner and called it a day. Still lots more desert to go.