The Mystery of Chile

La Serena – Termas de Socos, Chile

I’m not sure we really get Chile quite yet. 

In some ways it seems way ahead of other Latin American countries. The cities are really nice. There are nice boardwalks and beaches. There are nice malls and shopping areas. There are actually convenience stores attached to the gas stations. 

This is a point I’ll pause on. For a few reasons. First, from a purely American point of view this may seem like a strange virtue. We pretty much take gas station convenience stores for granted in the States. Yes, some are better than others. Kwik Trip is better than Holiday, which is better than whatever SuperAmerica is now – Speedway – is that it? But they all have bathrooms, lots of different beverage options, coffee, candy bars, etc. 

Imagine, though, if these convenience stores didn’t exist. You want a coffee? Forget it. There might be coffee shops if you are in a big enough town – but they don’t open until the afternoon. Kind of strange really. Exactly when most Americans stop drinking their joe. You want a pop or a candy bar? Probably going to have to go to the grocery store. Or maybe one of the little tiendas. But the candy bars will inevitably be kind of weird (to us Americans anyway). 

This is how Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are. I’m not sure if there is some kind of regulation or something – but for whatever reason gas stations are just that – gas stations. Nothing else for sale . . .

Kind of a bummer as a driver. Can’t pick up the little things that you normally buy when filling up with unleaded. But, whatever. A minor inconvenience if you’re in a car. . . Just drive to the next tienda or grocery store and you’re good.

But a real pain when you’re traveling by bike. You don’t realize it until they’re gone – but gas station convenience stores are really nice when you’re cycling. A place to go to the bathroom. Usually air conditioning to cool off a little bit. Always water or other beverages. Coffee and tea. Candy bars – real candy bars. 

Now, there weren’t any gas stations at all in the desert – so we didn’t know what the status of Chilean gas stations was until we reached La Serena yesterday. But we are happy to report that Chile has gas station convenience stores – with all the fixings. 

So that’s a good thing. And a weird, but true, indication that maybe Chile is doing okay as a country. 

But then there are other factors that point in the reverse direction. 

There was the strange whole-nation power outage that hit almost as soon as we entered the country. 

There is that same strange pattern in rural Chile – where everyone is selling the same stuff. Today it was queso and papaya. We must have seen thirty queso and papaya stands over one ten mile stretch of road. Again, not certain if this is a regulatory thing – but just doesn’t seem possible that all these people are going to be successful selling the same thing as everyone else . . .

Then there’s the whole change thing. I don’t mean like Obama’s political movement. No. I mean actual change – cambio – like change for a dollar. This change issue contributed to me almost missing the bus a few days ago – because the cashier at the tienda had to go to the next tienda to find simple change. 

On this topic, last night Diana’s trying to do laundry and she needs some small change for the washing machine. We go to the beach and figure the best approach is to buy something from one of the vendors. We need water anyway – so we head to a little general store. We buy some water – but they refuse to give us change other than the bills that we were entitled to. 

“No tengo,” they said. But they clearly did have change. They’re also in charge of selling access to the baño. That costs 500 pesos – the equivalent of 50 cents. How can you sell bathroom access for 500 pesos (an amount that is pretty much change-only) and then not have change? 

(I think the issue has something to do with how they do – or don’t do – sales taxes here. In the States everything costs like $1.07 – because there is a 7-or-so percent sales tax. Accordingly, almost every transaction comes with change. But here they must do their sales much differently. Because everything costs an even dollar amount. A Coke? $1. A muffin? $2. Cheese? $4 or $6. Etc.)

Again, small thing. But this is the type of thing that drives one crazy after a while . . . Why does this need to be so difficult? 

Okay. Then there’s our campsite tonight. It’s almost nice. There are trees. Which is a really good start because it’s still kind of desert-like around here. But for reasons we cannot understand there seems to be garbage floating around everywhere. Why? Doesn’t look at all difficult to take care of the place. As far as I understand labor is still really cheap. Why not hire someone to maybe collect the garbage? 

I guess these are all part of the mysteries of Latin America. I’m sure if a Chilean came to the United States they would find just as many strange things that they could not understand . . .

We are pretty excited about our Great Leap Forward. First, La Serena – the town we landed in yesterday – is REALLY nice. Green. On the ocean. Super nice beaches. A beautiful boardwalk along the water – with lots of restaurants and services – including surf shops. 

Oh, and a super-nice big market as well. We bought stuff for dinner there last night. So nice to buy fresh fruits and vegetables at these places. And really nice to cook as well. After two straight nights of pretty sub-par dinners – the cheese and mystery meat cold sandwich at Haroldo’s and the cold (by the time we ate them) empanadas on the bus (the empanadas that I almost missed the bus to buy) – it was really nice to have a vegetable-based meal at our airbnb last night . . .

And while we’re not exactly in a super temperate climate yet, there are things growing here. Bushes, and trees, and cactus, and birds, and jackrabbits. 

As opposed to nothing – absolutely nothing – growing in the Atacama. 

Finally, most important, there are people around here. People selling things. Water and cheese and fruit and stuff. 

Oh, and there’s some shade. 

And, oh yeah, we’re now a lot closer to Santiago and Patagonia. If we keep plowing along it shouldn’t be that cold when we get there. So that’s good.

And we hear that southern Chile is absolutely beautiful. Not hard to believe. The whole country is literally in the shadow of the Andes. Add in a little rain to green things up and it can only be super nice.

As for our ride today – still a little rolly – but much flatter than the Atacama. 

All in all we’re pretty happy with our trade off. Yes, we missed some nice riding along the coast. But we’ll gladly trade Atacama coast in the relentless sun now for better weather in Patagonia . . .