Zelma’s Trip

We decided to take a different route out through the majority of the park and set off having given the key back to the ranger.  The rest of the park was equally beautiful with hills, cacti and spectacular views.

Once back on the main road we stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant.  Throughout Chile the food seems to be of a very high standard and even slightly beaten up looking roadsie restaurants in the middle of nowhere offer good fare.  The problem for me is that they don´t really seem to get vegetarianism.  Chile is famous for its seafood, which is exquisite, but we were inland.  A lot of the restautants offer a luchtime ´menu´ a set three course lunch with starter, main and pudding.  Rather unsurprisingly this doesn´t have a vegetarian option, and actually, it´s relatively rare for there to be an option at all.  Mum used her infamous Spanish and in the end I was treated to a rather strange fried eggs and rice combo!  It was perfectly palatable though.

After a lot more arid desert we got to Antofagasta.  Antofagasta is a relatively large port town and didn´t really appeal.  It followed the coast in a vast line with a mixture of port type industry, strange parks and high rise hotel blocks.  We decided to continue out of the town towards Juan Lopez.  On the way we took a wrong turning (I was directing but it was the map´s fault) which turned out to be the right turning if you wanted to see a beautiful arch separated from the mainland by the sea.  Apparently it´s one of the most photographed sights in Chile, so we contributed and headed off.

When we arrived in the small coastal village of Juan Lopez it originally seemed like the only inhabitants were dogs.  This isn´t that unusual as Chile is full of dogs who wander around the towns and villages looking pleased with themselves.  Although they are strays they don´t appear to have taken the typical inbred mongrel form which you find in other countries, i.e. the brown Heinz 57 dog, and are discernable into near pedigree type breeds.  They are also suprisingly friendly and we didn´t meet any which were in the slightest bit aggressive.  In general they also weren´t that manky and seemed to quite enjoy life hanging out in groups and taking themselves for little strolls together.

We carried on up the ´main street´until we found a place from the guidebook which looked open.  Once inside we liked the quaint place with its courtyard garden and were greeted by two sweet old women.  The women turned out to be real characters, one of whom Mum thought was the female version of Basil Fawlty.  There was a discussion about rooms and then one of the woman showed us our rooms.  Well she tried, bless her, but couldn´t get the key to work.  So the other woman was summonsed who did manage to open the door.  Having seen the rooms we asked where was best to park and one of the women came in the van with Dad and I to show us.  We got to a locked gate which she couldn´t open with the key.  I decided to assist and got out and opened the gate prior to pointing out to her that the top of the parking enclosure was about a foot lower than the van roof.  After all the hassle of actually opening the gate she did a really funny shrug and muttered something, before agreeing that it was best if we just parked the van next to the road.

We settled in and then took a walk down to the beach and around the headland where there were lots of marine birds.  There was one cool black bird with bright red legs and beak which Dad and I took photos of.  In the evening we had a lovely meal of fresh fish and chips at the place where we were staying.