We drove for 350 miles today, heading north towards Santiago along the plain that runs between the snow capped volcanoes of the Andes and the much lower coastal hills.
The Pan American Highway was much like the dual carriageway of the A556 road that links the M6 with the M56 near Manchester. Except that here there are no traffic jams or traffic lights, but there are fruit trees roadside chickens and volcanoes, cloudless skies, children and bus stops, and the occasional dead dog or cat, but unlike the UK road, no dead badgers, and sadly - what looked like the components of a wind turbine were travelling south.
On a happier note, we passed some beautifully preserved (as national monuments) yellow railway viaducts, on which the train to Santiago was running.
A short diversion at lunchtime took us to Salto Del Laja, billed as "amongst the most impressive waterfalls in Chile, cascading almost 50 metres from two crescent-shaped cliffs down to a rocky canyon". Today's top two pictures show the falls. Not quite as impressive as Malham Cove in full flow, or even High Force, we have to admit. But there are no clouds, and with about 15 hours' sunshine we know where we would rather be...
The afternoon drive saw us here at La Casa Chueca by 4.30 pm. Time for a cuppa, then a dip in the pool for Sue, then a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, then an excellent vegetarian dinner in the company of Bernard and Heidi and various others. It's a great place apart from the mouse that bit me when I tried to rescue it from the pool.
Sue is pictured, bottom, outside our room.
We received a surprise today that means we'll probably be touring car showrooms when we get home! We'll ponder that (there's a very simple explanation) over the next few days, when you won't be hearing from us as we plan to be 'back country' again.
1 comment:
Looks like waterfall heaven! Very impressive, even compared to Malham. Have fun back country.
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