Thursday, November 11, 2010

La Serena to Peñablanco (112.0km)

Curt , Hendrietta and I have breakfast . We are to continue our journey while she still has one or more days left before heading onto San Pedro De Atacama.  After all the necessary greeting I am ready to tackle the road. The city of La Serena by 8 am is quite bustling with city traffic. Cars, buses and trucks collect in streams and move in unison as they head off in variouss directions. I stay on the M5 for now and will be accompanied by the heavy trucks and long distance bus volume leaving the city.  Once out of the city one starts to climb. It is from this point where one gets a good sense of the beautiful beaches that stretch for miles along the coast.  It is here that the desert  eventually loses its grip and gives way to the rolling green bushes and the cacti as they suck on the moisture of the mist that begins its cycle of rolling in over the coast.  It is also here in La Serena where The Pan American Highway opens to a freeway with dual carriageways that will hug the coast for now and will end up in Santiago. 
The road along this stretch is very hilly. It is only my second time that I encounter the rolling mist and it is a very thick mist almost like a light rain. I have to wear a raincoat  which I brought along just for in case and it was a good decision. The jacket works well to keep the moister at bay but everything begins to get wet and I suffer the cold that the wind brings along with it. Half way through my journey the sun eventually burns off the mist and there is a slight reprieve. We find a place along the road just beyond the small hamlet of Peñablanco

1 comment:

  1. Hey Euge, the trip today sounds very exciting. The change in vista but be a nice change for you. The beaches do look beautiful. Mist, not lekker for cycling I can just feel the damp and the cold wind. Arlette

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