Posada along the M5 to Los Vilos (77.9km)

Our stop for the night is not far from a roadside restaurant. I drape my wet clothing  over the bicycle where the wind can dry it. The mist has lifted to give the cold sun a chance to come out to play. I take refuge in the car and immediately I fall asleep. An hour later I am now ready to have some food. So off we go to the road side restaurant, a glorified truck stop where we tuck into soup (carbonara mariscos) - what a pleasure and oh! so tasty. This is topped up with coffee. We sit for a while before we retire to our little suzie and watch some of the video footage Curt has shot and have a good old laugh. The wind continues to howl and at times pounds the car continuing through the entire night.
The following morning nothing has changed and by 7o'clock I am on the road with the wind at full strength, the road the same as before. Curt catches up with me and we have something to eat. Not long and a toll plaza comes up and as usual bicycles are not allowed to go through; however, provision is made to use a side road, a little detour of sorts and once again I am back on the road where I continue my journey.

After 40km I stop at a road side café garage and have something to drink and feed my worms (stomach). From here I continue my journey and just up ahead I can see a dreaded construction sign. This is not a welcome site. So I have to time my entry perfectly as only one lane is in operation, that means I will be holding up the traffic all the way to the top of the hill. Truck drivers are impatient here and have no qualms pushing you off the road. Others will hoot and not even slow down regardless of roads signs warning trucks and buses to slow down. You do get some very good truckers who are patient and give you enough room before they pass you; I tend to acknowledge them with a courtesy wave. 
As I’m struggling uphill I hear a car coming from behind and just as it passes a window is rolled down  and the person calls out "hello Eugene, how are you doing?” I look to see who it is, a little bit shocked, of course its Suesie and Dave on their way back from San Pedro De Atacama heading for Valparaiso. They stop further down the road clear of the construction which is by now behind me.  Its good to make contact with them and not long after Curt joins us and all the… rarara. Once they all leave, I have not far to go now and just 5km outside Los Villos we stop and set up camp for the night. So for one more night suzie is happy to provide us with lodging.

Curt: Eugene is a few kms behind me so I pull into this old disused road section which offers a view across the bay to Los Vilos. All is quiet except for the birds and the snoring of an old man sleeping in his car, oblivious to the new arrivals. Quite a strange fella, who spends the whole afternoon in and around this area. When Eugene arrives he immediately enquires as to what “POPS” is up to. We settle in with binoculars and cameras to investigate a rather different visitor as opposed to what we have experienced over the last few weeks. Our piece of paradise! So our attention is diverted back to pops who is now awake and strutting his stuff, pacing up and down the walkways, pensive and focused on the field before us. He seems concerned about our presence and almost irritated. Stuff him, we murmur to ourselves, we will take this space and not let him get in the way. After a while we come to realize what he is up to. Snares were placed in the veld to catch rabbits. We walk over to a fence and see buck droppings, this is what he is after! Well eventually he decides to leave and we have supper, the old familiar ham and cheese.