Having left Copiapo later than planned due to some badly needed truck maintenence, the 4 hour drive to the bivoauc in La Serena would get us in after dinner. We would have to stop for food somewhere. Looking on the map we thought we might have found our spot.
Vallenar is a town or perhaps more a village, of colonial heritage that if not for the omnipresent grafitti and cellphone shops, could be mistaken for a place stuck in time. Set up on tall fort-like walls bisected by a lush green river bed, it was quite different from the dusty grit of the Atacama Desert. Our meal was a fresh and tasty tapas style dinner served up in a bar occupying a space which was obviously an old house. The floors creaked but the stereo blasted modern rock and hip hop spun by Chilean hipsters working behind the bar.
After dinner we headed downstairs to the street and the big truck parked on the narrow avenue. A crowd of locals had gathered to gawk at our ride and take pictures with their cell phones. They wanted to pose with us, they wanted to try and talk to us, bost most unsual they wanted to give us things. It started with a group of goth kids giving me an unopened can of warm beer . Then a man presented us with a worn sign which read "Hielo La Piramide Del Sur".
So apparently he owned this business and wanted us to take this sign on our journey... wait a second... hielo means "ice" in spanish... we need ice! He refused our money and gave us two bags and then insisted we follow him down the street to his store so he could give us a bottle of local booze called pisco which is made from distilled grapes. As it turned out this man owned a liquor store and gave us a couple of bottles with explicit instructions on when and how to consume them. After many thanks and photographs with him and his entire family we were on our way, thankful we left our planned route and stumbled into Vallenar.
B.
No comments:
Post a Comment