Well, here I am in San Pedro de Atacama after a sensational drive from Antofagasta, and it is still standing after today's tremblor. No surprise: these adobe villages have been doing it for centuries...
I'll do a full TR when I get home next month, but suffice to say, this part of my DONE5 is shaping up to be an absolute cracker.
Out of Antofagasta, I was on the famous Ruta 5 for a while through some Lunar-like landscape FULL of copper mines. But the road - OMG, it makes the roads - and the traffic - in the Pilbara look like kiddy-stuff
Beautiful smooth tarmac, dual carriageway, fully separated by dual Armco barriers - Australia is PRIMITIVO. No coarse-chip cough roads here...
Speed limit only 120 kph - and well-adhered to. But I couldn't help wishing I had the new Audi I took delivery of 9 days before I left home, (Don't ask! Long story short, it was a spur-of-the-moment purchase when they had just what suited me) and had put less than 1000 km on the clock, here to stretch its legs just a little
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Anyway, an excellent meal tonight in the adobe of a resto called, funnily enough, Adobe:
Lomo (beef steak) Roquefort (cooked rare, of course, with quinoa and fig and wilted greens. Preceded by a very pleasant half-bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc with the gratis salsa and bread typical in Chile and Argentina and then a nice half-bottle of Cab-sauv from the same producer in the Valle de Maipo (just S of Santiago). Not trophy stuff, just very good, solid wines. Half bottles are the solo traveller's friend!
. Rare in most places, unfortunately.
As Princess Fiona has been known to remark: "Life is good."
Sorry, PF, you left out a very important adjective: Life is F'N good!
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