July 3 - Driving to Zapallar

July 3 Newspaper

We packed up, had our last French breakfast, and said goodbye to our friends, Bill & Karen, Marie Laure and La Sombra del Viento, a very nice hotel.  The jolly street sweeper who seems to work closely with the parking attendant got us out of our parking space and we drove west to the. Panamerican Highway which, this near to Santiago, is a four-lane highway with a center median.

Coquimbo Mosque

The traffic was pretty bad due to a combination of commuters driving to work and the Eclipsos returning to Santiago.  We drove past Coquimbo and started seeing olive groves and roadside stands selling the fruit and olive oil. 

 A Vaquero herding Goats

After 90 minutes we reached the turn off for Parque Nacional Bosques de Fray Jorge (the National Park Forest of Friar George).

We drove on into the large preserve on a dirt road through the usual dry cactus-filled hillsides, and up steep hills to the remnant cloud forests.

  At the top of the hills exists a dense habitat of trees whose only water comes from a daily blanketing of fog.  When Bob visited this park 45 years ago, he remembers walking on a trail through dripping cloudy forest.

Green-backed Firecrown Humming Bird

  Today it was clear and sunny, 52 degrees with a fierce wind, and a new well-designed boardwalk. 

We had a lovely hike through puya and many blooming plants and patches of thick forest, overlooking the crashing surf 1800’ below.  In places one could also see to the snow-capped  high Andes far to the east.

Puya with last year's flowers and this year's buds

Snow-capped Andes in the Distance

We left the park around 2 PM and returned to the Panamerican Highway and were speeding along towards Zapallar, our next destination, about two hours away, when we came to a screeching halt.  With our binoculars we could see a solid line of cars far into the distance.  We crept along, watching our gas gauge.  An ambulance appeared driving down the dotted line with cars swerving out of its way.  

About 45 minutes later we came to a halt again, creeping into a toll plaza.  The officials at the plaza had at least expanded from two to five booths, but with the massive number of vehicles, we all moved very slowly.

After another 45 minutes, we came to a stop once again near Los Vilos.  Hilary’s phone said that it was due to construction blockage.  We called our hotel to reassure them that we were going arrive eventually. By now we were running low on gas - the stations we had passed had lines 1/4 of a mile long as everyone was short on gas, food, toilets!  We waited as long as we could and pulled into a rest area with gas station and waited in line.  Cait and I dashed into the restaurant which had a huge line, fortunately waiting for food, not bathrooms, so we took advantage of that!

Hilary soldiered on, got gas and we all took off with no more delay.

We were passing beautiful shoreline, but as it was dark by then, could see nothing.  We entered Zapallar and, with the help of Hil’s GPS lady, found Casa Zapallar, an elegant small hotel in this community of European-style villas for the Santiago elite.

It was 8 PM when we finally arrived, but the very nice manager said we could still get dinner.  We quickly cleaned up a bit and sat down in the pretty living room with a crackling fire.  We were served pot roast, rice, and salad with a couple of bottles of nice red wine.  Breakfast tomorrow isn’t until 9:30, outrageously late by our standards, but perfect after our long day!