DAY 41 - AND HOMEWARD

Goodbye to our room and the Satnav set for a 3 hour wiggly drive back to Santiago airport, taking us over a high pass; on other side are the 6000m Andes mountains so the weather miraculously changes from the same cool cloud as yesterday 

to bright sunshine 

And good views out of Santiago airport, with its hills and craters

Thanks for reading 

DAY 40 - DISTANT HORIZONS and PENGUIN SILHOUETTES IN CACHAGUA

A misty day but we take a turn around La Laguna

then spot its bird island as we approach smart-looking Cachagua. 

Regrettably, those smart properties are hogging the best views, but eventually we find a distant line of sight of Cachagua island and its many birds: pelicans on the ground, cormorants everywhere and in the few trees, penguins on the rock-top and nesting on the steep slopes.

See the penguin silhouette crossing?

DAY 39 - A BRUSH WITH CRIME IN VALPARAISO and HOME TO HORCON

The road winds 75 miles east of Santiago to the coast at Valparaiso, the second largest city in the country and one of the Pacific coast's most important seaports.  It's also been home to Chile's National Congress since it was moved there in 1990 and, since 1993, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Its hilly layout is disorienting to drive (it's partly because of the these slopes and the natural amphitheatre-like setting that the city has its UNESCO status, partly due to its colourful and varied architecture)

We weave up the small steep streets to the Naval Museum hoping for a view

but parking attendants move in on us so we leave to find the coast road we missed. I'm suspicious of a couple in a car which seems to linger, so much so that I take a photo to put them off if they're watching us

When they leave, I assume I've been paranoid and don't mention it to Duncan.  He doesn't mention the black car matching our speed for the 2 miles back into town, which doesn't (odd when most Chilean drivers do) overtake us when he slows

 
 At a set of traffic lights, he feels something: the black car's passenger has tried to open our boot.  He sees her retreating and they drive off quickly, unhappy that our automatic door-locking is on!

                                

The next town along the coast is Vina del Mar, nicer but still a sky-rise of apartments and bars.  We prefer the Pacific coast and smaller towns: Concon with its crashing waves, pelicans and wing-drying cormorants

Lunch facing the sea, with a seal popping up occasionally, and onward to our colourful rustic apartment, in the town of Horcon

cozy, compact and well-equipped, with a nice terrace looking out to sea