After waking up to the sound of waves for another morning,
we ate our usual breakfast (bread, cheese, avocado, tomatoes and jam) and
headed back up to the desert to Ruta 5. Our aim today was to get to Bahia
Inslesa where there is a campsite with showers, albeit cold. However we decided to make a detour to Parque
Nacional Pan de Azucar (Sugarloaf).

There are three entrances to the park from the highway. The first was blocked as soon as we turned
in. A new road was being
constructed. We found the second
entrance some kilometres on, turned and headed down a dust road to find it too
was eventually closed. A three plus
point turn was required – not easy in the motorhome. So finally we took the third entrance, which
was a wobbly but metalled rod alongside the coast. The sand was dazzlingly bright, the beaches
long, the sea aquamarine and all deserted. After about 30 kilometres we came
across a new eco-tourism campsite run as a CONAF concession. We wish we had known about it as it would be
a lovely place to stay. It was smarter and
tidier than many of the places we had stayed in. Then we moved on to the tiny fishing port of
Caleta Pan de Azucar. Unlike most of the
fishing villages we have seen, this one seemed to have some planning
restrictions and all the houses were fairly uniform and of a decent quality.

We had hoped to hire a fishing boat to take us out to Pan De
Azucar island which stands about two kilometres off the coast. There you can see sea lions, sea otters and
Humboldt penguins. A boat was just being
launched but unlike other places we have been in Chile there weren’t lots of boats
competing for trade. We looked around
for someone else to take us but there wasn’t any craft about. We knew the wait for the boat to return could
be a couple of hours and we still had a way to go.

On the way back to the main road we passed a shrine – one of
many we see each day. This was an
elaborate construction dedicated to Our Lady of Andacollo, a revered local
statue. It was very well made, covered
in Christmas decorations, with pots of flowers, including geraniums, all well-watered. There were also sheltered dining areas
nearby. As with many shrines, there were
plaques thanking Our Lady for her intercessions, including one for the 33
miners who were saved after being trapped in a mine for 70 days.

Moving on. It was a couple of hours’ drive along the coast
to Caldera where we bought groceries and then made our way to the campsite at
Playa las Machas at Bahia Inglesa. Being
the New Year weekend, it was much busier than last time we came. Being on holiday, sometimes just watching
other folk can be fun. We were gently
amused by the two families camping near us.
One came first, got their4$WD stuck in the sand and was struggling to
put up their tent. The other family came
much later and with military precision had their more complicated tent erected,
dining table laid out, dinner on and all shipshape. The other family was still arguing about tent
erection.

Bahia Inglesa proper is a walk along the front. We had dinner in a promenade restaurant. When we walked home, it was noticeably cooler
than previous nights, with a wind coming off the sea and cloudy skies.