We woke up as the sun was rising in Santiago. The weather is threatening to be hotter than
yesterday. We ate breakfast downstairs
before packing our cases and waiting for the drop off of our vehicle.

We received a phone call from reception to say that the
motorhome would be late by an hour so we both buried ourselves in our novels.
Fifteen minutes later another phone call had us scrambling to get downstairs
and meet Patricio from Andes Motoromes.

The motorhome seemed to be the centre of much interest to
the hotel staff who were fascinated by its workings. The design is compact with many compartments
housing a generator, different leads and hoses, an electric oven/microwave,
plates and utensils, hook up points, batteries and fuse box, and foul water
tank. There are also a couple of extend
out work surfaces and an awning.

Inside, it is small but well designed for two (it sleeps
4). There is a galley area with electric
fridge and sink and space for the portable single burner. There’s cupboard
space, a dining area which converts to two beds, a tiny bathroom with loo, sink
and shower and a large sleeping areas above the double cabin. It’s new with
only 1,100 kilometres n the clock.

The demo was a lot of information to take in but luckily
there is an instruction manual. There was only one thousand kilometres on the
clock.

The road system in the middle of Santiago is bewildering so
Patricio led us to the Ruta 5 Norte, the main road running down the centre of
Chile, and our way north. Near Santiago, it is a dual carriageway, punctuated
by toll booths.

Once we left the urban sprawl, the road quietened down
substantially. The surrounding fields
were lush with melons, avocados, peaches, onions and tomatoes for sale in
roadside cabins. To the east the looming
snow-capped summit of Aconcagua could be seen.
At nearly 7,000 metres, it’s the tallest mountain in the southern
hemisphere. We could see it as we came
into land.

A few miles further and we were caught in a rolling road
block, following two huge pieces of civil engineering that blocked both lanes. Progress was painfully slow, not helped by
drivers who took advantage of any spaces left for safety to manoeuvre their way
to the front of the road block.

After what seemed an age the wide loads pulled over and we
were free to proceed. The traffic was mainly lorries and pick-up trucks.

The terrain was becoming more hilly and increasingly arid.
There were candelabra cacti and the huge spiky plants that we have in our back
garden populating the hillside. The
roadside kiosks were scarcer and now sold young goats and cheese. The shanty-like farmsteads had corals with cacti
as their fences.

We stopped at the town of La Ligura to pick up
provisions. People in the supermarket
car park helped us park, wanted to know who we were, where we were from and
took pictures of the motorhome.

Not long after, the Ruta 5 dropped down to the Pacific
Ocean, impossibly blue and with huge frothy rollers crashing in. There were long, wide deserted beaches with
barely a house in site. Further north
the road turned away from the sea and there were miles of windfarms on the arid
hillsides. Here they seemed not out of context, in a huge country, sparcely
populated. (Not like the ones near
Scarcliffe and Palterton, close to settlements, in a densely populated and
small country.)

Finally around six we saw the sign for Termas de Socos. There was a Copec Service station by the turning
so we filled up. We had done xxx
kilometres.

The road to the Termas was rough but it looked as if the
owners were trying to pave it with road planings. We met a small bus coming the other way. We weren’t sure if there was a campsite here
as the web page was outdated and a forum on the Internet had said it was
shut. However, it was open. A lady came out in bright yellow Marigolds,
charged us $14,000 (about 17 pounds) and said we could have our choice of
plot. We asked for electricity. The connections were quite crude – a
non-waterproof socket nailed to a tree.
The first couple didn’t work but eventually we found one that
worked. We parked our vehicle nearby and
started to get organised and acquaint ourselves with the workings of the van.

The campsite was mainly empty. There were basic but clean sanitary blocks,
water points and BBQ stations. We cooked a dinner of mushroom tortellini and
tomato sauce and ate at the ramshackle table and benches provided.