Adventures of YB125 in Chile, part 1

I continue the story of a trip to South America with my wife on a motorcycle Yamaha YB125 named "Friend". In the previous part, I finished the story about Peru. And in this article we cross the border with a new country - Chile. Let's go!

Chile! When we drove up to the border, my heart was sad, as when saying goodbye to a dear person. But in this sadness it was not possible to plunge deeply, and it remained unspoken - it was necessary to distract quickly. The confrontation with civilization was dumbfounded yet at the control.
We already do not remember when we saw such a clean border crossing with such a huge number of scented border guards in a clean neat uniform and with iPhones))) Our backpacks were searched and forced to remove all the prohibited: lemons, spices (fragrant oregano was taken too), orange, broccoli and etc.
And then there was Arica.
And here are our general observations made in the first two days in it:
- immediately disappeared pre-election writings on houses, pillars and rocks
- the smell of cigarette smoke on the street and ubiquitous bulls (from the city beach, to the public shower in the hotel)
- eerily polite drivers
- the SDA is observed on the roads and even (!) marking! on the roads we are treated as any other machine,
- for lunch, local people often order not a compote, but a glass of wine, on Saturday and Sunday every second passer-by smells of wine (drunks did not notice)
- the cities wake up late, stores open only to 10 am,
- mostly clean roadsides, little garbage and clean cities,
- on the streets of cities, as in the US, a lot of crazy (in the literal sense)

In general, it's scary, just terribly pleasant and surprising (even though we can not afford this country). There is still a feeling that the Chileans love life, enjoy it :) Here, as if everyone has already won the race for survival, and now they have exhaled and rest (this is just a feeling, you do not have to challenge)).

Chile is a country of ports! The head is dizzy with happiness, when you look at the crowds of different ships from the fishing shabby skiffs to the unimaginable dinosaurs - container ships.

And now I do not even believe it, you can go free to ports. Well, not right there, where there is loading and unloading containers, but there where it is clearly visible. You come to the sunset, sit down at the place you like (you should choose the places that the sea lions do not like) and rest ... The sounds of the loading cranes and the crashing of the containers in the distance, the whistles, the splashing of waves, the creaking of boats and wooden boats, the rustling of the pelicans' wings and the galloping of the albatrosses.

Who would have thought that going to the port of Iquique promises not only the viewing the ships (ships, ships, ships), but also a meeting with a crowd of sea lions! For the first time we observed them so closely that it was even a little scary.

These lions are terribly scary, not only that they are the size of a horse, but also as their head is somewhere between the heads of the Rottweiler and the bear! The life of lions in the port is boiling, they communicate and find out the relationship. Win each other's most pleasant places and itch each other.

If in Peru you have to be careful with other drivers on the roads, so there, of course, no ... There is something else and the minus is that most often it's invisible. This is the wind. For a short segment of Panamerican, we understood, the wind is unexpected and very strong. Even more terrible are desert tornadoes. Those that go along the road remain invisible until they leave on the sidelines and start to suck in the dust. They appear unexpectedly and strongly, while the road is good, smooth, straight and wide and the speed on it becomes higher. So you have to control the situation and constantly be ready to react. Who would have thought.

In Iquique, there is an amazing regional museum! You go in and the first thing they told you is "welcome! the entrance is free! "And then you notice that a huge prehistoric tapir looks out the door)))

Eggs of the stingray

But this we saw for the first time! Room with the archive of newspapers and official diaries and records for the entire history of the city and ... Here everything can be touched and flipped! Like a time machine ...

To be continued...