New years day

Happy new year to all my friends and family.  First, let me apologize for all the typos and spelling mistakes in this blog. Updating this from a phone can be tough.

  Today, we left Pichelemu and continued down the coast of chile.  What seemed like an uneventful and short ride quickly turned to shit... Or as the optimist would say, "an adventure" .  About an hour into our ride,the gps and road signs veered us off on to a gravel road.  We followed this road for about 25km until reaching a gate that blocked the road.  Apparently this road goes through valle de los artestes, and since the road goes through there, when this small artist community is closed, so is the road.   

We could see through the compound to the other side, but couldn't get through it.  We turned back the 25km and then went about another 50 km from that point just to get back to basically where we were.   Was fun though still, and we saw even more of the countryside.  We continued on  from there to Conception, another seaside community.  About 75 kms of this route was gravel and a little hairy at times.Chris's bag almost fell off his bike during this, and was completely hanging to one side.   Of course, once we got to conception, we discovered that a paved highway existed the entire way, almost parallel to the road we were on.   

   In Conception we went to grab some food to cook while camping that night.  Being new years, all the larger stores had closed, and we had to go in to the little market stores, which usually only offer a few things.   We went to 3 or 4 of these just to find stuff.  Then, with darkness approaching, we headed off to find a camp spot in the outskirts of the city.   Riding out of the town, all i hear is a bunch of people honking.  Turns out,Chris's bag is loose again and his newly purchased groceries have been falling out all over the road.   We pulled over and chris walked back to collect them.  He looked like quite a freak walking down the sidewalk with his bright yellow helmet on.   With all the street dogs here, i was amazed none of them ran out ahead of him and ate his cheese etc.    At about 10 pm we pulled up onto a beach and pitched our tents.  

Cooking in the dark without a table can be quite hard, Chris first had a wiener fall off his fork, and then spilled his cooking just as it finished.  Al and I laughed pretty hard, which is kinda cruel since we had already eaten.  Between luggage issues and food falling, Chris was a big part of Al and I's entertainment today.