Day44–Happy Birthday Old Guy!, Wed, Feb 9, 2011

I just wanted a peaceful day of dry riding but blabber mouth posted my Birthday to the LDRider list!

Start & Stop: Arica, Chile to Iquiqu, Chile

Mileage: 203 miles

Hotel:  Hotel Cano, Ramirez 996, Iquique, Chile – $74 USD

Fuel: $716 Chilean Peso /l liter ($1.51/1 liter) or $5.72 per gal!

Currency Exchange: $1 USD = $473 Chilean Peso

Lisa: So today’s the big day!  And I find myself riding through South America with a senior citizen.  How did that happen?

We so enjoyed spending time with Davis and Steve that we made a slow start after an extended breakfast visit and then more chat in the parking lot.  As I said yesterday, Arica has a lot of personality – good stuff, not Date my sister, she’s nice – and we easily could have stayed a few more days.  This trip has been like that for us and we’ve been sorry to have left places without exploring them more but off we went.

We didn’t have far to go today and we had a hotel waypointed so it was pretty leisurely getting there.  But cresting the hill I have to say I was more than a little surprised at the size of the town.  Good grief – it’s a major city right on the shore and it’s huge, high rise apartments and hotels spread out along the coast, the diametric opposite to the quaint seaside city we had left that morning.  Besides all the one way streets, a massive road project made finding our hotel challenging.  We finally parked where we could and I walked over to where it was supposed to be.  Rats, foiled again, and our hotel ‘find’ was no more.

Here’s why: I purchased a Footprints South America book on Amazon in November, thinking the 2010 version was the latest and greatest.  Yeah, not so much.  When Davis and I were deciding on dinner last night, we both whipped out our guide books and “What the Heck?”  He had the same book only not the same – 2011 – that he had purchased at Borders.  Well, there’s an AH HA moment if there ever was one.  First: no wonder so many places I have been looking for are gonzo and second, get your guidebooks at the store, not online where they are selling leftovers.

So I asked a few pedestrians and they pointed me down the street.  Nope, too expensive and internet only in the lobby.  I set out walking then because the traffic and cobblestone combo is just too much effort.  Finally found a nice hotel just a few blocks away – this one WAS in my (outdated) book – and we got settled in.

Dean: In these hotel easter egg hunts, Lisa parks where ever she wants.  In the middle of the street, on a sidewalk, in someone’s driveway, in a taxi holding parking, in front of a fire house, or an official government parking spot.  She had parked in an an official government parking spot and walked to search for the hotel.  I have the very important job of  watching the bikes.  Only this time a police officer drives by and “No. no, no!  You must move out of that spot!”  I explain that my friend is in the hotel lobby, and again “No. no, no!  You must move out of that spot!” is repeated with authority.  OK.  I drive around the block and park in the taxi holding queue 50′ from the first parking spot.  I walk over to Lisa’s bike and ride that around the block.  Lisa arrives to see me disappear around the corner on her left and appear on her right and park next to my bike.  Lisa, “What you doing?”  Me, “Keeping us from getting towed!”  My work is never done!

Lisa: Yeah poor Dean. Sucks to be him, working so hard all the time bein’ the good lookin’ one and all.  Every now and then he actually has to “do”  something and he wants a cookie/cue Chris Rock/.  I’m walking all over town in riding gear trying to find a hotel and he rides around the block and wants a pat on the back. Bzzt, not happenin’ but you all can throw him a bone if you want to.

Once we checked in, I searched online and found the number one rated restaurant in the city just a few short blocks away.  Gotta celebrate the old man’s birthday in style, right?  Again, not so much. That was also a thing of the past so we set out walking and ended up at the main square, choosing an outside table so we could watch the world go by.

Our waiter was great and helped walk us through the menu.  I asked about ingredients and when we got to one of them – aceituna – I could not grasp what he was saying so he disappeared back inside and came back with a small bowl of OLIVES!!  Ah!!  Perfecto, muchas gracias!!  We decided to order a few appetizers and have sort of a tapas night but best laid plans and all that.  Apparently there was some malfunction in the kitchen so only a few items were actually available.  But we could order any pizza we wanted.  Funny.  Not exactly what we had planned for dinner but if you can’t be flexible while traveling, you’d best stay home.  Instead of birthday cake, Dean decided to enjoy some gelato.  He wanted chocolate so went to the case to pick it out.  He got a rather brownish color ice in a dish and then said he had no idea what flavor it was, but it was most decidedly NOT chocolate.  Nope, it was Plantain.  Oh well, close enough!!

Meanwhile, the street entertainment had kicked into high gear and it was awesome. We stayed for two different acts and it was a nice end to a good day.

The pizza was so good, we ordered two individual pizzas to go so we’d have something to eat on the road tomorrow.  While not eating surely won’t hurt me any, going every day, all day, with nothing til dinner does wear on you.  In this part of the world we just haven’t seen the roadside ‘cafes’  or vendors that we’ve seen other places.  About the only thing they’ve been selling have been sugar drinks and those don’t appeal to either one of us.

Dean: SKYPE is one of the best thing on the internet!  I called home and talked with my wife Sue.

Thanks to Lisa for the BDay dinner!

Thanks to all of you who sent BDay e-mails and posted on Facebook!!