Riding the world

Passed a guy on a bicycle today going the other way. He was pulling a trailer and when I looked in it, he had his dog in there looking pretty pleased with himself getting towed around.

The indigenous woman’s name was Josefa Raplauken.

Passed through a little town where I saw some guy who looked like he was homeless, down and out because he was hanging his head so I asked the lady inside the grocery store and she said yeah he’s homeless so I bought two waters one for me, and one for him, went over to him and got the odor from him peeing his pants. It was a little much but I offered him the water anyway and he actually turned it down. He was too drunk,probably wanted another drink.

Have decided there must be three kinds of farmers here - the first kind that is mostly like American ones in that when they cut hay they have a bailer that wraps it in either white pink or green plastic to keep it dry and from molding, and the average one of which we still have some in America, who just bail it, and then stack it in a big pile, and then cover it with a tarp and then third type which are still here, they have some kind of machine (I didn’t see the machine,) that creates piles bonfire size. and I did see guys following a wagon and using pitchforks to pick them up and toss on the wagon. Makes for a tough working day. Fortunately I learned the easy way that those road tar snakes are pretty slippery. I already knew that of course from America but since I haven’t actually been riding fast or crazy, there was no slipping going on till I went down this hill today and went around the corner that had a fat snake and I almost lost it so now I’m paying much more attention to the snakes.

This hotel I’m in is the most interesting one I’ve ever been in. It has so much history and culture embedded in it and with all the photos and handmade articles just a treasure chest of history and being an ex-history teacher I’m super impressed. It’s kind of in a little bit of a rundown state now but you know it’s almost 100 years old. Chilean economy not that great so probably not much money these days so I guess they’re probably not in a hurry to refurbish but it’s still way better than any other hotel. I stayed in so far not because of the amenities but because of things I just mentioned. The receptionist lady told me that there is a floor that you can’t see from the street it’s only visible from the other side of the bay, which holds a swimming pool and a dance floor but it was closed in the 70s after some architectural problems evidently, wish I could’ve seen that in its heyday.

My almost 100 yr old hotel built to resemble a ship

Even in the most touristy part of town, we still can’t get away from this crap. Guess the authorities just can’t keep up with it.

One of the beaches, and on the other side of the beach, the restaurant where I ate dinner (from my hotel room). No short Cut cross the beach so I had to go all the way to cross that White bridge in the background.

Just before taking off this morning with the waves in the background, I guess this is one of the most popular places in Chile for surfing

Ancient l cash register that still works

Sitting on a bar made from embedded wine bottles

Center of the room fireplace with giant exhaust vent

Zillion pigeons lined up on the top of the cement railing

A hand carved wooden boat figurehead from the 30s

The hotel is full of ancient photos like this, which I just love looking at

All the floors, chairs and decorations are all hand cut wood except for some spots that had to be restored

This is an original refrigerator from when they used to put the ice block in the top and the food in the bottom you would think it would be the reverse, but cold goes down not up also hand carved wood

Enjoying the view

On the right of the hotel is what it looks kind of like a little castle but I think it’s a private house from the 30s

Unfortunately, I couldn’t eat in this wonderful dining room because they’re closed on Mondays but I guess I’ll get to eat there tomorrow morning for breakfast

Unfortunately, you can see how much the fire has contributed to a really hazy view. That hotel in the background on top of the ridge is not even in view anymore, can’t even see the ridge in fact.

Wine storage on board my ” boat” hotel

One of the ancient style elevators where you pull open the door and then there’s a sliding metal accordion-style door as you can see on the inside of the glass that you have to open sideways and then go inside close that again and then close the outside door and then push the button to go up This is the slowest elevator I have ever experienced in my life. All it was missing was the elevator boy to push the buttons for you.

A long boardwalk with people hawking stuff every 20 feet it seems like. I was just returning from eating dinner and my bill came to exactly 15,000 so I had no coins for change and when a woman asked me for some money for food the smallest thing I had was 10,000 which is like 10 bucks I figured that was a little on the steep side so I said no sorry and then she called me a son of a bitch. Guess she wasn’t mistaking me for a Chilean. Strange though, because several people have stopped me to ask me for directions or some question not knowing or having any idea that I wasn’t actually a Chilean. Yesterday a bus driver actually stopped the bus in the middle of the road holding up traffic to ask me if he was on the right road. I said I don’t know cause I don’t know what road this is.

This was an indigenous people, woman tribal leader, who fought some successful battles hundreds of years ago, and commemorated it in this town because she was from that little town area. This is quite a ways from where I am now.