It’s a sort of rebellion thing. Bars, restaurants and cafes
that proudly display the sign saying this area is for smokers! If there is no
area for non smokers, I of course, politely turn around and leave. They
promptly close the door as if to imply that I’m not welcome in that place.I then, put my cycling helmet on whilst
looking at the grey, empty faces slowly dying in the restaurant or cafe. They
smile in the knowledge that I’m taking much greater risks.... and that my
cycling helmet provides very little security should I meet a cama or scania on
the road, or, perhaps, even worse...... a hungry Doberman or German Shepherd!
Made it to
Los Angeles last
night and stopped at, what else, but a Macdonalds (you couldn’t have a place
called
Los Angeles
and not have a Macdonalds, could you?). I sat down to check my Lonely Planet
guidebook on hostels in the town/city. If I have said it before, forgive me,
but it needs to be said again; don’t build a budget on the prices quoted in
Lonely Planet!
Hotels/hostels generally come in at two or three times the
price. I have also decided that it’s probably easier to find an area where
there is some competition and then ask around on the prices. If it’s around the
same price as quoted in the Lonely Planet and includes breakfast, then you’re
on to a winner. The chances are they have based their prices on those quoted in
the Lonely Planet. Getting a listing in Lonely Planet= much higher prices! If
you get some form of heating in the room, a shower with warm water and a towel,
then you have cracked it. The problem is that you are inclined to relax, such
that you don’t want to get up and cycle the next day. To keep the wheels
moving, the tent or the most basic of hostels are best. You don’t want to hang
around in either. No matter how good the porridge and banana is!
I’m trying to find a way to describe the architecture in
Chile.
I suppose you would say it’s functional; a bit plain or, in many cases, totally
dilapidated. In
Temuco and
Los
Angeles, many of the buildings are so typical of the
UK’s
60s/70s architecture.Then you have the
barrios where people have thrown up shacks of brick, wood and corrugated metal
and called it home. All of a sudden, often in the most unlikely of places, out
pops this piece of modern architecture that would make Richard Rogers, sorry
...Lord Richard Rogers or Norman Foster look like apprentices! Given that many
parts of
Chile
have been ravaged by earthquakes or erupting volcanoes, I suspect that the
buildings that are now in place, have been put up as replacements and in a
hurry. I suppose I was looking for a little more of the colonial style that you
get in places like
Vietnam
and
Cambodia,
given the many European influences over the last two centuries. I understand
that the Mapuches didn’t take to kindly to the colonialist style and also
burned much of it down. And rightly so, I hear some of you say!
Anyway car parking........ I know that this will be of
interest to a few, but perhaps less so the Chamber of Trade in Morpeth! After
all it’s not a subject that they care much about. (Do you guys?) Well check out
the car parking system here in the towns and cities of
Chile. Talk of job creation
schemes!!! In Morpeth, we monitored, I believe, 1800+ car parking spaces with
two wardens. Right?.... TWO WARDENS! Here most of the towns and cities are
designed, in typical American fashion, in blocks! On each street within each
block, there is a warden. That warden watches for a car to park, waits a few
minutes then puts a ticket behind the windscreen wiper. The ticket is produced
from a “high technology” handheld kit! When the person returns to his or her
car he/she has to wait until the warden comes over, whereupon they pay for
whatever time they have parked, plus however long it has taken for the warden
to get there. Quite astonishing! That means for a town or city the size of
Los Angeles, you will have
100 plus wardens. Now I checked this out with a Chilean guy in a coffee shop
who spoke pretty good English and he confirmed that we would be talking of over
100 wardens- for a city of 140,000 people! Talk of a transformation project
waiting to happen. Now; I know some will question the social cost.I have a solution.......Just redirect this
resource to fixing huge holes in pavements and esp. making them disabled
friendly, or roads and other bits of infrastructure that are falling apart!
Job for Impactchange me thinks!!!!!
Anyway, I’ve had my day of rest, well if you include
replacing brake pads, ( which I am going through at a rate of 300-400 miles a
shot), cleaning and oiling the bike! It’s the load and the hills, I’m told.
Just think what its doing to the knees, if that’s what its doing to the
brakepads!!!!!
I’ve also tried to
capture a few shots of
Los Angeles
in full splendour! I need to be off at the break of dawn tomorrow. Doubt I’ll
be back on line until I reach
Santiago!
