Los Vilos beach and copper mine
For the last two nights we have stayed in the Cap Ferrat of Chile, millionaires row. The picture opposite is from our guest house last night, it was a beautiful spot. We have now moved up the coast to the Skegness equivalent with a copper works thrown in. It does have a sandy beach but that is about it.
We have been rather disappointed with the Rough Guide to Chile, you get the feeling the person who wrote it has not been here, towns and villages it calls “Pretty little seaside towns” (Ancud) are horrid whilst others it knocks (Castro) turn out to be good. A few days ago we past the Milford Haven of Chile, huge oil tanks, chimneys, an industrial eyesore yet it was not even mentioned as a navigational aid.
We are now in Los Vilos which is a dump, the guide book recommends staying a couple of nights, it mentions the nice beach, not the huge jetty associated with the copper mine. Fortunately we are only here for one night and perhaps all this copper will help our arthritis.
We have now booked the next five nights accommodation, two nights close to a town called Ovalle near which there are some hot springs and an interesting national park and then we head off to the hills for three nights in Pisco, a town which was renamed in 1939 (from La Union) so as to ensure the Chileans had the naming rights to the Pisco drink which the Peruvians were trying to claim. So we will celebrate our wedding anniversary with a few Pisco sours before starting back south to Santiago and home.