After 6 days in Santiago, it was time to leave. For the first time, I was following a program with the objective of being in Buenos Aires for Christmas after visiting the Southern tip of South America. The road is long (7,500km) and I could not wait any more, even though I would have liked it.

Valparaiso is the 2nd city of Chile. It is on the sea, 120km from Santiago and the main harbour of the country. A lot of motorbikers ship their bikes to and from Valparaiso. There is a totally different vibe here, it is surprisingly quite a hippy/messy place. Heaps of little and colourful pedestrian streets in which it is good to get lost.It is also a touristic place and there are countless restaurants. One of the best meals I had during this trip. After diner, I went to a local bar with a great atmosphere and live music.I stayed 1 night only in Valparaiso. In the morning, I caught up with Valeria who I had met 3 weeks before in the North of Chile. She has been on the road for 3 years, works a bit here and there and travels very cheap (hitchhiking and couchsurfing). I gave her a lift, but I was not expecting that much weight on the bike. It was too uncomfortable and I had to leave her in Pichimelu, 200km South on the Coast.There we had a fantastic sunset:In Santiago, I had fixed a few things: I bought a new GoPro case as the cold and the sun of Bolivia had irreversibly damaged it:In Pichimelu, when I woke up and was about to hit the road to the South, I noticed a small petrol leak at the valve under the tank. I sent a photo to the mechanics who immediately told me the part needed to be replaced asap. I went back to Santiago (260km) while he was looking for the part. Works were done in 1 hour and I was on the road again…I also wanted to post a picture of this Chilean family who welcomed me for diner when I was in San Pedro de Atacama, in the North of Chile. They sent me this picture only after I posted the San Pedro article, so here it is: