After leaving the Atacama desert, I’ve spent the last few days heading down the coast of Chile. It technically still is what you’d call desert, but it’s not as dry and barren as other places. The coast of Chile is also much warmer and more scenic than the coast of Peru, which I was very happy to find out. There wasn’t too much I wanted to see between Atacama and Valparaiso in southern Chile so I didn’t stop too much, just rode through. I did spend a day in Antofagasta, which is a very nice and modern city right on the ocean. I also stopped and saw the “Hand of the Desert” that sits in the middle of the desert along my route.

Chile is a very long and skinny country, and almost all of the country is coastline. The Pan American highway follows the coast pretty much the entire length of Chile. Despite running along the coast, there aren’t many towns along this strech of the highway, so it’s a lot of open spaces and long stretches of driving. There is some really beautiful coastline though which alternates between sandy beaches and rocky cliffs. The highway runs right next to the ocean in some places, and winds around huge jutting rock formations in others, making for a really cool riding experience.

I was even able to ride right up to the beach and spend an afternoon enjoying a snack and the soothing sound of waves on the rocks all by myself with no one around. Even though it’s almost winter here in Chile, the weather on the coast is actually quite pleasant, although not warm enough for swimming.