A rainy day on the road

Drove from Tulca to Los Angeles yesterday and it was pretty much raining the whole way. Not sure they receive a lot of rain around here as the town drains don’t seem to cope. As well there were a few crashes on the way. One was pretty funny as it was a semi loaded with Coca Cola and every car stopped to grab the bottles that were spread down the road. I think Coke must be the Chile national beverage (not Pisco Sour).

Apart from the massive agricultural businesses in this part of Chile, there are not too many scenic places of interest, but one finally appeared this afternoon. The water falls at LaJa were fantastic and well worth a stop. Los Angeles was a working agricultural town and reminded me of Lubbock, Texas. I am glad I have only decided to stay one night.

Left early (9.30am) for my next stop Valdivia and caught a glimpse of the Malleco Viaduct, which when it was constructed in 1890, was considered the tallest railway bridge in the world. It has survived numerous earthquakes and still carries rail traffic. I was going to stop but I think something was going on as there were a lot of soldiers carrying machine guns, so I kept going! It was about now that this part of Chile took on a different look as agriculture disappeared and temperate rainforest took over. Interestingly the forest is a remnant of ancient temperate rainforests that once connected Chile to New Zealand and Australia. The rainforest is the 2nd largest in the world but only 40% remains and you could see why with the thousands of timber trucks and saw mills.

In this part of Southern Chile things are different - your E-tag no longer works, and you must pay cash at the numerous toll booths. Of course I had no cash so I just sat there each time until someone came from an office on the other side of the highway with a machine. The drivers behind all tooted and carried on, but I just ignored them. The toll booth girls were all very friendly and just laughed at my predicament! I am looking forward to discovering more of this area tomorrow.