Concepcion

Sunday 16th to Tuesday 18th October

Firstly let's clear a few things up:
1- yes this IS the name of a city on south middle Chile's coast line
2- no I've not forgotten how to spell (on this occasion at least!) it IS actually spelled like that (though ironically im not entirely sure if that's the correct way of saying spelled / spelt (or is that a flour?)... Anyway
3- no it's not a Beckham esque nickname we gave to a town... Really!!

So having booked a whole two nights in Concepcion, to do admin and source some bike supplies and a decent camping stove, we realised, after face timing Fran and having a very lovely and lazy, that it was indeed a Sunday. That means nothing is open here, and no call centres are open at home for us to complete our admin. Only one thing for it. Stay another night!

This was actually contrary to what we wanted to do. As much as we loved the flat, we were ready to be on the move again, especially after our seaside break earlier in the week. But hey - cycle touring lottery. There are far worst places to spend a day in the world!

So we continued to be lazy on the Sunday, and just about managed to complete task 1 out of a million... Do some washing... But not without its challenges. How much detergent to put in the machine? Ant insisted the packet implied we needed it all, my intuition said that was too much. So a comedy sketch ensued with us emptying a whole packet of washing powder into the machine, playing with coins until it finally worked, then crossed our fingers! Somewhere between the flat, the washing room and our wardrobe, one of my cycling gloves was hiding. We spent at least an hour retracing our steps, but he was hiding good! A mystery!

Soon it was Monday, and this time we'd decided to get up early. For us that meant out by 10am. By lunch time we'd arranged flights home for December, sorted house admin, bought a camping stove and bowl, found a new pair of cycling gloves (Emma weeps a little), and had lunch!

Feeling very pleased with ourselves we treated ourselves to a stroll around the city and the central plaza. We also watched one of the many political party demonstrations (municipal elections in Chile on October 28th so every town and house is full of posters for many candidates... All with thumbs up and family members smiling in support!).

By dinner time we'd bought me some new socks (naughty toes peeping through all of mine now!), found presents to send home to some lucky recipients, sorted through our clothes to also send home some to lighten the load for the last month, negotiated the postal system and actually managed to send stuff home, bought stuff for dinner - enough to make sufficient spag bol for the entire neighbourhood, drank the better part of a bottle of wine (selected purely for its name and picture... Bicicletta!), watched a program about the American election, planned our route further south, cooked dinner and were ready to sit down to eat some good home cooked grub, satisfied with everything we'd accomplished today.

So our route south would start with a bus to Temuco tomorrow to get to the cool areas (lake district and Patagonia) with (hopefully!) time to play at the end, and then we would be back on our bikes.

Perhaps it was the sunny day (finally!), or our own satisfaction, but Concepcion wasn't the concrete jungle we'd been dreading - actually a rather pleasant city with a leafy square.